Bath 2001

3 Feb 2001 – BATH – Megan and I made plans to start using our BritRail passes right away. We decided to go to Bath. I had heard and read a lot about it, and it was pretty close to Stonehenge. We left early Saturday morning There were a lot of football (soccer) and rugby fans already drinking and cheering at 8:30 in the morning. We were on a direct train to Bath, but there was some problem, so we had to get on a different train and make a connection in Newport. We finally got to Bath around 11. It is a gorgeous city. All the buildings are made of the same honey=colored stone, so there’s a sense of calming coordination. We checked into our hotel and found our room. We’re in Blues & Jazz, and I’m in the Billie Holliday bunk. Kind of grimy, but it’s cheap. £12.50. We took off walking towards the Abbey, which was very close. Stopped into the tourist information center for some maps. We wanted to see if there were any shows we could see at the Royal Theatre, so we walked that way. The city center was cluttered with shops and people, a lot like Swansea. No go at the theater, so we walked back to the Abbey to start our walking tour. We went inside. It was beautiful with all the stained glass windows and vaulted ceiling. It was interesting, because there were old “grave” markers on the walls and floors everywhere. From there, we took a tour of the roman Baths. Very interesting. We came up through the Pump Room. We were getting hungry, so we looked into going to Sally Lunn’s, but it was too expensive. Ate our sandwiches while we walked to the Jane Austen Centre. Megan wanted to go there. That was also interesting, but less so for me, because I’ve never read any of her work. From there, we walked by the Royal Crescent and The Circus to the Assembly Room and Museum of Costume. That was something I was very interested in. They had pieces dating back to 1660. From there, we got pizza at a nice Italian restaurant. We decided it best if we went home Sunday night, so we walked to the train station to check what time we could get back to Swansea. It was after 6, so most of the shops had closed, so it was dark and somewhat eerie. Came back to the hotel to find a few of our friends from Swansea (exchange) were staying there also. Chatted with them for a bit. Megan and I wanted to find a nice place to read and drink some tea. We ended up at a restaurant by the Abbey. The ventilation was poor, so even through only two people were smoking, my eyes were burning and I couldn’t breathe, so we left. Came back and I took a shower, then read a bit before calling it a night. I’m just really tired.

  

Bath Abbey

Roman Baths

Cara outside the Pump Room

4 Feb – Today was a rather mystical, exciting, charming, quaint, and very rainy day. Megan and I started off the day bright and early as we made our way to the meeting place by the Abbey for the Mad Max tour. 16 of us crammed into a minibus and began our journey to Stonehenge. Our tour guide was really friendly and informative. The drive took about 50 minutes. It started raining on the way there. We could make out some burial mounds around the area as we got closer to Stonehenge. When we pulled in, it really started to rain. Good thing I had my jacket and umbrella. Paid £3 to get in. Couldn’t go up very close to the stones. They actually weren’t quite what I expected. It seemed a lot smaller than how it’s shown on the Discovery Channel, etc. Anyway, we were getting really wet, so we cut our time outside short and headed back. I got two postcards. From there, we drove past Woodhenge to Avebury. It was still raining there. Here, we got to walk up next to the stones, give them a hug if we liked. Avebury has a huge henge (ditch and mound), and has a village built right in the center as a Christians-against-Paganism movement long ago. The weather was better by the time we left. We drove past Silbury Hill, the largest man-made object in prehistoric Europe. It’s just a big hill, well-engineered, with its purpose being a mystery. From there, we saw the Cherhill White Horse, made when the soil was removed from the hillside in the shape of a horse in 1780. We drove on to Lacock for lunch. It’s almost entirely owned by the National Trust, a sort of historical preservation society. It’s very small, and the houses date from 13th to 18th centuries. It only rained here once we got back on the bus. From Lacock, we drove to “the prettiest village in England,” Castle Coombe. If you can call it a village. It had one street and fifty houses, but it was really quite charming (and wet). The movie Dr. Doolittle was set here. We went back to Bath after that, then Megan and I caught trains back to Swansea, where it was also raining.

Getting rained on at Stonehenge

The Barber Stone at Avebury

Cara in Castle Coombe

{transcribed 2/10/2020}