Stonehenge, Bath, and Beyond

After a full day on Friday, Saturday began with an early morning bus ride across the rolling English countryside, which led me to conclude that an eight-hour bus ride accelerating and decelerating up and down hills and through turns between London and Edinburgh would be a thoroughly un-enjoyable experience. Therefore, in the event that I take a trip to Edinburgh, I will fly or take the train, but that is beside the point.

As you might expect, Stonehenge consists of a collection of rocks arranged in an intricate circle on the top of a grassy hill. Parking is available downhill from the stones, and the current visitor center is no more than one hundred yards downhill from them. After entering through the visitor center, we walked up a short paved path to the closest point to the stones, which remain approximately twenty yards away. Not surprisingly, most of the visitors to the site stop to take pictures at this point. I thought it might be a good idea to join them.

Me at Stonehenge

Once I had participated in the picture-taking melee, I continued to follow the path around the monument through the cold and wind, taking pictures and observing the stones from different angles as I went along. I joined a couple of group photos and paused to look at the stones a few times. Once I had completed the path around the stones, I exited and returned to the warm bus, where the group slowly grew larger and larger as people waited for the Archeology class to complete their studies.

I realize that the tone of this post may seem down on Stonehenge as a site, but I am certainly glad that I visited. However, although it is a very unique site, it does not necessarily warrant the amount of time that we allocated for our visit, and I believe that there are a few reasons that this is the case. The first that, simply put, Stonehenge is very much what you expect: a collection of rocks arranged in a manner that is amazing when considered within the context of the era of its construction. This means, though, that there is very little that surprises you during your visit. Really, the only unexpected things about my visit were the sheep, which everybody in our group talked about because they did not expect to see them, and the picture that a couple of my friends took with a group of Asian tourists. Also, unlike in decades past, the ropes and path prevent you from approaching the stones themselves, which means that you can only see angled glimpses of the stones and that there is no opportunity to really explore the site. Nevertheless, as I said above, I did enjoy the opportunity to see the site.

Stonehenge

When the Archeology class finally finished the guided portion of their visit, the bus departed for the city of Bath. Founded by the Romans, Bath sits atop the only natural hot spring in Great Britain. It was on this spring where the Romans built a bathhouse and temple complex that outlasted their stay in Britain and went on to serve future kings and aristocrats. In more recent centuries, the city spent a time as a major resort town among the British aristocracy, who built a number of large, stone buildings in the Georgian style. Today, these once luxurious buildings still stand and the bathhouse is the best-preserved Roman bathhouse in Northern Europe. The city itself draws visitors to both of these historical elements in addition to a lively shopping and dining district near the bathhouse.

The bus dropped us in the city, and after establishing a time to meet at the Roman Bath for our tour, a group of us set out on our own in search of lunch. We went a few blocks away from the main shopping area and stopped at a pub called The Trinity, where I had a fantastic Dinner Jacket Potato with Chili, which consisted of a baked potato covered in chili. Sufficiently refueled, we ventured up to the north end of town to see the Bath Circus and the Royal Crescent. Rather than tents and elephants, the circus consisted of a ring of three story apartment buildings surrounding a circular street with a green space in the middle. One information guide compared the appearance of the buildings to the Coliseum in Roman turned inside out. The former potential architecture student in me particularly liked the fact that the columns carved on the buildings increased in order – Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian – from ground to roof.

The Circus in Bath

Next we continued up to the Royal Crescent, a street that is Architecturally similar to the circus, but that opens up onto a green area overlooking the valley below.

The Royal Crescent in Bath

Pictured from Left to Right:

JR, Hal, Lauren, Justin, Tim, Kyla, Joel

Our free time nearly finished, we walked back into town and down to the bathhouse, where we rejoined the rest of the Notre Dame group, which entered the bath and adjoining museum together. Inside, we received handsets that allowed us to type in the numbers listed on placards throughout the complex to hear various portions of a narration about historical information. The tour took us through the remains of the larger complex, offered insights into the historical methods of engineering that used to move water throughout the building, and culminated in the opportunity to explore the main bathhouse itself, which has more than five large bathing rooms, each of which housed a swimming pool sized bath. Water still flows from the natural spring into the collecting pool and from there into the central bath, and the steam hanging in the cold air over this bath indicated that the water is, indeed, hot.

Me in the Roman Bathhouse

In the Background: Bath Abbey

A long trip home followed the completion of this tour. The trip back, though, was much easier on the stomach than the trip to Stonehenge, as this trip consisted of mostly freeway driving. Back in London, we tried out Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a favorite of Mark Twain’s, on Fleet Street for Nick Reaves’ twenty-first birthday. One of the oldest pubs in London, the last time that it needed rebuilding was in 1667 following the Great Fire; a placard outside the door lists all of the monarchs who have reigned in that time. When you first enter, it seems very dark and cramped, as you can only see dark wood paneling and the small bar area, but, after buying your drinks, there is more room in the basement, which consists of the complex old cellar of a medieval monastery. Although the ceilings, particularly on the stairwell and in the bathroom, are very low for those of us who are extremely tall, there are many nooks and crannies available for groups big and small to congregate. I look forward to exploring more of the basement and, at only two pounds for their decent quality cask ale, I can say that I will certainly be back.

Sunday and Monday were relatively quiet days, including reading, a trip to church, a short stop in the National Gallery, some time in class, and work during the evening planning travel for spring break. Tuesday, though, once again brought more excitement.

On Tuesday morning, I walked up to the British Library, which is across the street from King’s Cross Railway Station, to register for a reader pass. My fifth class this semester is an independent study on the expatriate work of F. Scoot Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, and a major component of that project will consist of research at the British Library that will inform a semester long research paper. Hopefully, the work from this semester will also support my work on an English department Honors Thesis next year during my senior year. The British Library, though, like The Library of Congress, is a copyright library, meaning that it contains a copy of every book published in Britain. Registration for a reader pass, then, requires documentation confirming your identity and a well-defined need to use the library. Fortunately, the registration office had no issue with my application and approved me for a pass, allowing me to begin doing research by the end of the week.

In the afternoon, then, I went to the London Centre for my London as Theatre Centre course, which ended early because the class was attending a show in the evening. Normally, ending early would not cause any issues. However, today I had made plans to meet Brandon Downs outside of the London Centre immediately after class. Brandon will be spending the semester studying at Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and spent today in London between flights. To make the story short, I waited around for forty-five minutes before meeting Brandon and rushing to the flats and back to the London Centre in just over an hour.

Once again at the London Centre, Brandon and I met with Michelle, Hal, Anna, and Nick Brandt. As we were standing in the lobby making plans to go to dinner, the director who went to a pub with us last week stopped to talk with us on his way out the door for the day. After a short conversation, we invited him to join us at a pub, and, at his recommendation, we went to The Red Lion off of Piccadilly Circus, near our theatre. We stopped for a drink and another fantastic conversation, but left after only forty-five minutes or so, which gave Hal and Brandon time to purchase rush tickets for the show.

After stopping for sandwiches at a nearby café, we entered The Criterion Theatre to see The 39 Steps. The theatre dates to the late nineteenth century and initially catered to the new middle class that grew significantly following the industrial revolution. Decorated in a manner resembling a French palace of that era, the interior of the theater has a very antique aesthetic, particularly due to the preservation of the original footlight fixtures on the stage and the chandeliers to light the audience, although the form are no longer in use and the later now use light bulbs instead of candles. The most remarkable aspect of the theater, though, is the fact that it sits entirely underground, as the original site included restaurants and ballrooms above for people to congregate before show. This placement underground required a system for moving fresh air in during performances and, consequently, the theater was one of the first air-conditioned buildings in London.

The 39 Steps caricatured the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name, which I had the opportunity watch at some point in the past week, and tells the story of a man fleeing from the authorities across Scotland while attempting to disprove the false accusation that he committed a murder. The production is a comedy, using only four actors to play all of the roles and, as a result, self-consciously using costume and set changes to create some of the humor. Overall, it was an entertaining show, although it was short, the audience seemed a bit restless, and, at times, the humor came across as blunt and one-dimensional.

Well, that brings you up to speed on me. If you have been following the blog and found this post at the top of the page, be sure to read the “Parliament” post below this one, if you missed it. I am glad to say that I am finally at the point of including pictures with posts; that is a trend that I hope to continue. To see full size images, just click directly on the pictures in the posts, and, for the collected album, visit the link on the right side of this page. I will write more when I have had more adventures.

Until then,

Joel