Sunday, June 24. I just got back from visiting Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Bath. These were really cool places. This morning we had to be at the bus station at 8:30am, meaning, we had to leave our flat at 7:30am. It took a little over an hour to get to our first stop, Stonehenge. These stones date back to 3000BC. They are supose to look like one big circle with 2 half circles inside. Now, when you look at it, it just looks like a bunch of rocks. In order to stand these huge stones up it would have taken over 1000 men. They are also barried deep in the ground so they don't fall over. The thoery of why this was build was to tell when the seasons change according to the sun and moon; it also told time of day.
While we were there it rain and poured the entire time!! Everyone was soaking wet by the time we had to get back on the bus, which was less than an hour. One of my favorite parts of this stop was when we saw men from the American military! Kati was able to take a picture of them while holding an american flag. I had the chance to talked to them for a second and I found out that there are stationed in Illinois. They had been to Iraq once and they are here for training now. The guys were a little short, I think they were in a hurry.
The next stop was at Sailsbury. In the town of Salisbury there are two parts, the inside and the outside. The inside part of the town is where the Salisbury Cathedral is and there is a wall surrounding the inside town. Inside is also where some of the oldest buildings are, and they're still in use. The outside town is...outside the wall; it's also the newest portion.
We went into the church caffateria to eat lunch. We pack a pb&j, but we also bought hot soup, hot chocolate, and some brownies. It was a yummy and much needed lunch! After eating, we made our way into the Salisbury Cathedral. The cathedral was really pretty and very old. The was one thing that creeped me out, there were about 15 toombs (maybe a little more). The toombs were decorated really pretty; morst had marble carvings, but it was still really wierd knowing that there were so many dead bodies in a church! :|
The final stop was my favorite, BATH. When you first walk in you get rushed into the tour path. You get to see the biggest roman bath from above. They have turned the building into something like a museum with many artifacts from the original building. You have to go below surface level by more than 20 feet in order to get to the baths. There were three baths that still had water in them (at least that we saw). There was one where we through a couple of coins in and made a wish. That bath was the one and only cold bath. The rest of them were warm. Eventhough we were told not to put our fingers in the water, I did it anyway... manly because other people were too!! :) The water was suprisingly really warm! At the end of the walk through, we bought a glass of the BATH water. I was the lucky one to have the first sip, and it smelled worse than it tasted. The water was warm and tasted like sulfur and chlorine.
After we left the Roman Baths, we walked around the town for a little while. It was pretty relaxed and not nearly as busy as London. It somewhat reminded me of Switzerland (not the architecture, but the atmosphere). There was a river with a park, and can you believe it cost money to get into this little park. Although, it was a gorgeous park!
We got back on the bus and returned home at about 8pm, a nice, but long day!
