Stonehenge and Bath

The weekend following Thanksgiving, I went with the American office group to Stonehenge and Bath. We left on the Saturday morning and got lucky as the weather was perfectly clear and sunny at Stonehenge as we marveled in it's ancient glory and mystery. The location of Stonehenge is very interesting. It's out in the middle of country off of a rural highway. It's literally right beside a road. Besides Stonehenge, the actual stones, there are also mounds surrounding the area that also have mysterious purposes. They look like the Indian burial mounds, but I don't think they are burial mounds. The stones also come from really far away. There is no granite slabs like that in England. There was also this cool rock that turns red when it's wet. But I can't remember it's name and when I went home in December for Christmas, I left all of my pamphlets and stuff with my parents.
I was pleased to learn that Stonehenge is believed to be a calendar with, happily, June 21st as the center of time keeping. My birthday is unendingly cool. I have decided one year, I'm going to visit Stonehenge one June 21st when they have the festival of sorts. I've heard it's kind of a Pagan ordeal, but I would like to see it. And that would be a terrific birthday trip, would it not? Perhaps it's silly, but I find great satisfaction in knowing that on my birthday all the ancient calendars of the world are lined up on their centers.
That about describes my time at Stonehenge... it was quite lovely. Windy and cold, but lovely.
That afternoon we drove to Bath to see the Roman Baths and the Christmas Market... Let me just say the Christmas market was my least favorite activity of the day. It was crushingly crowded, so I got out of there a.s.a.p. The Roman baths were incredibly interesting and exquisite. The classic simplicity of the design of the building was so beautiful, and so well preserved, it was breathtaking. I enjoyed them very much. I didn't touch the water in the baths (as there was a sign saying they were toxic), and I didn't drink the safe water in the pump room (I didn't have time, but I heard it tasted awful), I also didn't smell the-- apparently unpleasant-- odors of the bath as I was sick and could barely breath, let alone smell anything. However, I enjoyed the sights, sites, and the company of the advisor's children and my friends. After we left the Roman Baths, I escaped the crowd as quickly as possible, walked around the town, and happened upon the Fashion museum where I spent a happy two hours looking at exquisite clothes, gloves, hats, period dress, undergarments, shoes, etc.
The Fashion museum is the basement of the Assembly rooms. I would have looked at them, but they were having a function in them, so I didn't get to explore the building. However, from what I saw, the building was wonderful. I walked around town some more, and was incredibly pleased to discover that the rest of Bath was not as crowded as it's city centre. In fact, walking around Bath, I encountered very few people. I saw Queen's Court and was surprised to see a dog defecating on the pavement, but more surprised to notice the owner act as if nothing had happened and not clean up the doorstep of number 23. Oh well, happens everywhere, I guess.
This brings to mind, people do love their dogs here. Maybe I've mentioned it before, but never in my life have I ever seen such well behaved animals. They are strictly and unwaveringly obedient to their masters. The only dog I have met that was not was a dog I met in Sweden who kept chewing on my boots. But he listened to me more than his master, which was weird. It was like he was my dog for a couple of hours. Anyway, enough about dogs, back to Bath.
Saturday evening, we drove through the country outside of Bath (which is absolutely stunning, by the way, it looks as if it were a painting from the Italian Renaissance) to our Ramada hotel, which was a redone manor house. Staying in the country for a day made me realise, the English country side is overwhelmingly beautiful. I mean, you look at it, and you just want to run in the fields and hike through the forests. It's so temperate and mild, so delicious and wet, and looks so pure as if it hasn't been touched by man for a century. Many places, I suspect actually haven't been. But even where people have been, it doesn't appear obtrusive. They keep their large trees, there's little clear-cutting, the forests are well tended and the innocence of the land is well preserved. There are little foot paths sometimes running through the fields. As lovely as the cities are, I think I enjoy the surrounding country side better.
Anyway, the hotel had a swimming pool AND a bath tub! It felt incredible to be immersed in warm water for a couple of hours. An experience which is all too rare in my life. Sunday, I visited the Jane Austen center which was, although somewhat informative, not as fun as the fashion museum. However, I did buy a nice little journal book, and some things for my sister. And also, the Jane Austen center was not actually where she used to live. Where she lived is now a dentist's surgery. I think the address is 26 Gay street. Apparently, Jane Austen wasn't happy living in Bath, as I don't blame her. She originally lived in the country where I imagine she would have been much happier. However, they credit Bath for some of the best "high class" characters in her novels. After I went to the centre, I walked around Bath, stopping in a local craft bazaar, and at Jigsaw where I got some things for my little sister. The drive on the bus back to Brighton was spiced up a bit by the kids arguing and throwing things at the other girls. That was pretty funny. One of them kept saying, "I'm ALIVEEE!!!" until he fell asleep and the bus was blessed with a period of peace. He is a funny kid, and sweet, too, so he didn't really bother anyone, we were just sort of tired and wanted some quiet, so it was nice when we got it. Otherwise, the drive home was rather uneventful. I slept and talked to my little sister a bit on Skype.
We arrived back in Brighton around 8:30pm. It was a good trip.