Bath and Beyond

If you have never been to Stonehenge and you’ve built it up to be some mystical place, you will, I’m sorry to say, most likely be a bit disappointed.

Having said that – I was not expecting some mystical place - I had been forewarned. So though I wasn’t expecting anything magical – I was still surprised that my reaction was one of indifference – as I left the Stonehenge enclosure – they have it fenced off so that they can charge admission – with the feeling of “Meh, I guess I can check that off my list of things to do/see in my lifetime list.” That’s basically what it felt like – a box on my life list being checked off.

I had signed up for a mini-coach tour that was to take me to Stonehenge, Avebury, Lacock and yet another quaint English Village in the area before taking me (and the 14 other passengers) back to Bath. I have mixed feelings about having done the tour – on the one hand I am glad I wasn’t doing the driving, on the other hand, it went to two places I didn’t really care to see and it didn’t go to one place I really wanted to see.

The problem is, there was no one tour that went to the three places I wanted to go – Stonehenge, Avebury & Old Sacrum – so short of hiring a car and touring all three myself I had to compromise – which is something that happens fairly often in travelling – Compromise and Settling.

Not that either compromise or settling is a bad thing, per se, it is just something you have to accept – without unlimited time and unlimited budget you can’t see everything. People who are unwilling to compromise, I think, would be unhappy travelers.

So I was happy, in the end, with my compromise – I saw two of the three places I wanted to see and with no effort on my part to see them. And though the day was grey, it never actually rained, so it was still nice.

After my late arrival on the 5th, due to flight delays, I managed to easily find my B&B and then quickly reorganize a little and head out to do one of the two walking tours I downloaded from the Visit Britain website. Since the Stonehenge tour returned to Bath around 1630hrs, I had time to do the other walking tour yesterday. Which left me with a good idea of the general layout of Bath and almost the entire day today to explore it. I also discovered on my first day in Bath the fact that virtually all of Bath (save the pubs and restaurants) close up shop by 1700hrs. So I had yet to venture inside any buildings (including the Tourist Information Office), so I chose to climb the Bath Abbey Clock Tower and explore the Roman Baths.

The clock tower tour involves climbing about 212 steps – roughly 120 taking you to the room where the bell ringers do their thing (and the mechanical instruments to ring the bells two other ways reside) – plus this level is where the clock face is – having been moved down from higher up on the clock to make it easier to read and for safety reasons(making the tower less top-heavy). Another 60 or so steps and we arrived in the room where the bells are hung (there are ten of them) – conveniently, we were there at half past the hour so we got to see the bells in action (and hear them – ouch). After the final 30 or so steps and we were rewarded with vistas of Bath and the surrounding seven hills.

The Roman Baths were interesting. As with Stonehenge, upon paying my fee I was presented with an audio guide – into which you type specified numbers and out of which sound pours forth imparting various bits of information on what you are looking at. After wandering around, listening, and taking pictures for 90 minutes it was around 1530hrs and I still had the rest of the afternoon to kill as I had checked out of my B&B and was waiting for the 1830 train to Cardiff.

It was as late as 1530 because I had spent (wasted) the morning attempting to use the B&B WiFi and going on a free guided city tour – which I thought might be different than the ones I had downloaded, but by about 40minutes into it, after getting rained on and wishing I was wearing warmer clothes and finding that he wasn’t sharing much more than I had already heard, I was wishing I hadn’t joined.

The Universe intervened about 20 minutes later in the form of what I can only imagine was a very large and well-fed bird relieving itself on my head! Forcing me to run away from the tour, mortified & annoyed in search of a bathroom where I could rinse my head under the hot tap and try not to scald my scalp in the process!

I spent the rest of the morning wandering, semi-aimlessly, running my hand through my hair checking for signs of shit awaiting my Tower tour and 1300hrs.

After the crowds wandering about the Roman Baths I felt I needed some space and decided I would return again to the Kennet & Avon Canal I had seen yesterday (during my second walking tour). So I crossed the Avon River and headed up along side the Canal. I wandered along for about two hours – stopping to watch a couple of Canal Boats navigate the locks before heading back to the B&B to collect my things and head to the train station for my trip to Cardiff.