Stonehenge & Bath

On May 7th, Matt and I took a tour to Stonehenge and Bath.  We trained/walked down to Victoria Coach Station to meet up with our tour bus.  From London, it took about 1.5 hours to get to Stonehenge.  What exactly is Stonehenge aside from an interestingly array of large stones?  Well, according to the pamphlet, "Stonehenge is a monument which evolved between 3,000 BC and 1,600 BC. It is aligned with midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset, but its exact purpose remains a mystery".  Hmm, that didn't help me much!

Here is a picture that I took of Stonehenge:

We had about an hour to visit Stonehenge and then we were whisked away back to our bus and en route to Bath.  Bath is a world heritage city which was first established as a spa resort - for the Romans back in the day.  Bath is very picturesque. Beautiful buildings, green hills, river that runs through the city etc. Here are two pics of Bath:

I found Bath very touristy.  It was filled with modern shops like HMV, Banana Republic and Marks & Spencer, as well as many patisserie's/bakeries, coffee shops and eateries.  It would have been tempting for me to shop had I actually had room in my back pack - but alas, my back pack is already heavy enough at 45 pounds and my day pack pushing about 15 pounds (or more!).

We also visited the Roman Baths.  It is a world heritage site where Romans once walked on ancient stone payments around the steaming pools.  It was interesting to see but I wasn't overly impressed with the exhibit.  I wish that more of the Roman Baths had been presevered like the remains at Pompeii.  Maybe I'm just spoiled :)  Here are some pics:

After wandering around the city of Bath for 3 hours, we headed back to London.  It was about a 2.5 hour drive back and the English countryside was beautiful to look at.  I would have looked at it more on the way to Stonehenge and Bath, but I was napping.  I haven't been sleeping all that well - combination of jet lag plus I'm a light sleeper so I can hear when people come in and out of our hostel room.  Thankfully our hostel buddies were really awesome and respectful of others... I just need to adapt :)

Once we got back to the hostel, we made ourselves something to eat and then I made a phone call home to chat with my momma! Everything on the homefront is good which makes me happy to hear.  My mom told me some stories about Ariel from when she was over on Wednesday night and wanted to play in Jane's room.  She was very naughty apparently and messed up my room - LOL, I love it! What a cute little monkey. She also wanted to jump on my bed.  I think she knows, "when the cat's away, the mouse will play".  I also had a Skype call with Deanna and Joel and I wanted to chat with Ariel, but I just couldn't stay awake any longer.  With the lack of sleep and early wake up call the next day (as we were heading to Nantwich), I had to make the decision to attempt to get some sleep...I was so overtired, that I think I slept for about 4 hours straight! Yes, that's good!