Stonehenge and Bath (not in Southern speak!)

What an incredible day!  We began by meeting at Seething Wells (where the students live) and then left for a 2hr bus ride to Wiltshire, UK to see Stonehenge.  It is quite amazing as you ride through the beautiful fields of England and then suddenly in the distance, just sitting alone in a field that stretches as far as the eye can see, are these rock constructions standing upright.  There is no advance notice or fanfare.  They just appear.  It was, however, pretty crowded as it is the tourist season here and it was an unusually pretty day; pretty windy but sunny!  The wind really whips across those fields.  People just walk around and don't really bother the local livestock grazing in the fields nearby.  Researchers believe that Stonehenge is a prehistoric site constructed in 3100 BC but in 3 phases with 30 million hours of labor.  They are not really sure why this was constructed but believe it was for human sacrifice or astrology.

After a little over an hour, we left Stonehenge and headed to Bath (no Southern accent, please!). This is a beautiful town with rolling hills and amazing architecture along with the ancient Roman Baths!  Most of the city's architecture was built in the Georgian style and many famous people have lived and vacationed here.  Probably the most famous is Jane Austin.  Two of her novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were both set in Bath.  We toured the city and the Roman Baths.  The Baths are actually below street level.  The hot springs were first discovered and a shrine was built by the Celts in 836 BC.  After the Roman invasion in 60 AD they built a temple and bath complex over the next 300 years.  You cannot go into the Roman Bath or drink the water because it is believed to now contain some deadly bacteria.  Bath, however, did dig further down into the earth at two other locations to reach cleaner water that is now used at a spa a few blocks away.

After spending a few hours in Bath, we headed back to Kingston.  It took about 3 hours with some traffic. Cath Morris, our liaison here at Kingston, gave me and another prof a ride back to Middle Mill around 8:00 pm.  Thankfully my housemate knew I would be coming in late and she had a nice dinner prepared!  I'm cooking tonight!

Today was a class day and afterward I walked into Kingston with several of our students.  We had a nice lunch and then went to the outdoor market.  (These students can eat!!)  After a huge lunch, they still were hungry so they had crepes with Nutella (remember Jen?).  I resisted!!!

So now I'm back at the room catching up on emails and blogging.  I'll be going to Stratford and the Cotswolds tomorrow which will be another long but amazing day!

The first set of pics are of Stonehenge. We are sending in the pic of us holding the Charlotte Observer to the paper to see if they will publish it!

These pics are of the Town of Bath (with street musicians) and then the Roman Baths