Bath and Stonehenge

Some last minute planning came together towards the end of last week. Kate and I would be going to Bath and Stonehenge for the weekend. We left Friday afternoon, catching the Metro down to Central Station, with a six hour journey ahead of us, including one stopover in Bristol Temple Meads before Bath. Thankfully we were able to find seats, as when we booked the tickets we were told we might have to wait for seats to become available. On the train I read Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie, yes basically the whole book. I finished it later that night. Due to problems with the train Bristol Temple Meads would be the last stop and we were running about twenty minutes late. We missed our original connecting train but we had an open ticket so we caught the next one in about fifteen minutes. This train was pretty much standing room only but Bath was the first stop so 20 minutes wasn't bad. Plus, after sitting for about five and a half hours standing was perfectly ok. We found the hostel after some wandering and passing the Parade Gardens and Bath Abbey. The hostel was right above a bar which was a little noisy at night while I was trying to sleep. After the long trip we decided to just call it a night. I finished reading my book and spent a long time trying to fall asleep. I had the top bunk, something I rarely do, and finally fell asleep.

Saturday we started off the day with breakfast of toast at the hostel before going to the Roman Baths. The water is from a natural hot spring that has been the source since the baths were built. All the piping is lead (so lead poisoning? maybe...) There are a lot of different rooms - a few different baths, steam and hot rooms, cool baths, and more. At the end of the tour we went into the Pump Room where you can try some of the water, after its been cleaned of course. We were told it tastes really bad, when in all honestly it just doesn't have much of a taste. The weirdness is that its not quite boiling water but warmer than room temperature. We grabbed a quick lunch at Pret, favourite sandwich shop. I got a different sandwich this time - one of the specials, chicken with fruit chutney and lettuce... Coronation Chicken!

Next we took the Mad Max tour to Stonehenge. Our tour guide, Gary, pointed out some interesting sites along the way including the homes Jane Austen lived in while she was a resident of Bath, the first major railway in the world (GWR) and also a white horse chalk drawing, Westbury White Horse. Leucippotomy is the art of carving white horses into chaulk areas. After the original was carved many replicas and copies have been made elsewhere. We passed burial mounds at Cley Hill and various other locations, dating back to the Bronze Age. It is believed that the closer to Stonehenge the tombs are, the more important role the person had. Finally we arrived at Stonehenge, the 2nd biggest tourist attraction after Big Ben and Parliament in London. Stonehenge means hanging stones, and the stone circle is believed to have been built between 3000BC and 1600BC. Several years ago, the English Heritage group was going to build a giant theme park by Stonehenge but people protested and now its a major attraction. The tour also included a small stop in the National Trust village of Lacock, meaning little river. On the way there we passed a canal with manual locks and many houses with thatched roofs. It was a very small quaint village, although its been used in filming of Harry Potter and a few other movies. After we got back to Bath, we did some wandering/shopping. There's a shop where they hand blow glass. Grabbed some dinner at a small restaurant - I had chicken and gnocchi with garlic bread. Then we went to go catch the Bizarre Bath comedy tour. It was pretty funny. Some random moments and things I didn't quite understand but it was good. After the tour we walked around the city a little more. While we were by the Bath Abbey, we saw a man propose. Yes she accepted! It was really cute. Awwww!

Sunday was the end of daylight savings time. However the cell phones don't automatically adjust so we kinda woke up an hour earlier than we wanted to. This basically just resulted in more time for breakfast - toast and cereal! We checked out of the hostel and went to the Jane Austen Centre. However we were still too early so we wandered around and saw some interesting shops. Got to the centre as they were opening up and did the self-guided tour before going to the Regency tea rooms for cream tea. Jane Austen lived in Bath for 5 years and two of her books feature aspects of the city. Kate and I had the Jane Austen blend of tea with our scones, clotted cream and jam. It was delicious. We learned afterwards that you're supposed to basically smother the scones with cream and jam. Picked up a few more souveniors then went to the train station, only to find out the next train going to Newcastle was in 40 minutes. So after some more miscellaneous wandering we caught the train back. On the way, we passed a Cadbury factory. The second train, (transfer again at Bristol Temple Meads), was packed. It was originally supposed to be 9 cars but there were problems so it was a different train with only 5 cars. Everyone who had made seat reservations lost out because there obviously weren't enough seats. At one point a woman got on and continually complained until we got to Newcastle about how she paid for it and had to stand etc. Finally got back to the dorms around 930.
Definitely a great weekend. I'm still so proud of all that we accomplished and our planning. :)