On Thursday, we went to museums, around colleges, up tall towers, and for a yummy cream tea. (Umm, actually, I think we had cream teas almost every day. A-mazing.)
Here are all the touristy shots:
Museum of Natural History
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On Cornmarket Street In the tower of St. Mary's - High Street is in the background  Climbing the tower- and then battling the wind on top!- was a highlight   Tea at the Rose  |
And of course we had to visit Stonehenge, my mom's request ever since Brandon and I told her we were moving to Oxford. Since it's not easy to get directly to Stonehenge from Oxford (without a car anyway), I planned that we would take the train to Bath and from there take a bus tour to Stonehenge. I had not been to Bath yet, but anyone who had raved about it. Now I know why. The town sits in a valley and is surrounded by seven large hills. Looking up from within, you see great green hills scattered with trees and houses. The city itself features honey-colored Georgian architecture that makes it look so, well, clean.
See what I mean?
Since we had a few hours until our tour left for Stonehenge, we ventured through the streets and into Bath Abbey. This was the last great medieval church raised in England, sometime between 1499 and 1616. It's big- and beautiful.
Bath Abbey from the outside...
...and inside
Mom was very impressed.
About 1 p.m., we walked around to the back of the Abbey to find the purple bus owned by Scarper tours, our tour guide for Stonehenge. On the way there our funny and informative driver pointed out unique things like Celtic burial mounds, the Westbury White Horse, and areas where UFO sightings had supposedly occurred (crop circles are common around Stonehenge and nearby farms). The drive went by quickly and we found ourselves standing in front of this site:
The great "hanging stones"
Stonehenge is definitely not as large as you might think, and a rope fence keeps you from getting too close. The closest we could get to the stones was probably still about 10 yards away (where the above photo was taken), and some areas (like in the picture below) were probably more like 40. (Honestly I have no idea if those measurements are close to accurate. Hopefully it gives you an idea.) I'm not saying it's not worth the trip- only that it gets a lot of hype.
We took the long loop around, listening to our audioguides and trying to stay warm. Mom had brought a big down jacket that she wore for most of the trip that I considered a little excessive - except on this day. I was pretty chilly standing on that windy plain, and quite jealous of her warm coat.
Family pic by random stranger- didn't she do a good job!
(Auburn and I started calling her "the nun" because of her all-black garb.)
The Nun
So after an hour (which was plenty of time) we got back on the purple bus to return to Bath. Overall the whole thing- getting there, hanging out, coming back- was about 3 hours. Just the right amount of time.
Here's a view of Bath on the way back:
Here's a view of Bath on the way back:
We had time for a delicious cream tea at Minerva chocolates (as well as some samples...yummm) and then took a quick tour of the Roman baths for which the city is named.
Bath has natural hot springs that were taken advantage of by the Romans around A.D. 44. They built thermal baths and called it Aquae Sulis. And here they are today:
Bath has natural hot springs that were taken advantage of by the Romans around A.D. 44. They built thermal baths and called it Aquae Sulis. And here they are today:
The Abbey is in the background
Inside we could see where the great steaming baths flowed:
And hear the "life stories"of those who lived in the city long ago, like this woman:
Check out that hair
We didn't get as much time in the museum as we'd hoped but we got a taste of what the baths must have been like. After we left there, we walked around a little bit more before getting dinner at a nice local Indian restaurant.
Bath at dusk
And one last shot for the night before getting a train back to Oxford...
Next post: Blenheim Palace and London
