London Day 2

Today I took a bus tour to Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral and Bath.

Walked to the pickup site about 7:15 am, and to others along the route till we got to Victoria Coach Station, from there at 9 o’clock we hit the road and went to Stonehenge.  I was expecting this to be an “Ok I’ve seen it, now what” moment, but it was quite fun, with an audio guide telling you history of the stones and even before the stones. We were there for an hour and a half and I could easily have stayed longer and listened to every bit of the commentary.  But I also needed food and souvenirs, and was even then pressed to get back to the bus on time.  Was an interesting side note, there was some man somewhere screaming out like someone had cut a limb off, couldn’t quite make out where though.

From there we went to Salisbury Cathedral, which has, I learned, a 404 foot spire.  Was interesting in its own way, but churches aren’t really my thing.  It does have one of four original copies of the Magna Carta there, written on sheep skin.  That was pretty cool, the writing it tiny! Unfortunately photographs of it are prohibited.  All in all, interesting, but didn’t really need the full hour and a half there for me.

From there we travelled to the Roman Bath’s in the town of, you guessed it, Bath.  These were rediscovered in the 19th century and having been undisturbed for centuries were in great shape when excavated.  Its the only hot spring in Britain, with waters gushing out at a temperature of 46 degrees Celsius.  Legend says drinking the water has healing powers, but I had a sip from the fountain provided (tastes like hot salt water), and my back was still aching, so I doubt the veracity of the legend.

The town of Bath itself if very pretty too, built on 7 hills apparently with views over the river Avon to all the other hills. Most if not all of the houses are built with a honey coloured limestone, so they colour really stands out.   One absolutely spectacular housing area is called the circus, apparently Nicholas Cage lived in one of the units.  Definetly google the Bath Circus.

Posting a few pictures below, hotel internet is really slow, so will have to wait till I’m home for more.