No day out in Bath would have been complete without a visit to the natural thermal spa.

So, equipped with towels and other paraphernalia, we paid £19 for a two-hour session and marvelled at the impressive entrance of the new Royal Bath.

Wrist tags clocked us in and allowed us access to state-of-the-art lockers before we floated in the mineral water of the Minerva Bath and headed up to the rooftop pool.

I had been wondering just how we were going to occupy two whole hours in pools that aren't designed for swimming.

But the warm water, winter sunshine and spectacular scenery relaxed us to the extent that we were scrambling to leave the baths before the wrist tags threw us into the next time (and price) bracket.

The different areas of bubbles and whirlpools gave the visit an unexpected fun factor. And we were lucky to have visited at lunchtime while the baths were relatively empty - they were beginning to get more crowded just as we were about to leave.

But it was a shame that we could only glance at the tempting food in the restaurant because even a quick fruit juice would have eaten into our valuable time at the baths.

The steam rooms didn't even get a glance. So we have saved them for our next visit to the thermal spa.

For details of prices and opening times see: www.thermaebathspa.com