Stonehenge and Bath

This post is quite a bit late; for that, I apologize.  And it's also been some time since I posted, but there is at least a reason for that: during the break, C and I took a week-long tour through Scotland.  I have too many stories from that, but for now something I've meant to do for weeks.  I know I've mentioned the Study Abroad trip to Stonehenge and Bath in previous posts, but have not given a full update on it.  It was an incredibly long day though; we left campus at about 8:30am, and didn't get back until about 7:30 that evening.

Stonehenge was quite impressive.  In the past, I'd always had the feeling that going to see it, the place would be either really awesome, or just a bunch of rocks, depending upon your mood when visiting.  I was wrong.  There is no way to not be in awe of it. See:

(Okay, it looks bigger in real life; those things are at least three times my height) Most of us took the full hour and a bit that the teachers gave us wandering around.  Of course, you can't go into Stonehenge itself, as it's roped off to tourists (erosion, damage, all that other good stuff that tourists bring :P), but we could get very close at times.  On the solstices, they let pagans in to hold their ceremonies though.  A fact that I find, to be honest, very ironic.  The whole idea is that it was a sacred site for the pagans way back in the day, when interestingly enough, Stonehenge dates waaay further back than the Druids.  As in by at least a few thousand years.  Of course, I also find the idea of modern-day Druids who claim to follow the old pagan beliefs as kind of ironic, as we really have no idea what the Druids really believed or practiced, only some guesswork.  But that's another story for another day, if I even decide to put together a post on that.  It'd be a bit of work, so at least not for a while, so please don't hold your breath :P

I do wish they'd had more about Woodhenge though.  If you're not familiar with that, it's a more recent discovery of... well, essentially the same thing as Stonehenge but made out of wood.  And it aligns with Stonehenge as well, so was probably also used for ceremonial purposes or solar calculations or whatever they were for.  But all in all - definitely worth the trip out there to see it.

Bath on the other hand... interesting enough, but not really that thrilling.  The Roman Baths were pretty interesting, but to be honest, after the walking tour which was long and mostly uphill, I was tired, achy, and rather cranky so was ready to go home.  Walking around the pool itself, I almost wanted to jump in, knowing that it was hot water that was supposed to have healing properties.  The museum seemed longer than it needed to be; I'm okay with seeing the main artifacts, but I really didn't feel the need to see every single bust or part of a statue that ever might have been in the Baths.  When you come out, they also have an area where you can drink (a treated and sanitary version of) the waters.  I didn't though, just because some others had before me and said it just tasted like bad-tasting hot water. 
I also find it quite ironic that the city of Bath is very proud of the fact that Jane Austen once lived there - and hated it.  Not a lot of places, at least that I know of, are proud to have been hated by a famous person.  But as probably the only female on the planet who cannot stand Jane Austen, I didn't pay too much attention to that side of things.

And just for the sake of photos, here's me at the side of the pool.  I really wanted to take a dip :P

And yes, there is a clothing disparity between these two pictures.  Keep in mind, that pool was full on steaming, so the area was quite warm.  Stonehenge was on an open plain, foggy, with a very biting wind blowing, so it was freezing out there.