Thermae Bath Spa is the contemporary spa complex in the city of Bath where Harold Fry, in the early weeks of his pilgrimage to Berwick-upon-Tweed, spends what he considers the most expensive day of his entire walk. The episode arises from a moment of acute social embarrassment: while touring the Roman Baths with a party of foreign tourists, Harold is gently steered away by a young tour guide who, with a slight wriggle of her nose as if she had smelt something unpleasant, suggests he might prefer the Thermae Bath Spa, where he could enjoy picturesque views of the city and a state-of-the-art cleansing experience. The implication is unmistakable, and Harold, appalled, rushes straight there, determined to wash away the evidence of his weeks on the road.

A Day of Unaccustomed Expense

Harold had been careful, by his own account, to keep both his clothes and himself clean, but the reality of his journey had caught up with him: his shirt was frayed at the collar, and his fingernails were ridges of dirt. The visit to the Thermae Bath Spa, undertaken to remedy this, quickly spirals into a series of small, compounding costs. He pays for his entrance ticket and the hire of towels, only to realize he has no swimming trunks. For these he must leave the spa and find a nearby sports shop, making the day his most expensive so far. The assistant, noting that Harold is more of a walker than a swimmer, tries to interest him in waterproof covers for his compass and a selection of reduced-price, all-weather trousers, but Harold leaves with only the swimming shorts in a small bag. When he finally returns to the spa, he finds a flock of young women on a hen party playing in the water; not wanting to alarm them or get in the way, he takes a quick steam and leaves in a hurry, never actually using the trunks he has gone to such trouble to buy.

The Crowd and the Actor

Before he can even reach the spa, Harold is caught up in a large crowd packed on the pavement outside, squashed against a copper statue of a Victorian man in a top hat. A woman beside him, her face red and filmy with heat, explains that they are waiting for a famous actor who is signing his new book; she has named her cocker spaniel after him and wishes she could tell him. Harold wonders what it must be like to have made such a success of your life. The crowd shouts and applauds, photographers hold up their cameras, and the street is punctured with flashlight. Later, in the public lavatories, Harold finds himself washing his hands next to the very actor, who is wearing a leather jacket and cowboy boots with a small heel, staring at his own face in the mirror as if checking it for something missing. The actor, close up, has hair so dark it looks plastic. Harold, not wanting to intrude, dries his hands and pretends to be thinking of something else, but the actor addresses him directly: 'Don't tell me you have a dog named after me as well. Today I am not in the mood.'

The Water for Queenie

At the Pump Room, Harold asks if he might take a sample of the health-giving water to a very good friend in Berwick-upon-Tweed. The waiter pours some into a bottle and charges five pounds, because Harold has mislaid his ticket for the Roman Baths. It is already early afternoon, and he needs to get back on the road. The gesture is characteristic of Harold's pilgrimage: even in the midst of a day devoted to his own cleanliness and comfort, his thoughts return to Queenie Hennessy, the dying woman he has promised to save by walking. The bottle of spa water, like the postcards and mosaic key rings he bought for both Maureen and Queenie at the Roman Baths gift shop, becomes another small token of his devotion, a physical object carried northward as proof of his journey. The day's expense, the wasted swimming trunks, the awkward encounter with the actor, all are subsumed into the larger purpose of the walk.

The Contrast with the Open Road

The Thermae Bath Spa episode stands in sharp contrast to the freedom Harold has discovered on the road. Earlier in his journey, he had felt the exhilaration of being in the world by himself, with nothing to get in the way or ask him to mow the lawn, and he had learned to measure distance not in miles but with his remembering. The spa, with its state-of-the-art cleansing experience and its crowds of tourists, represents the fussy, commercial world he has left behind, a world of three meals a day and sleeping by night. Yet Harold's response to it is not rejection but accommodation: he pays, he buys, he takes his quick steam, and he leaves, carrying the bottle of water northward. The episode reveals that his pilgrimage is not a rejection of the ordinary world but a passage through it, and that even its most absurd demands can be folded into the single, simple act of putting one foot in front of the other. The day at the Thermae Bath Spa, for all its expense and embarrassment, becomes one more step on the road to Berwick, one more story to add to the accumulating weight of his journey.