Stonehenge and Bath

Started out the morning with a quick bite and then we were off to Stonehenge. The drive only takes around an hour from my sisters house. As you come up to the stones you can see them directly off the motorway. The wind was blowing rather fiercely. I got in for free using my sisters card. I listened to every audio guide stop. It was so cold that by the time I got back to the gift shop, my hands were frozen. After warming up, it was back in the car to Bath.

Bath has the only hot spring in England. Back before things of that nature could be explained scientifically, it was of a godly nature. The Romans built a Bath house / Temple over the springs. During the collapse of their empire, they pulled back and this was forgotten, for 19 hundred years. The spring was used during various times since the house was lost. During the Georgian period it was a very popular spot to come. This built Bath into a really large town for visitors.

In 1981 during an archaeological dig, it was discovered that there was much more to this hot spring. They have dug up quite a bit of it now. It is really amazing and anyone to stop in England should make a point of coming to this Roman Bath. The water is green with algi, and is around 39 degrees Celsius, the pool has not been used and will not be used because of the lead pipes they used. A very interesting fact I learned was that the lead piping came from around 48 miles away from Bath. The really interesting fact is how it is tied to another extremely famous Roman City, Pompeii. The lead was taken from the same location and shipped to Italy to make up the bath house and drinking fountains there. It is interesting to see how organized the Romans were. The original Bath House was huge, and because of its hot nature it was also the site of a temple. The city of Bath was around 3 thousand residents back in Roman times, The city of Pompeii around 22 thousand, and yet the bath house in Bath is 3 times larger, it received many more visitors each and every year. They thought by visiting they could be healed. At then end of the tour they have a spot where you can drink some of the water, without the algi, a lot of minerals.

After that it was the drive back, we stopped in Staines but could not agree on which movie to see so we went for dinner at Nandos. It is a chicken restaurant, it was pretty good. Then it was back to her house for more reading and bed.

Pictures