Stonehenge and Bath

On Sunday, NYU woke us up at 7:30 am and threw us on a coach bus for the next twelve hours. First stop, Stonehenge. As we sleepily stepped off the bus, we noticed the sheep as much as the stones. All of them were just lying on the ground without much visible action. Then again, I guess that's what you do as a sheep. Someone did point out that these sheep got pretty lucky in the sheep lottery - I mean they get to live right next to Stonehenge, they're probably in more people's cameras than Gordon Brown.

Anyway, the stones were what you expected, nothing more, nothing less. They were roped off by about 25 feet. Apparently, some of the other stones were used in building houses and roads, which is part of the reason why the perfect circle doesn't exist anymore. Also people started chipping away souvenirs (That would totally be me if I could) so they had to put up the rope.




Second stop, Bath. The architecture and history of Bath are incredible. Apparently it's one of the World Heritage sites, meaning it's protected from modern development and destruction by UNESCO. Today the city has modern spa facilities if you want to enjoy the historical pastime in contemporary fashion.

Our tour guide took us to the Royal Crescent, though I didn't get any good pictures. All the doors of the expensive houses are painted white except one. Apparently a while ago (think 1800s) the lady living inside was opposed to the yellow lines the government painted on the cobblestone streets for no parking. Therefore, she painted her door yellow in protest and took the case to Britain's highest court. I don't remember if she won, but the door is still painted yellow today in commemoration. Our tour guide was pleasant, although she kept trying to convince us to come back to Bath, especially if we wanted to get married. She even showed us the perfect room in one of the halls in town where Keira Knightly filmed some movie.

Bath Abbey is in the background. The Roman street level is 18 meters below current street level so you need to take a staircase downstairs. It still astounds me that you can build on top of ancient cities and have the modern city be structurally sound.

I could have been a war hero and emperor like the statues above me, no?

There was a Roman guard saying "Salve" to the passersby. He refused to hold the ale that the group in front of me had bought, claiming that his general would be most upset if he engaged in enemy drink. Four years of high school Latin for this one moment, well worth it.