In Bed in Bath

We landed in Bath on a Saturday evening. For once, I had nearly no activities planned. I tried to get tickets to visit the Roman Baths too late and could only land some on Monday, the day of our departure. We had dinner reservations at an Italian restaurant for Saturday and a Turkish one on Sunday. The rest of the time was ours and Bath’s so we could get acquainted.

This is another Siena story, if you followed our trip to Italy last spring you may know where this is going… but don’t fear, no ERs this time.

When you travel for three months you count on up days and down ones. Little colds or sniffles. Feeling overtired. You hope they don’t land on something you’re really looking forward to, like the day you’ve booked a guided tour of an iconic site or a unique experience. But you never know where they will land. If you’re lucky, they land in the Baths of the world. No plans.

I got hit by the great equalizer: the stomach bug, which is a marvel for an OCD handwasher and sanitizer but maybe my sanitized world has made me more susceptible when there’s an inadvertent slip up. During the night I felt off. In the morning I felt terrible and, well, you all know what happened next. I’ll spare the details. This one knocked me on my keister. A full day in bed, mostly asleep. At the end of day I was only then starting to feel a little human again. The next night it took Melissa down, so we extended our stay (luckily in mid summer) to recuperate completely before moving on. The only, and I do mean only, good thing about most stomach bugs is how quickly they arrive, suck all will to live out of your body and soul and then retreat leaving you dehydrated, cramping and craving salt. And, able to function like a vertical human and appreciating the sights, sounds and smells of life around you. Fortunately for me, that meant my recovered day was spent visiting the Roman baths and enjoying the street musicians. (Unfortunately for my wife, her day of freedom in Bath was spent dreading what was likely to, and did, follow).

Bath is a great town. We stayed in the heart. We watched British Baseball (Cricket), an un-understandable game at first watch with a British couple, who tried to explain some of the rules, and an Israeli man before landing in the pub next to our hotel where I proudly exclaimed they’d be seeing a lot of us over the next few days (they did not). So like Siena in Italy, it’s another place that gives us a good reason to return to England and really get to know her.