London Day Seven - Bath, Stonehenge & Salisbury

Click title for pictures -- Up early for our day tour to Stonehenge, Bath and Salisbury. Our tour guide this time was an English young woman who was a history buff and gave us lots and lots of information. It was interesting, but there’s only so much you can digest and take in on a comfortably, swaying bus that tries to lull you to sleep in between stops. . I liked her style, but most of all I like the English slang she used. I wanted to write it down, but never did. She used words like “let’s pop over here” , “he popped his clogs” “jolly good”, “hurrah!” and other silly-to-us verbiage. The day looked promising so I left without anything warm so to speak. I brought my light rain jacket – no liner – and that was that. Things quickly changed at Stonehenge. From horizon to horizon, a dark and threatening gray mass of clouds appeared. As we were getting off the bus, the wind and rain kicked it up a notch and my jacket was pretty much useless except keeping the wet off my torso. Our guide was handing our tickets out, and everyone was trying to go SOMEWHERE for shelter, but there really wasn’t any….until we spotted the gift shop – as well as the 60 other people there at the moment. I had bought a zip-up sweat jacket mid-week in the city, and didn’t want to buy another one, so I looked for other options. I picked up a knit beanie and a scarf that would somewhat probably work….probably. I was a little miffed that it didn’t even have the Stonehenge logo on it! I waited in line, with the 60 other people, and by the time I got to the front, I glanced out the doorway, and there was Rikki outside looking up at a clear sky. WHATEVER!! I put the stuff back on the shelf, got my usual collector’s pin, picked up our audio guides and went out to brave the still chilly wind. After being dumped with heavy rain on our heads, the wind was really cold. I kept thinking that the audio tour was too overly-long. Everyone was huddled with arms crossed to their chests, chins down and backs to the wind, trying to patiently listen to Mr. Stonehenge on the audio machine. I was grateful to be there, but the cold was just getting right through to my bones! I couldn’t wait to get back on the bus. Out on the plain, I was able to snap a shot of our little rain storm that dumped on us. It looked pretty mild from a distance, and I was surprised at how, when we were right underneath it, it seemed to stretch on and on in all directions. One new thing I learned about Stonehenge was the existence of surrounding burial mounds that were about ¼ mile off the site. They were huge – like what you’d see in 3rd world countries when they do mass burials in one grave. Our next stop was warmer. We drove to Salisbury, ate at another traditional English pub, then visited Salisbury Cathedral. Two distinguishing things about this one was the steeple on top that was the tallest in Europe (404 ft) and also one of the original copies of the Magna Carta was housed in their Chapter House. Some other neat things about their Chapter House were the friezes around the octagonal-shaped room that depicted Bible stories. They hit all the major ones. I’m not sure if frieze is the right word, but I think it is. It’s a small sculptured picture depicting a scene. Photography wasn’t allowed in here. I got a postcard of the Magna Carta, and now I wish I’d gotten some of the Chapter House friezes, because they were pretty cool. Maybe I can find some on-line. I was able to do that with other places we couldn’t photograph. Rikki was reading the stories in order while I was looking up and identifying which picture belonged to which. We were going at a good pace, when I realized that Rikki was just reading and not looking up to see them. Oops! We were 30% done at that point, so we went back a little. Couldn’t read a lick of the Magna Carta, but it was neat seeing a piece of monumental history. Freedom and liberty….that stuff goes WAY, WAY back. It was under glass just like the Declaration of Independence in D.C. We also learned that another copy of the Magna Carta – there were 4 – is also in the same room as the Declaration of Independence. Another oops! How’d I miss that? Guess I’ll have to go back  Another thing of interest in this cathedral was the medieval clock dating back to 1386, Europe’s oldest working clock. Right by the clock, they also had some regiment’s colors (flags) of battles back in the 1800’s. Some were so threadbare that it just looked like an obscure net hanging there on a flagpole, but others were very distinct. Each flag had their own plaque stating which regiment it belonged to. Being a Richard Sharpe fan, I’ve learned the value of the colors among the regiments. Very cool to see originals. We had an hour and a half ride through more beautiful English countryside to get to Bath. The first view of it was breathtaking. The king or whoever it was that had it built, designed it so all the buildings were made out of the same limestone from the same quarry. Bath is in a very beautiful green valley, and with the pale cream limestone buildings, it was just gorgeous to look at. I couldn’t get a picture fast enough from the bus, so I had to buy a postcard with some of the city buildings on it. Bath was the home of some Roman baths that were excavated. This was another overly-long tour, but interesting all the same. At least most of it was interesting. I know I started skipping numbers here and there (numbers that you’d punch into your audio thingy to learn more facts about a certain object or person). Half the time I was afraid I’d miss something “good,” but I was definitely getting bored and anxious to get out on the streets and explore. It ended up that we didn’t have that much time. We were able to stop in a woolen mills shop, where I picked up some “real English woolen” scarves that were cashmere soft and Rikki found some sweaters. My joke on this trip was about my first scarf buying experience. I found two beautiful scarves and immediately scooped them up as gifts in the Cotswolds, just to realize at the next town that they had “Made in Korea” stickers on them! Aaaahhh!!! Korea gets into everything, doesn’t she? We also poked into a couple tourist shops and a really nice glass-blowing shop. Tempted to buy some stained glass balls, but didn’t. They’ve always been something I wanted hanging in my kitchen windows, instead of miniblinds. When we had 8 minutes left, we quickly did a recon tracing our steps back to see if I could find a crusty baguette, but no luck. Everyone was closing. For a touristy place like England, it was sure interesting how early most shops closed. Harrod’s closing at 8pm? What’s up with that?! Even our JCPenney’s are open til 9!