Stonehenge and a Bath, Hold the Showers

Today I ventured outside of London for the first time in a couple weeks to explore some other attractions in England, the Roman Baths and Stonehenge. After a 2.5 hour drive, accompanied by some good stories from our English tour guide, we arrived in the city of Bath. I didn't know what to expect, and luckily it was more than just a famous bathtub. In fact, the Roman baths included a huge temple and plaza in addition to the bathing and steaming rooms, and was a place to do business, hang out, and get clean. Most of the area is now just ruins, but parts have been well preserved. The water in the great bath is now a sickly green color (along the lines of Lake Merced, so I probably could have swum in it) but there is a faucet at the end that let's you taste the healing powers of the water. It was fortunately clear, warm and tasted mineraly, but was actually pretty good.

Then it was on to Stonehenge. On the ride over, our guide informed us on much of the major history of Stonehenge; he explained the formation, possible theories of who built it and why (I think it was Merlin and his wizardry!), and got very sidetracked with scandals within the royal family and British stereotypes. Stonehenge was pretty cool to see in person: slightly bigger than I expected and in a vast open field of rolling hills, that could have fit into the Northern California landscape. The new visitors center (which I had read about a couple weeks ago in an architecture magazine) was also fun to explore, though only for about 10 minutes, as I was 15 minutes late to the bus and the last one on (typical). 

The weather was very indecisive today, but we managed to always be inside during the downpours, and it was beautiful and sunny whenever we were exploring outside. Saw the bath, missed the showers, get it?