Springs and Stones

On Saturday I went with a friend, and some of her friends, to Stonehenge and Bath. Starting the day out nice and early at 8.30am at Great Portland Street, we drove through London (probably a good hour to drive out of the city) and off on our way across Wiltshire - with pigs and rolling English countryside. Actually the pigs were quite interesting. Its not often that one sees pigs being farmed outside. Happy bacon.

I like it that the countryside is dotted everywhere with farmhouses and nice old brick or stone ones, ones with character, and old farm buildings. There were definitely less sheep but some cows, pigs and I saw chooks.

Stonehenge was interesting but we were there on limited time and the tour guide decided we were going to the stones before the loo, which made the whole thing just a little uncomfortable after two hours on a bus with an out of order loo. I think it might have been a little rushed and even though I had an audio guide on, I wasn't really listening.

There has been so much info about the Stonehenge area, History Channel, Discovery Channel, etc etc, nerdy business that information about the stones isn't hard to come by. But the tourist procession is a bit depressing and I don't think I would go back.

Somerset was lovely to drive through and the approach to Bath was beautiful while traveling along the top of a valley, looking down at all the limestone houses and canal with canal boats.

We arrived in Bath and went straight to the Roman Baths. The outside bath was very pretty but much smaller than I thought it would be. The museum was a one way tunnel system and the amount of people there just made it again, disappointing, like being herded through. The audio guides were alright but didn't really have time to listen as people were always in the way of what you were meant to be looking at. I think I would go back though.

After this we had freetime and wandered around aimlessly looking for lunch, we settled on a pub, which we found out later is where Charles Dickens stayed when he was in Bath and got his inspiration for the Pickwick Papers. Accidental cultural activity of burger and pint.

After lunch was a walking tour and then a little bit more freetime before getting back on the bus back to London. It was a lovely day for the most part but got cold towards the end, so we were eager to get back on the bus.

I really enjoyed my day out.

Even no bus sickness.