Stonehenge and Bath

As I told you we decided to branch out and extend our tourist activity to Stonehenge and to Bath for Monday August 19^th.

 

A Evan Evans tour bus picked us up a little after 8 and took us to Victoria Station where we transferred coaches and left town going by a number of sights we missed yesterday including more museums and the world famous Harrods and for our son in law the world headquarter of the Boy Scouts..  The trip to Stonehenge was about 1 hour 45 minutes.

 

Every year about 1,000,000 folks visit a field on the Salisbury Plains trying to figure out how some big stones got there.  Here is the low down.  Stonehenge was built in three stages.  The first stage 3300 BC was digging a big circular ditch it was dated by deer antlers broken off which were used to dig it out.  2600 BC is the date of the second stage where two circles of rocks were place the stones coming from southwest wales probably rafted down the Avon River but it would have been difficult to move them from river.  In 2300 BC 30 big rocks from nearer by were stood upright and then cross rocks or lentils put across the top.  The site has been pillaged as have all of the 450 burial mounds spread around it over the years.  The most credible theory is that it was part of the worship pattern where the sun was charted and the seasons kept track off a giant calendar with an altar stone in the middle which was the focus for ceremonies.  Our visit lasted about an hour.  They are upgrading the facilities building a new visitors site and removing a lot of the roads close to the site so you future visitors will need to update us.

Leaving Stonehenge on our full tour bus we traveled small roads and observed the rural form of life on some of the more sparsely settled area of England in fact much of the area is used for military artillery training much as is the area near where live in NC by the Marines.  It was over one hour to Bath where we arrived shortly after 1 PM.

The history of Bath is fascinating.  I will start with the story of the young prince who was exiled because he had leprosy.  He began herding hogs and noticed that they loved to wallow in the swamp.  He discovered the warm water and joined them which cured his leprosy and he returned to his household.  In reality about 400 to 500 BC the area was controlled by the Celts with little history BUT when the Roman came to Britannia in 43 AD they discovered the only warm springs in England.  But when the Romans were chased away by the Anglo Saxons they ignored the Roman areas and we lost track of much because of the dark ages.

In the 1700’s Queen Anne came for two years to take baths and this ushered in the Golden era for the City much of the architecture is from this time.  The routine for the beautiful people was to soak as long as possible in the morning and when the strength finally recovered to socialize well into the evening.  The jet set did eventually discover the Seaside and Brighton took over the spotlight.  But in the 1800s a man digging in his cellar discovered some Roman relics from the Roman Baths.  From then on the extensive history of these bathes has been unearthed and developed into a very clever museum.  The baths have been recreated with some of the Roman engineering and parts still working.  Among the ruins an exhibit featuring many scenes and displays discussed in a well done self-directed audio track with many video clips.  The approach brings to life the times of the Bath and with it the history of this Roman period.

Charlotte and I took well over and hour and Lyle and Marlene even more time there.  We then had time for a bite of lunch (after 3 so it was the last meal of the day) and a quick walk around the beautiful village (about 120-130,000 people) with wonderful shopping and beautiful Church called the Abbey.  It was a sunny day and there were several street entertainers that gathered crowds.

Our three hours was up at 4:30 and re-boarded the coach for the trip back to Victoria Station arriving after 6.  We decided to walk to our hotel about .7 miles away and enjoyed the walk.  A break for cocktails and then the Snows continued across the bridge to their hotel.

They plan to come back in the morning and then we will take the transfer to the Docks of Dover and board our Baltic Cruise ship.  We hope you will join us.