Unfortunately we encountered several road accidents and had to backtrack making the trip even longer than expected. We drove through the small town of Amesbury crossing the River Avon which was more like a ditch. We were told that "Avon" means "river" and that there are many Avon Rivers, or "River Rivers" in England.
Finally, along with many, many other tourists we arrived at Stonehenge where Matt, our driver and guide, gave us a bit of history and description of the monument. The reason for the monument is still a mystery: burial ground? device for planning crop planting? religious, healing temple? The monument began with an earthen ditch maybe 5000 years ago. Bluestones were brought later, presumably from 150 miles away in the Preseli Hills of West Wales (and there is much speculation about the method of transportation). Next were the sarsens, the larger stones from 19 miles away. Currently the monument is within a roped off area to keep visitors from chipping away at the rocks to take a personal souvenir.
Emily stands next to the large sarsen; I am by the warmer feeling bluestone. The dating of when the stones were put in place is determined by the manual shaping of the stones by tools from the Bronze Age.
A bird sits on top of one of the lintels. In the late 1800s some of the stones that were in danger of tipping over were rearranged.
The exposed nob on top of the center lintel shows how the lintels were attached to the vertical sarsens. The small mound in front is a barrow.
This stone, the Heelstone, sits outside the Stonehenge circle. At the summer solstice, the sun rises above it and shines through a pair of sarsens.
It was extremely windy and unexpectedly cool for us at Stonehenge. Nevertheless, I would have liked to have had more time to appreciate this ancient monument and compare it to the edifices constructed by ancient civilizations in the Americas. However, that was not to be and we hopped back on the bus for our next destination, the city of Bath, a World Heritage City and about an hour's drive away.
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The city of Bath dates from the time before Romans arrived in the first century AD and had already been known for its healing hot springs. Today, Bath's significance lies in its still functioning thermal baths and its beautiful Georgian architecture. It is an affluent city not far from London but set in a river valley so that there are beautiful views wherever one looks. We were on our own for lunch and we found a pleasant tapas restaurant in the city center.
Courtyard outside of restaurant. Flowers Everywhere! Food was good too.
After lunch, Tom took off for the Roman baths and Emily and I visited the Bath Abbey (after a required chocolate stop). Tom felt the baths were worth a much longer look but once again we were pressed for time.
View of baths that can be seen from the outside.
One of the statues around the baths--time has taken its toll but then the baths one sees today were excavated after years of being buried underground.
The excavation is ongoing.
Another beautiful structure in Bath is the Abbey, 500 years old with a fan vaulting ceiling like Kings' College Chapel in Cambridge and very light on the inside. I wonder if part of that is due to the fact that some of the windows are plain clear glass and not stained glass. I think our guide said the windows had been removed during WW II to avoid destruction by bombing.
Stained glass window and sculpture called "Kind Jesus."
After our own touring we joined Matt for a walking tour of Bath. First item on the agenda was the Pulteney Bridge over the River Avon. The bridge was built to resemble one in Florence Italy. Shops are built into the bridge so that one might never know one is walking over a bridge (like the Cap in Columbus' Short North!)
Matt described the cream colored Georgian architecture of the buildings and the reason for wide sidewalks--wide dresses were the fashion! Doorways were also wider than normal to accommodate sedan chairs that deposited people inside their houses. Another story was about Sally Lunn and the building that was her bakery. She was a Hugenot fleeing persecution in France. The buns she sold were yellow on top and white on the bottom like the sun (soleil) and the moon (lune). So she called out "soleil lune" to sell her wares and that became corrupted to "Sally Lunn." Even if it isn't true, it makes a charming story!
The oldest house in Bath.
As we walked through town we heard about Beau Nash, the jet setter of the mid 1700s. Apparently England was a much livelier place then than during the Victorian era. Our tour ended with a walk up to see some still fashionable (and very expensive) residential areas.
The Circus, dating from the 1770's, neoclassical architecture.
The Royal Crescent, a Grade 1 site meaning that any change to the structure has to be approved before it can be attempted. Beautiful but like living in a museum. And maybe that is what the city of Bath is-a lovely but static image of a bygone era.
