Stonehenge and Bath

Today I took an organised day tour to Stonehenge and Bath with Anderson tours.

An early start getting to London Bridge station for my pickup, then a bit of a tour around London picking people up from different locations across the city. People who work with tourists all day and maintain love are saints, I found the others mostly quite annoying! It was super awesome seeing both these attractions, getting out of London and seeing more of the UK, definitely recommend! Here's some mildly interesting stuff.

We drove by Buckingham Palace, and our tour manager Ross explained why the barbed bit of the fence came about. In 1987? some German tourists were getting pissed, and planned to camp in Hyde Park. They thought the wall was Hyde Park, clambered over the wall and camped out in the Queens garden. They were only discovered after they stumbled upon the queens guard while trying to find an exit! I was quite surprised it took until 1987 to put a top to the wall - innocent times, geez! I wonder if it's more to keep the Queen in and that story is just a have.

Drive-by barbed fence.

Driving on, we arrived at Stonehenge around 11.

A pretty dry-balls audio tour was free to play, as you wandered around the stones. If there was no audio tour you'd be done in like 5 minutes - it's a neat pile of rocks, don't get me wrong! And makes one think about the origins of our civilisation and all that. But yea, still a pile o' rocks. The audio tour even attempted to make the lichen growing on the rocks interesting (there're 19 types!)

This guy was in tune with the spirituality of the place

As the tour guide said, when the Romans discovered stonehenge, they called it ancient too. Goes so far back, these lost civilisations - pays not to think about ours and what our legacy would be. Radiation and a floating garbage island I guess. Here're some more pics.

Good huh! Can't even see any tourists!

All around the site are these mounds, and they're mass graves - heaps of ancient corpses buried around the place.

Was pretty jealous of these bikers touring the UK!

Then we were off to Bath! Beautiful wee town, it is picture-book perfect. There was even a pug there but I missed the photo of him.

Bad timer photo? Awesome? You decide.

Bath Abbey

During the war, in retaliation for the allies bombing something pretty in Germany, the Germans bombed Bath, cause it was pretty too.

I think this was 'Gay Lane'. Tehe.

Just some of the newer buildings in Bath. I like how they've kept it all on theme, the one in the bottom left is KFC not that you can tell!

The worst bit about tours. Our guy used a hand puppet fox instead of an umbrella. Could you feel more like a child than being head counted in a tour?

Once the guide got us in the Roman Baths, we were free to roam about for 2 hours. The roman baths were pretty interesting, but I did enjoy wandering around the town more I think!

The main baths

The run-off from the baths. You can see the buildup of minerals - quite amazing to think this plumbing has been working for thousands of years! Back home I have to unblock mine every two!

Apparently the baths became popular for the English after Mary something went and drunk some to increase her fertility, then got pregnant.

I thought a man getting pregnant sounded like a pretty good premise for a movie, so it'd be even better as a reality show. So I had a crack.

Metalic and disgusting.

This was pretty amusing. Our coach was behind this bus, and the bus scraped across a 'traffic camera sign'. And kept scraping. Then the back window smashed and the sign popped off the post. The bus sat there for a minute, then he just kept going, broken glass everywhere with passengers in the back and everything! I guess, people got places to be. Can't really see the broken window but there it is.

So yea, Bath was pretty sweet. I even snuck a wee beer in in the sun. Lovely little town, I could easily see a long weekend spent in Bath.

Traffic back to London was insane, three separate accidents! Fortunately I had Judge John Hodgeman podcasts to entertain me.

The tour was great, you learn a lot and see things you mightn't've. But you also have to wait for morons and lose so much control - it's a mixed bag. I think I'll do some more though, takes some of the planning off my plate so that's great.

Yesterday I went with my flatmate and his two Bristol friends to a local bar, and his Bristol friends offered a couch to me if I ever want to visit Bristol! Neat! So I think I'll do that too some time, take a train out there for the weekend or something.