Stonehenge, Salisbury and Bath!

Over the weekend of July 2nd (Saturday) and July 3rd (Sunday), our IES group took a little family trip to Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Bath. A weekend away from the city life of London did me wonders! It was such a fun trip! We had a really pessimistic and broody tour guide, which made it even better, because he was sarcastic and hilarious the entire time, and let us sleep on the bus in between cities. :) 

To start, we had the most wacking beautiful weather you could ever ask for, and we got to Stonehenge before the crazy mobs of tourists started arriving. (to answer all the silent questions of hypocrisy, no, we are not tourists any longer due to the amount of time we've spent here!) Stonehenge is basically in the middle of nowhere, set up on a hill, and the basic understanding is that there is no understanding. No one knows where the stones came from, how they got there, their original or modified purpose, nichts! However, we do know there was originally a LOT more of them, and that they have notches on the top that allowed the top stones to kind of 'click in,' which is even more strange because we don't have any remaining tools to prove how they etched out the shapes. It's an enigma.. but the Druids seem to think they've got all the answers....

Not to mention there were ADORABLE SHEEP evvverryywhere! baaah! Loved it!

Visitors were once able to go up and physically touch and interact with the structure, but too much damage was being done to the stone, so this is as close as we get now...Except for the Druids.. they get full access one day a week to perform their rituals. 

See through shot!

Such good sunshine. Played different shadows on the stones at all different angles! 

The birds at the Stonehenge cafe were brutal! They wanted my "rock cake" really badly...(a rock cake is a terribly dry scone with sugar on top, made to look like a rock)

After Stonehenge we went to the old city of Salisbury, and visited the beautifully old Salisbury Cathedral there, built in the 12th century I believe.. The first couple of pictures are from the first church we visited in Salisbury, St. Thomas Becket. The two pictures below display what would happen to 'bad' and 'good' people after death. Because illiteracy was so bad in the earlier centuries, all people had to learn from were images and spoken word in church. These pictures taught morality  to the parish about how to  live a 'good' Christian life. 

What happens to bad people!

What happens to good people!

And then the Salisbury Cathedral below!

Entrance: the sun was so beautiful! 

The pathway surrounding the inner courtyard. 

Awesome gals! In order from left to right: Elyse, Anna, Jory, and me!

And then we headed over to the quaint city of Bath, one of the most laid back, nicest, and most beautiful cities ever!

Parks, stone building, cathedrals, cute shops, awesome hostels, it doesn't get much better! 

A secret garden, with fantastic climbing trees, so beautiful...

And Bath wouldn't be Bath without the real bath, the ROMAN BATHS! This place seriously blew my mind! It was amazing! There is still the original shape of the baths that once stood hundreds and hundreds of years ago, and the hot spring is still hot! 

This is the main hot water bath, which would have been covered by a huge stone arched ceiling, but over time crumbled, and the sun has therefore caused algae to grow in the water, BUT the bottom of the bath is still lined with the ORIGINAL lead lining!! How nuts is that!

Original carved stone from the awning of one of the entrances. 

Original steps to the entrance of the Baths...

Hot springs waterfall! The romans had an intricately designed canal system even way back then to transport water throughout the entire complex, and it was still in tact and shifting water around! Talk about quality...

Interior closer. I was actually sitting on the steps into the Bath!

Interior Bath, with a sparkling display of coins thrown in!

The last, and most fun part of our entire trip was Saturday night, where we got to have a three course French meal at this great riverside restaurant, and then afterwards we all went out to mingle with some locals at a really cheap rinky dink pub, but boy we found a gem here! 

Saracen's head was the name of the pub, and it was THE BEST TIME! 

So Bath is a hot spot for bachelor and bachelorette parties for whatever reason (termed stag date and hen parties in British culture), and on this particular night at the pub, we just happend to run into two separate stag parties! One wasn't dressed up, but the tradition is to have all party members follow a strict wardrobe guide, and the group we met were all dressed as high school, suspender wearing, glasses brokem, greasy haired nerds. Not joking, they were in full costume. 

The non-costumed group is the group we ended up conversing with the majority of the night. They were celebrating Peter (sexy Peter) getting married on July 30th! Apparently over here, they do stag parties for a minimum of three nights in a row! The night we found them, the group had already been drinking for two days straight, and were making their way through a round of beer golf.. or beer putting.. or some golf and beer related compound. Either way, it basically means you drink a LOT. This group of guys was absolutely the nicest, most hilarious guys we have met yet! 

There was Peter, the stag, Paul, who apparently had been all around the US touring because he's a theater star, some cop dude who was really informative on the topic of 'travelers' (think of the term 'getting jipped'), and this other absolutely strange man, who looked identical to Peter Pettigrew from Harry Potter (not kidding) who taught us a whole range of inappropriate British language (especially winkle pickers, which despite the name, are simply the term for the pointy toed shoes all the guys in Britain wear). They also taught us how to do 'real' kamikazi shots, even though we just watched. So you get some tequila, a lemon, and some salt... you spill a line of salt on your outer left hand, and the shot in your right. You snort the salt into you nose, chase it with the tequila, and then PUSH THE LEMON INTO YOUR NEIGHBOR'S EYE! YES. YOUR EYE! It was the most outrageous thing I had ever seen! And I got to do the countdown! 

On Sunday, a group of gals and I went to the FASHION MUSEUM, and saw some outrageously old gowns from the 16th century onward, as well as an original Mary Quant ensamble, the most revolutionary female fashion icon of the 60s onward. 

All in all, one of THE BEST weekends ever. ;) 

-xox-