Stonehenge and The Roman Baths
Trip Start
Jul 04, 2006
1
58
63
Trip End
Jan 16, 2007
Bath,
United Kingdom
Friday, December 29, 2006
After the visit to my Aunt Iris yesterday, we booked into a hotel in Southampton for the night and enjoyed a relaxing and deep sleep after the excitement and travel of the past few days.
We are up and out of the hotel early as we are going to visit Stonehenge, which doesn't take us very long heading approx north from Southampton, and we are there in about an hour. It is quite an amazing sight, as one minute you are driving along the road past open countryside, and the next, just over the horizon you can see the stones standing tall and proud in a field. I wonder if there are many car accidents in this area, because you really do not expect to see it when you do.
Certainly the best known of all megalithic sites, Stonehenge stands in isolation on the Salisbury plain between the busy A303 and A344 roads
01 Brian & Gail at Stonehenge
. They say at first sight this unique and enigmatic site appears smaller than imagined (I personally did not think this), but the tallest upright stone is 6.7 meters (22 feet) high, with a further 2.4 meters (8 feet) concealed below the ground. When constructed about 2100BC there were originally two complete circles of stones, with a semi-circle in the centre. There were also four corner stones erected known as Station Stones placed around the outside, one huge stone known as the Heel Stone, and one stone that is lying flat which is known as the Slaughter Stone. We got some great photos which will give you a sense of what we saw, but to walk around them gives you a great sense of history and they truly are amazing. There are many myths about the stones which try to explain why they are here. The best are that in 1135AD, Geoffrey of Monmouth claimed that they were brought by a tribe of giants from Africa to Ireland, and from there they were flown by the wizard Merlin across the sea. Another legend claims that the stones were stolen from an Irish woman by the Devil, and re-erected on Salisbury plains by Merlin for Ambrosis Aurelianus, the then King of Britons. One thing that we were told which really amazed me was that years ago, and I'm not sure how many, that people used to bring along small chisels, and come to Stonehenge and chisel off a piece of one of the stones for a souvenir, and you can still see the marks in the stones where this happened
02 Close up of Stonehenge #1
. They are now being looked after by the National Trust, so they will be around for many more years to come for everyone to enjoy. After Stonehenge we drove to Salisbury where we planned to stay the night. Brian wanted to look at the remains of an old castle, while I booked our accommodation and had a look around the city. After we met up again we went for a walk through the medieval part of Salisbury and also went for a tour of the Salisbury Cathedral. Then back to our B&B which had the most amazing bath which both Brian and I individually soaked in (pure bliss).
Today we are driving to the city of Bath, and again it is not a very long drive in the car so we arrive nice and early. The weather, which has been kind to us so far during our time in the UK, looks very dark and threatening; however the rain has held off for most of the morning. After parking the car, we go and locate the Roman baths which gave the city of Bath its name. The Roman bathing establishment, with its magnificent Temple and baths flourished in Aquae Sulis (this is the Roman name for bath) between the 1st and 5th centuries A.D. It was built around the natural hot spring which rises out of the ground at 46 degrees Celsius. Many objects were thrown into the baths as offerings to the goddess, and more than 12,000 coins have been found with some dating back to 100AD
03 Close up of Stonehenge #2
. They have also found curses that were written on lead sheet, and then folded and thrown into the water where worshippers believed the spirit or goddess dwelt, who would then make the curse a reality. The history of the baths is incredible and still they have not finished excavating it. We spent a lovely few hours exploring and listening to the commentary on the audio headphones, and I find it hard to remember everything as there is so much information in seems to go in one ear and out the other. However I was impressed that something built so long ago with as much history as this can still be standing today. Not all of it is original, but a lot of it is, and it makes you wonder if the buildings we build today will still be here for future generations to explore. When we came out from the baths the weather had changed and had gotten a bit nasty. It was windy and showery, so we went to the information centre and booked some accommodation for the night. After settling in and having a quick shower, it was back into the city for dinner, then home for a night in front of the TV for me with a movie to enjoy, while Brian had a soak in the bath (in Bath)! Does that mean he had two baths? Hmmm, I wonder.
