May 15, 2013
We got up at 5am today to catch our tour to Stonehenge. We caught the DLR to the Canada Water station where we found our Expat Tour bus waiting for us.
The drive to Stonehenge was grueling, through the London rush hour traffic, right through the center of town. I kept muttering that there is a ring road that would avoid all of this, but our driver, Max, had just come in from the Netherlands and he was following his GPS which, I think, was taking him the shortest route.
In spite of the traffic we arrived at Stonehenge,in drizzling rain, just in time for the opening of the historic site. We donned our rain ponchos, picked up our audio guides and off we went to walk around the high, open hilltop listening to stories of Druids and ancient religions and how the enormous stones (25 tons each) were transported and placed to line up with the sun and the celestial calendar.
Stonehenge, erected between 3000 bc and 1500 bc (hey, that is pretty old!), has a mystical air about it. The hills surrounding the site are burial grounds for Druid kings and priests, and the mist rises off the green hills, evoking a spiritual atmosphere as we walk around the monument listening to our audioguides.
Back to the bus and off to Salisbury and it's famous cathedral. The stained glass windows were beautiful and the cathedral is impressive, gut really just a sidebar to the trip. One neat find in Salisbury, though, was the Poundland. This is the British version of the Dollar Store. We bought gum and Mint Humbugs and chocolate candy bars for Don for 1/3 of what we have paid at the Tesco. The most mudane things get us excited.
Next we went to the town of Bath. For some reason I was feeling snobby about Bath. I think from various novels I have read, I expected a bunch of la-de-dah snobs to be here at this resort town. We rolled into town, our driver, Max doing a marvelous job considering he is not a native and had never driven here on the left side and was unfamiliar with the destinations and the intricacies of the towns.. The guide gave us 1 hour and 15 minutes for our time her, I think so she could get home in time for dinner.
Don and I set off for the Roman Baths and gulped and paid the steep entry fee. We were handed our audio guides and off we went. This site was a very pleasant surprise. The audio commentary was very interesting and the baths are extensive. There are lots of artifacts and interesting stories to bring the site to life. In our short time we only had time to enjoy 1/3 of the baths site. We needed at least 3 hours for the visit. The steep entry fee was worth it, by the way.
We went back to the bus and off we went on a very long drive back to London, right through the center of town again during rush hour and back to Canada Water.
Those stained glass windows are awesome, I want to see the baths...look very interesting.
ReplyDeleteJonathan took me to Bath on my birthday this year, and we really enjoyed our time there ... it would be a 2.5 hour drive from Llandrindod, but we were staying in Cardiff, so it was just an hour away.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I couldn't bring myself to pay the entry fee for the Baths!! However, I had been there on a school trip many years ago. Instead, we walked around the old buildings, the Royal Crescent and the posh charity shops, and had tea and cake in a little tea room near the Cathedral. It was a lovely day out :)