Friday was another day of driving as we went to Stonehenge and Bath. I took a ton of pictures of stonehenge, it is just amazing (first and last pictures) What I didn't realize is there were many of these built, some in this same area and elsewhere. The others built here were out of wood and they know because of trenches around this structure and other places they found evidence of the wooden posts being sunk.
The stone in the center is called blue stone and came from about 200 miles away. They are still not sure what it was used for. Of course those of us who are scifi fans know it was built by aliens and was probably a landing sight - our group had a good laugh when some of us tossed that in as a fun theory. You can't walk inside anymore because people tried carviing their names in the rock or chipping off pieces to take home. A few religious groups are allowed entrance on holy days but that is all. It is a lovely sight with mounds behind it that are burial mounds. There was a gentle wind that added the delicate aroma of sheep and what smelled like a failing septic system to the mix.
The cool thing about going with the Smithsonian, our tour guide had done this many times so she knew everyone and we got to enter sites before or after the general public, which has been so nice. We had one encounter with a German tour group and apparently that tour guide was not well liked, the staff at Stonehenge I think wanted to put him in one of the burial mounds as their unorganized group pushed past all of us who had lined up as asked - they called us the well behaved group.
From Stonehenge we went to Bath, home of Roman Baths. The town had a different appearance from some of the other towns we visited, I am assuming the Roman influence. The town reminded me of Taxco MX where the city is in a basin and to get to the rest of town you have to walk/drive up long steep hills. If you would like to know more about the baths, they have a wonderful website at www.romanbaths.co.uk with history and pictures.
Pictures 2 and 3 are of the Bath Abbey. It was a beautiful structure with magnificent stained glass. There was a courtyard on two sides that had wonderful street performers. One played an instrument from Switzerland that was made of two shields welded together and had a sound similar to a caribbean steel drum.
Our guide then gave us our tokens for a self guided tour of the baths. It is so amazing to look at things made by men as early as 50 AD. The fourth picture is a model of the bath complex during its prime. Fed by a hot spring, it didn't have the sulfur smell like our hot springs in Glenwood, but it had kind of a rusty color from the minerals in it. The grand bath (fifth picture) was the main bath with other smaller baths around it, which made me think of hot tubs. They had changing rooms and a place they display as an area where massages were given. You could see the hot springs, a sample of the channels that brought the water in and out and they had the smaller pools drained so you could see what they looked like, including the channels bringing in water and steps down to the pools. Apparently they had a series of pools so you could take your hot bath, then a cooler pool then a cold pool for a final, pore closing dip.
After Bath, we took the two hour drive back to our hotel for a final social hour in the bar. Several of us (about half the group) went down to the Edward Moon pub. I had beouf bourguinon and potato gratin that was amazing and, sadly, 10 times better than the beouf bourguinon I had in Paris.
Saturday morning was the drive into London to fly home. The majority of the group went early (7:45) to London which left 7 of us who had later flights. This is where I love my BA points - had access to the BA Lounge with free WIFI, food and booze. Great place to wait for a flight. Flight to Madrid was very nice, the flight only had 59 people and only six of us in Club Europe, so great service. They served us high tea (I had coffee) with a cucumber sandwich, smoked salmon sandwich, some kind of sweet bun and a little cake that was delicious.
That ends England, Scotland and Wales.
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