Stonehenge

It has been a little over a month since arriving in London.  There have been some highs and lows but hands down one of the best choices I could have made.  I do miss my friends and family but making some new connections in London that I hope will grow and deepen.  With the help of apps and the internet I am able to keep in touch with everyone at home.

My first day trip outside of London was this past weekend.  It was amazing, albeit a little cliché, for my first stop. I have to preface this post that it is written by a science fiction lover.  No.  I did not expect anything supernatural.  My expectation was to see an amazing prehistoric wonder of the world site. Just knowing that these monoliths have been existence for thousands of years piqued my interest. It was all that was expected and the crowds that were there validated how interesting this location is for a great many of the

world.  BUT apparently it is of no interest to many Europeans.  That actually shocked me.  It brings to mind how excited people are to talk about museums of Philadelphia that I have been visiting since I was a child.

Pictures:  1. What appears to be a natural boulder at Stonehenge. 2. This is an approximation of dwellings for the same time period.

     

City of Bath

After grabbing some lunch we boarded the coach (bus) to continue to the other part of our tour – the city of Bath. I did read up on the Roman baths and the Bath Abbey but it literally exceeded my expectations.  In retrospect I would make this a weekend trip.  It is a bustling town with a population of 80,000.

The sight of the buildings as you approach the city is breathtaking.  The layout appeared to be circular and structures adjacent to each other.  They are constructed from honey colored Bath stone.  The architecture is very detailed like most of what I have seen at this point in Europe. If only I had more time I would have

explored further.  Our very entertaining tour guide Allen let us off the coach on the town side of the Avon River.  I did not have enough time to walk across the Pultney Bridge but did walk across the bridge that the coach crossed.  I am not sure of the name.  A great affinity is developing for bridges. Apparently there is a Pultney Bridge restaurant that I miss too.  The river is not very wide but the water rushing into the weir commanded attention if only I had more time.

The Roman bathhouse tour gave insight into how industrious and social the people were in centuries past. Some of the plumbing still works to pump the natural hot spring water into the bathhouse.  People today now know that lead pipes damage
our health but in the past they felt the hot springs and the naturally occurring minerals had healing properties.  This was a place of mental, spiritual and physical healing.   The closest I have ever come to experiencing hot springs was in Costa Rica.  It is quite therapeutic.  There are warnings about touching this water but there were still people that were unconcerned.  You have to wonder how many people accidentally fall into the pool each year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bath Abbey speaks for itself.  The vaulted fan ceiling was so ornate and the external architectural features are teased in the background of the photo above.  Little did I know that only a few years ago the floor of the cathedral had to be reinforced due to the thousands of graves that decayed underneath and weight of the floor threatening to collapse.  There are literally grave markers, if not full statues or crypts, everywhere in the European churches.

These are just the sight I visited there is so much to see and do in Bath that could not be fit into the time allotted.  I cannot wait for my next trip to Brussels, Belgium later this month!!