A few weeks ago I went on a day trip with a bunch of Wellesley people to Windsor, Bath, and Stonehenge. Goodness am I behind on this blog, but I'm really determined to get caught up now. I really have no excuses.
We started off our day in Windsor to see Windsor Castle. I know the whole blogging thing is about putting pictures in here but the whole day was cold, wet, and rainy, so my pictures are generally not flattering or interesting. I'll share the ones that were successful though so you can see a little bit. Windsor was not the most interesting of places to be honest. It was hard to hear the tour guide but the general gist that we got was that the Queen comes to Windsor when she's not in Buckingham Palace. It was pretty big, but with the rain we just kind of walked around it until we got to an area where we could eat breakfast. The tour guide had us feed the swans at one point, which I should have known was a bad idea from the start. He told us to put the foods in our hands and put our hands down by the swans. Swans are mean and evil creatures to be certain. They nipped at our hands and their sharp little beaks scraped at our skin. I thought, "Hmmmm, I'll feed the swans to get over my fear/hatred of large water fowl!" Lies. Why I ever thought that would be a good way to stop hating swans and geese is beyond me. ANYWAY. We just wanted to get out of the rain and have some food so we got breakfast at a small little place (It doesn't seem to really fit into the category of bar, pub, restaurant, or cafe, so I'm not really sure what to call it...) after being seduced into purchasing some fudge by some bard-like fudge merchant. The fudge wasn't particularly great, but we talked to the people too long to make it awkward if we didn't buy anything.
We went to Bath next and the weather seemed to lighten up. Bath is one of my favorite places in England so far. We toured the Roman Baths which were really interesting.
View from one of the balconies
Inside the baths we had an audio guide which told me a bunch of fun facts. When we got outside into the part pictured above they had some guys dressed up in togas to "inform" people of things about the baths. I was asked by the toga'd man if I would like to go into the bath, so I said, "Sure, if it ever stops raining." He then asked if I'd wear a toga or go toga-less. Reminded of the japing at the Renaissance Festival, which I always enjoyed, I said I'd like to go toga-less to provoke the smart ass historical remarks. I'm not sure how many people this guy actually gets to go along with his jokes so he just awkwardly said, "Alright, I'll see you in there later then" and kind of scampered away. Oh how I miss the Renaissance Festival.
At the end of the tour you have the opportunity to drink the spa water, which is supposed to be extremely healthy for you and full of minerals. I drank it and it tasted like what I imagine the water that you boil eggs in tastes like. It wasn't the best flavor but it wasn't terrible. Just in case you really wanted to know.
After we finished with the Roman Baths, we wanted to go over to Jane Austen's house but we didn't have a lot of time left. =[ I guess that's a journey for another trip. In the little time we had left, I found a new bag (finally!) from a vendor just outside of the baths. Usually I wouldn't buy a bag made of leather, but I finally found a bag that I really liked that was unique, functional, and affordable. The bag was handmade in Greece as an old-fashioned satchel and it uses old-fashioned buckles. It makes it kind of a pain to get things in and out of it, but it is definitely secure and it looks nice. The security I get from the way it closes makes up for any struggles I have to open and close it. Plus I'm getting better at that with practice. I also got my very first Cornish pastry! It was super delicious with onions, mushrooms, potatoes, and cheese (if I remember correctly):
Mmmmm...pastries.
After that we waited for the bus to come and take us to Stonehenge! By the time we got to Stonehenge, the rain had picked back up and it was actually really cold. As cool as Stonehenge was, we made our way around pretty quickly so we could get back on the bus and dry out. We got pretty soaked over the course of the day.
Not the most flattering photo, but here we are! Soaked and freezing at Stonehenge.
Unfortunately, I did not discover the meaning of Stonehenge. I wish I did and I'll let you know if I have an epiphany, but in the mean time we'll all have to live with not knowing. Honestly, I really appreciate not knowing what Stonehenge was for, if anything. That was probably the best thought I had about it while I was there. It's kind of a great feeling to know that there are still things out there that we can't just Google and find the answer to. People will always debate and contemplate the meaning of Stonehenge with no concrete answers. I think that's just a really nice thing. Nobody is right or wrong, you can just use your imagination and come up with what seems reasonable to you.
We made it back to London and Queen Mary fairly uneventfully. It was a great day trip and totally worth it. The tour guide wasn't the best, but it was still fun and informative. You'll be happy to know that since this trip I've bought waterproof shoes and a warmer jacket to survive the London weather. I've also come to terms with the fact that I will never be so lucky as to see good weather when I go places in London.
Tomorrow I'll try to write a blog post on my trip to Liverpool (Oh Boy!) and then I'll hopefully catch everyone up on events from then until now. Things have been fairly eventful so I should have some good pictures to show for those things!
