Stonehenge and Bath

Just returned this evening from our weekend trip to the city of Bath. It was a very fun trip and Bath is a beautiful city.

Before I get into that, though, on the way to Bath we stopped in Wiltshire to see...STONEHENGE. I loved it, it was amazing. It was really crowded with tourists and a lot of people complained that it was smaller than they expected, but I was completely exhilirated and enthralled. I felt a sense of satisfaction to finally see Stonehenge after seeing so many pictures of it in textbooks since grade school. One couldn't go right up to it; it was roped off and one had to follow the path around it, but was still great to see it; it was fascinating and marvelous, and I wondered how those huge stones were brought and arranged there (since according to our audio tour the nearest quarry was several miles away and past the River Avon). What a cool place.

That evening we arrived at the University of Bath (which had pretty run down dorms compared to U of Edinburgh and Cambridge, but it was okay), put our stuff down, and then headed back onto the bus to go into the city centre, a couple of miles down the hill. We had free time for dinner, so Andrew, who had been to Bath before on vacation, took us to Cafe Du Globe, a nice little restaurant with international fare. It was really good; I got the Brochettes Royale (chicken and lamb kebabs with couscous and salad...reminded me of Aziza, Gina and Shara and I had to have it!) and others got wood fired pizzas, lasagna, etc.

Met back with the program group at 8:30 for entrance to the Roman Baths. Located in the heart of the city, it is situated over natural hot springs dating back since the Roman Empire. Both the spring and the buildings are ancient and it was a fascinating place. We went through the museum first and looked at relics and fragments of stone facades. My favorite things in there were the coins and the combs. People used to throw things into the spring to ask for good luck from Sulis Minerva, a combination patron goddess of Celtic and Roman name, and there was a huge collection of ancient coins ranging from Rome to Turkey, numbering almost 33,000. Those coins were so awesome. Apparently many women would throw in combs, and there were a bunch of wooden combs, really small but well preserved. It was interesting to see.

After the museum we got to the hot spring itself and saw the main pool and the original Roman drainage system. Those clever Romans! Anyway, the spring and the buildings were amazingly well preserved and felt surreal to be walking where the Romans used to walk. The spring water in the pool was actually a greenish colour because of exposure to sunlight.

After our tour we split off again and a bunch of us went and got delicious gelato from the one place in town that had the sense to stay open late. It was packed in there, but the gelato was amazing. I got nutella chocolate and pistachio gelatos...mmm. We took our gelatos and walked along the river and ended up hanging out in the park right on the river's edge taking silly pictures and just talking and enjoying the mild weather (oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the weather in Bath was SO WARM! It was almost meditteranean, matching the limestone carved architecture and curvy roads in that way). Took a taxi back uphill to campus and we called it a night.

Next morning (Sunday, today) we checked out of the University and went back into the city centre. We had an interesting and orienting professional walking tour and got to see more of the city than the night before, including The Circus, a huge roundabout surrounded by 3 curved mansion-like houses which have Ionic, Doric, and Corinthian columns on them, and The Royal Crescent, a combination of hotels and houses also long and curved, near a park. Apparently to stay in one of the Royal Crescent's rooms for one night costs £700. To buy a house is £1.5 million. (Remember that it's in pounds) Yowza!

After the tour we headed into the Roman Baths Pump Room to sample a glass of water from the spring pump. It was really warm and tasted very metallic, almost like blood. Found out that among the numerous minerals in the water, one of the more predominant ones is iron. That probably explains the taste. This water was prescribed by doctors in antiquity through Victorian times to help treat ailments. It wasn't very good, I would hate to have to drink it to cure a disease or something.

Then a bunch of us got a takeaway lunch from a cafe (I got a chicken and veg pasty) and ate it by the river and afterwards played around on a little garden labyrinth in the park. We looked into a couple of shops and then headed to the Bath Abbey, right next to the Roman Baths (we had to wait for morning services to be over to go in). Very beautiful, as all the abbeys/cathedrals I have seen have been. Curved, carved ceilings, intricate stained glass (the most prominent one being the one behind the altar depicting 56 scenes in the life of Jesus), Victoria-era Norman-style iron and gold chandeliers, and numerous scroll-style carved memorial plaques along every wall. The most defining feature of the Abbey was outside, though: carved in the stone above the doors are 2 ladders with angels climbing up them. The Abbey is also known as "The Lantern of the West" because of the numerous glass windows and the way it can be seen from miles around when fully lit up.

We had to leave to go back to Cambridge after we got out of the Bath Abbey. It was too bad, the trip was pretty short and we didn't get to do everything we wanted, but we had to get back. If I went again I would love to go and see The Museum of Costume, which has a collection of 200+ outfits chronicling the changing fashions from the 1600s to today, and also take in more of the city at a slower pace.

It was a really fun trip, though, and I had a great time. Bath was a great place for relaxing with the warm weather and seemingly slower pace of life. Apparently a lot of people retire in Bath...

So now I am off to go read for my class, my midterm is on Wednesday. Don't forget to check out the pictures!