I Need A Little More Henge In The Picture

Yesterday the girls in my house and I decided to take a bus tour of Stonehenge and Bath in order to celebrate Valentine's Day without men. We were at Stonehenge for an hour, and had a good time. You can't get up close to the rocks, though, so don't expect the trip to be a full-day experience. Also, a lot of them have fallen down over the ages. You can walk around all of the stones, but it's pretty muddy in the parts where there's no sidewalk - so make sure you bring shoes you can get dirty! I brought my Sperries, and the toes got fairly dirty even though I was careful. The views around Stonehenge are very pretty, with rolling hills and sheep grazing on the land. Also, we got a short description of the history of Stonehenge from Anderson Tours:


"Stonehenge consists of a series of large rocks which were arranged in a circular format known as a henge. The first structure to be built at the site of Stonehenge was the circular ditch and outer bank around 3000BC. The first stones were brought there around 2500BC from the Preseli Mountains in the southwest of Wales, around 137 miles from Stonehenge. These stones formed the inner circle, which was later rearranged to form a horseshoe. The outer circle was completed around 1500BC and consists of the largest stones in the monument. The stones weigh up to 50 tons each and it is estimated that at least 600 men were required just to move one of these stones."



A View of Stonehenge


Me at Stonehenge holding one of the rocks


A view of the rolling landscape and sheep at Stonehenge

After Stonehenge we took the coach (which is what the British call buses) to Bath. The initial decent into Bath was breathtaking! The whole city is built among hills and in a valley, and the buildings are all a pretty tan color that makes the city look old and quaint. I immediately fell in love with how picturesque the scenery and buildings were. Even though the weather began to get cloudy around that time, I could not help gushing over how much I loved Bath.


In this picture you can kind of see the houses built among the hills


Bath Abbey


We got off the bus at Bath Abbey, and then immediately took a tour of the Roman Baths, which is a building built by the Romans surrounding the only natural hot spring in Great Britain. Here's the history that the Anderson Tours description says:

"When the Romans discovered the therapeutic value of the water, they built their famous baths - now one of Britain's finest remaining Roman monuments. Once the Romans left, it was not until the 18th Century that the value of the springs was rediscovered and Bath became not only a healing center, but also the center of 18th Century style, etiquette, and fashion."


The Source of the hot spring (you can see the steam and the rock is very orange)



Me sitting on a rock next to the Roman Bath

That helps me describe how excited I was to see the famous Bath Pump Room that I read about in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey last December! It was really cool to see the scenery from that book come to life! The pump room was a meeting place for the citizens of Bath, and Catherine, the heroine of the novel, goes there a lot for tea and socializing.


Outside the Pump Room


After the Roman Baths we went to lunch at a local pub. This might sound astonishing....but I had my first taste of fish and chips while I was there! (I usually don't eat fish much, but I thought I'd been in England too long without trying it.) It was just baked cod and french fries, so it was definitely tasty. I also ordered tea and fudge - which was amazing!

After lunch we roamed the shops of Bath for an hour, and I found some great brown boots on sale! They have traction on the bottom, which was the order winner for me since I'm going to Scotland next weekend and need some good boots. I regret not bringing my rain boots to England, but they also would have taken up a lot of space and weight in my suitcase.

The coach ride home from Bath was long, and I listened to music and slept the whole way. Then, I went to the grocery store before going all of the way home and picked up some food. I also went to a different grocery store this morning to pick up the rest of what I needed, since it's hard to carry everything in one trip. The two grocery stores I go to here are Tesco and Marks&Spencers. Tesco is a lot like Jewel with lower prices and more generic foods. Marks&Spencer has higher quality foods (lot's of organic) and probably is slightly more expensive. However, they have sales and promotions a lot. I ended up buying two giant packages of hamburger meat for 5 pounds today, which was a great deal. (I'm going to freeze them, don't worry Mom!)

Some food differences I want to write about real quick are that organic products are a lot more expensive here, they don't sell American or Swiss cheese, there's no individually wrapped pudding or Jello like Snack Packs or those Jello packages, and there's no Macaroni & Cheese. Also, most brands do not exist and the ones that do go by a different name (Dannon goes by Dannone). Finally, types of bread are different, such as "wholemeal" instead of "whole wheat." It's tricky, but I'm getting used to it slowly!

I hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day!