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We managed a very efficient day of Bath tourism, starting with a visit to the Roman Baths. I came here with a foreign student group that I was leading in the summer of 1989 and made about £30 because the students had given me the money for adult tickets, but it turned out there were student tickets and it would have been too much trouble to work out now much to give everyone back. The same happened at HMS Victory too. I was quids in.
It cost £90 for the family so I am at least £60 down.
I have been a few times but I didn't remember much about it and I was impressed today. Loads of cool stuff in the museum, lots of pools and ruins to look at and the overflow plumbing in the basement still doing its job 2000 years on. There were a couple of ancient Romans down by the main pool who you could talk to. They showed Ernie how to use a wax tablet (it's impressive how recyclable this is - it's an early Etch a Sketch where you can smooth things over and start again) and quizzed him on Roman numerals.
The older one chatted in a sweet West Country burr and said it was always good to talk to people, because everyone you meet knows something that you don't know and you can only find it out through conversation. So I got a bit of philosophy too.
After lunch we went on a tourist bus, which turned out to be a fun and informative way to see a lot of the city. I know Bath quite well, having been here as a child and visiting most years on tour, but there was still plenty to learn. We completed a circuit and then decided to stay on so it could take us to Jane Austen house. It turns out that Jane Austen never lived in this house and only lived in Bath for five years (in four different properties), but the museum was near one of those houses, so I guess it still counts.
The kids did not want to do this and I wasn't sure it'd be all that great, but it was another enjoyable experience, with a young man dressed up in Georgian clothing in the terrible heat, telling us the story of Jane and her siblings, before showing us into an exhibition and trying to work out which Austen portrait might have looked like the real woman.
Phoebe was impressed enough by it all to request that we buy her a book and we got her a handsome edition of Pride and Prejudice. Both kids got to write with a quill, so Ernie had really surfed through the history of writing today.
Then we searched out some cold drinks and looked through the market stalls in town, buying a fossil and some rings for Ernie (who has suddenly decided he wants to wear fancy rings- luckily I found a place doing four for a tenner - the diamonds may not have been real).
It was an unusually argument-free and enjoyable day for the Herring family. Then Phoebe and me watched the football. It was 4-0 to England at half time, and getting late, so Phoebe had to go to bed, but I told her that England had definitely won, though my heart wasn't so sure. She came down briefly ten minutes into the second half to discover it was 4-2.
I sent her back to bed, but in hindsight I wish I'd let her stay up as it was such an extraordinary and fun and lovely match, where freed from the weight of unrealistic expectation both teams played crazy and brilliant football. I had predicted that France would beat England 3-0 in the proper final, but instead England won 6-4 in the third place play-off. So my prediction was basically spot on.
The match was so entertaining that I think any sensible competition would decide that England had actually won the World Cup and cancel tomorrow's match.
Still third place isn't too shabby.
