Bath and Stonehenge

Well it has been a while since we last went somewhere so we thought we'd pop down south to the place the Romans built back when New Zealand was just a wee baby - Bath. Now this town was named after the main attraction which is of course the Roman Baths. We are not too sure about all the history and how the Romans got there but to cut it short, there is some really nice hot springs in Bath and the Romans found out about it and built a fortress around the place where they all hung out in steam rooms eating grapes and the like. We went to visit Bath for a couple of days to take in the local sites. There is heaps of things to do in the area, including various ancient stone arrangements like Stonehenge and the Avebury circles as well as strange chalk horses and other eerie things like crop circles. This area is really one for the sci-fi fans, all your weirdos and hippies regularly gather around these parts, us included.

We were pretty tight on the old time off so we decided on a guided tour of the area which is known as the Cotswalds. The Cotswalds is a collection of quaint English villages with thatched roof cottages, cobblestone streets, castles, moats, old footbridges, japanese tourists etc. It is the best of Britain according to the locals and is kind of like travelling back in time when you are there. As you can imagine, anyone who is well to do and has loads of cash owns some property down there and there is always film crews making period films in the area.

The Roman Baths were first on our list. A long time ago the Romans discovered this great jacuzzi coming forth from the ground and wasted no time in building stone temples, steam rooms, pools, spas and of course a sacrificial alter (all the rage back then) around these ancient hot water springs. People used to come from miles around to bath in the natural healing waters and to have a quiet word with the mystical water gods that ran the place. The actual spring itself was feared by many and it had its own area where no one dared to go look, let alone dip their open toe sandles into. It is even quite scary today seeing this strange bottomless pool of steaming bubbling water, I dont blame them.

The Romans were a pretty skilled bunch and the place had some excellently engineered under floor heating systems, drains, water pipes and a nice gift shop (although I think the gift shop came much later, like perhaps only 50 years ago).

Next on our list was a van tour out of Bath to various sites like Stone Henge and ancient crooked old pubs. One thing these old places have in common is their tendancy to have no straight walls and a very low roof. That was no problem for Becs but I had to constantly watch out for low hanging ceilings and door ways. A few of their warm ales for lunch though and all the walls come right again. One of the pubs we went to started selling beer in the 1300s. That date makes no sense to us Kiwis but it wasnt the only strange thing we came across. No 13th century pub is complete without a dog powered fireplace... no they didnt use dogs as fuel, they were used to turn the roast pigs via a running wheel hooked up next to the fire. Cutting edge technology back then this was. The dogs were specially bred in pairs so they could take shifts. Each dog knew precisely when their shift was up and knew precisely where the other dog was hiding so they could point him out to the owner when it was their turn to rest.

Stone Henge was fairly eerie as it is so old, no one really knows who made it or why. That leaves room for unlimited speculation and mystery. There are many people who hold regular ceremonies and other weirdo related activities around Stone Henge but without any real knowledge about the place they just seem silly. Its mysterious nature is one of the reasons why it is so popular and it really does amaze you to look at how difficult it must have been to construct all those years ago. The stones are the size of cars and larger and I cant imagine it was constructed during an afternoon picnic, especially since some of the stones aparently come from a few hundred miles away.

Our tour took us to the prettiest village in England as voted by somebody who obviously knows about these things and also to the second prettiest village in England, who were the prettiest last year, but are just glad the place is no longer heaving with tourists every weekend. I think they must have held a meeting and decided to ugly the town up a bit in order to have some peace and quiet. There were some very nice old manors with large grounds and some pompus looking residents drinking sherry and surveying all that they owned from their 200 year old leather arm chairs. We took photos of all they owned and took off.

So the tour concluded back at Bath where we returned home again. We would definitely go back to this area. Bath itself is a great place to visit, full of young folks due to a local university and some great shops along old cobblestone streets. Very nice place indeed.