Stonehenge and Bath

My university here ran a special for students to do a day trip in Stonehenge and Bath for only 7lbs. This was a major deal, since usually a day trip like that would be a minimum of 30 lbs, so everyone signed up and at 8.45AM on Saturday morning, we filled 2 buses and began our journey.

Our trip coincided with the first day of spring in England, which is supposedly a mystical day. Stonehenge has existed in some form for over 5000 years, although in the beginning it was simply a burial ground. Over the past 3000 years stones have stood in a circle with a horse-shoe shaped form within, surrounding another inner circle. Originally there were timbers where the stones stand now, but the wood was gradually replaced, most likely as it rotted. There are 43 stones left standing from the 80, but there is a roped path about 100 feet back from the stones to prevent tourists from knocking one over, getting injured, and suing.

To answer that question everyone asks: yes, they know how the stones were moved. During the era of 2000BC, they used a rolling weight system to move large objects, including giant rocks.

I could take or leave Stonehenge. It was a giant circle of rocks, larger then I expected, that I walked around it in a circle. Surprisingly, we do have boulders in the USA, and I can see those for free. No need to go back, but it is a World Heritage Site so it’s nice to be able to say I’ve seen it.

The other stop on the tour was the town of Bath. It is a cute little town with some beautiful Georgian architecture. We saw Jane Austen’s uncle’s house, where she wrote Mansfield Park, and Nicolas Cage’s town house (no spotting of him however).

The Roman Baths were awesome. The natural hot springs run through the ruins, which they are still excavating, and end in a pool of water with drains built into the bottom. It’s amazing to think this was all originally created back in King Leer’s time, some 2500 years ago, and the structure we could see was originally formed in 46AD.

We wandered around the town, which was very cute. They have an amazing chocolate shop which we of course discovered and demolished. They were delicious. The coffee milk chocolates printed with little kissing lips were our favorites.

My favorite thing about Bath? They’re town mascot is a pig, thanks to the animals who originally rolled in the mud created by those hot water springs.

It rained and was windy all day. We had a bit too much Stonehenge and Bath time, and were pruned and wrinkly, ready to head back to London and civilization by that evening. It was a fun weekend overall, today I just did homework and streamed the Pitt game (we lost, bummer), but it went too fast! Back to classes and the usual schedule tomorrow.