Stonehenge and Bath

The OSAP program went on its 2nd of 4 trips this past weekend [*now many weekends ago*], this one to Stonehenge and the city of Bath. I thought the trip was very nice, but a lot of people thought the sheep garzing in a nearby field were the highlight of the day.

I suppose old rocks don't do it for everyone.




Stonehenge was very VERY cold. So cold that I got halfway through the first audioguide speech before calling it quits and returning my hands to their pockets. I honestly don't understand why so many students were disappointed, since that implies they had some sort of expectations that were not fulfilled. It was exactly what I expected. They're rocks; they're not going to put on a show for us. I think the true grandeur of the site is crippled by the fact that it is such a prominent tourist site. Just imagine if you came upon those rocks at random while taking a stroll through a field... pretty awe-inspiring. I mean, I was impressed enough by pillars of rocks someone had taken the trouble to stack in a creek at Old Elicott City, MD (=a lovely place. I highly recommend it if you're ever in the area). Anywho, we were only at the Henge for a little while, enough time to make a slow lap around the circle and peruse the gift shop.







Then we made the arduous treck (and by 'arduous treck' I mean a snoozey ride in a double-decker bus) to see the Roman Baths at Bath. Needless to say, they were pretty cool. I somewhat felt that the site was not particularly explanatory, for example about which baths served which function, but admittedly I did once again ignored the audioguide, which may have been more enlightening. There were several half-excavated areas on display, which made me nostalgic for my Rome days. The pictures I took would've been very helpful a few months ago when I wrote about these baths for Carol NdeV, but such is life. Like a good tourist, I bought a bottle of the bath water, which I shall of course keep for posterity.


The actual city of Bath was quite impressive. Some of the people on the trip even went so far as to say that it looked nicer than Oxford... I don't know if I'd quite agree with that, but its bigger city feel was a nice change. As night set on at its early winter hour, we walked the streets and came upon Bath's famous Roman bridge and some adorable tea and leather shops before the sleepy bus ride home.