On Hallowed Grounds

Today we traveled to see a famous group of rocks you might have heard of it, it's called Stonehenge. Also we visited argueably the most beautiful town in all of England, Bath.

This morning we met at the Robin Hood and Little John pub at 8 am where we were picked up by our tour guide Matt.
The drive to Stonehenge was about 2 hours, so it was a ways out. The scenery is gorgeous. Everything is so green. The rolling hills are covered with random groves of trees and fields of flowers.


Everyone sleeping. Midway through we stopped at a rest stop for some food and drinks.

This morning I was running late, so at the rest stop I got this pastry called the raspberry almond yum yum. It was as it's name says.

Over the course of this trip, I've begun noticing some of the things that the UK is severly lacking. On the bus ride over I was thinking about some these things and since I have no one to tell, I have compiled a list for the blog.

Thing's the UK should get:

1. Street signs on posts that are visible instead of being hidden on walls of buildings.

2. Trash cans. You could go for hours holding your trash waiting to throw it away.

3. Ice cubes. What's with water with only 1 ice cube. No this is not acceptable.

4. Water fountains. Are you serious. This entire trip I have been dangerously dehydrated. My urine has been the most neon yellow it has ever been on a regular basis. I don't understand why there are no water fountains anywhere. my host Dad Simon says that there are too many hooligans that would ruin and deface the water fountains so they simply don't have them. There has been exactly one and only one water fountain that I have encountered that dispenses chilled water. It is located in the center of the first floor in the Natural Science Museum of London near the lifts. If you need water, go here.

5. Restaurants open later than 9 pm. Eating late is becoming difficult. The only places open are Indian and Chinese takeaway, more on that later.

The list thus far is incomplete, I will add more as I identify future problems. Now bear in mind, these are not complaints, more like thoughtful sugguestions. But I digress.

So we arrived in Stonehenge and our tour guide Matt briefed us with some information about the stones before we headed over.

Our tour guide/driver Matt. He is doing some sort of demonstration representing a timeline.

Clair rocking out.

So a little history about Stonehenge. The momument is located in the English county of Wiltshire. Archaeologists believe that the stones were erected at about 3000 BC during the Bronze Age. The term "henge" comes from the litnels that "hinge" on two upright stones. This formation of two upright stones with one laying across is called a trilithon. Here is a plan from above the plot of how the stones used to be.

The remaining U-shaped stones are surrounded by a large circle of earth that are molded to form almost a moat around the stones. No one really knows why the stones were erected. But a few popular theories suggest that the stones are an altar of some sort to worship pagan gods. Other theories are that the stones are erected for the people to predict when to plant their crops by observing the duration of sunlight. Stonehenge is also a cemetary containing hundreds of burial mounds that are spread out all around Stonehenge. Some of these mounds are significantly raised above the ground.



There are many other stone circles spread out over the land, that are older than Stonehenge. For example the stone circle at Avebury. However, none are as famous.



Ok now for pictures.

Stonehenge in all its glory.
Black and white.

Me and the stones.

Me, Laura, and Jennifer.

Natalie and Susannah.
Clouds.

The human Stonehenge. Me and Lesley lifting Michelle.

A group of us. Front row: Diane, Michelle, Kacie, Laura, Susannah
Back Row: Natalie, Me, Ani, Deepa, Lesley, Jennifer
To be standing on the grounds of such hallowed antiquity really was humbling. Although there were tourists everywhere, the groups of people and their cameras really could not take away the mysteriousness and majesty of the stones. It was hard for me to grasp how people thousands of years ago could have constructed a momument of such shear strength and wonder that is still standing today. Reading about it in a book or looking at a picture fails in comparison to actually standing in front of the stones.

Kacie looking on. I really like this one.

Me admiring the beauty of Stonehenge. This was called the chop-shop pose. There were these British guys that kept taking pictures of themselves saying chop-shop. So chop-shop.
As usual I took hundreds of pictures, none of which do it any justice. One because I suck at photography, two because my camera isn't that good.

After Stonehenge, we piled back onto the bus and departed for Bath, England. Bath is well known throughout the world as being the most beautiful city in all of England. Compared to many other English cities, Bath is unique in that it has remained so well preserved. The architecture of the buildings have withstood the test of time in many ways. During the Blitzkrieg of WWII, Hilter ordered the bombings on cities of historical significance. Somehow Cambridge and Bath escaped relatively unscathed. So in addition to most of the buildings remaining in tact, all the new building are under city ordinance to be built in the same architectural style as the standing buildings.

Some monument with color accent on the flowers. On the drive over, there were very interesting road signs. Instead of the usual sheep and cow crossing signs, there were tank crossing signs.

Entering the city was amazing. The descriptions were right on. The buildings were so unique, not to mention, ridiculously expensive.

The Royal Crescent

Overlooking the River Avon

When we got there we first wandered around until we found a place to eat lunch. We ate in the upstairs of a little restaurant/bar and had the entire upper floor to ourselves. It was very relaxing. Towards the end of dinner, I was stacking my cups and stacked a little too hard. Somehow my boundless strengh could not be contained, and I broke one of the cups. I hid it behind a menu, I am a bad person. This is me not being able to get the cups apart.

Us at lunch: Natalie, Susannah, Me, Kacie, Bryan. Ani taking picture, not shown. Dessert after lunch. Ice cream. Susannah, Kacie, and Natalie
Then we headed over to the Roman Baths. There was a large building that completely encompassed the actual Roman temple and bath. It was beautiful. I couldn't believe that it was still standing after thousands of years and that Roman's actually bathed in the. There was an open air pool, remnants of temples and columns, tombstones, and water canals. Now what makes Bath so unique is that it is the only working Roman bath remaining. The source of the hot spring comes from a point called the Sacred Spring that flows out about a quarter million gallons of natural spring water a day. The water is very warm.

Main pool.

Me.

Bryan, me, Ani, Travis. No one is smiling.
Deepa, Michelle, Natalie, Lesley, Susannah, Diane, Kacie.
At the end of the tour we had the opportunity to taste the clean spring water. Our guide Matt said it tastes like feces, other's said it tasted like metal, and Clair said it tasted like shower water, which apparently she drinks all the time. Ehh. It was ok, not gross, but I don't prefer it.

Cheers: Natalie, Kacie, Lesley, Me, Michelle, Ani, Susannah About to leave. Clair, Susannah, Kacie, Rebecca, Laura, Jennifer, Me, Natalie. Once again, thanks be to Ani for taking the picture. Anyways so eventually we hopped back on the bus and headed back to Cambridge. It took about 3 hours to get back. A small group of us tried to find some place still open to get food at about 9-ish but the only places open were Indian and Chinese take out. We went Chinese. Food was ok, but they were so stingy. They charged me 5 pents for a fork. AND they didn't have any napkins. I'm never coming back.

Ok so time for bed, tomorrow we have class again and a tour somewhere that I forgot. Good night and God speed.

-James