Romping through Wiltshire

I just returned to London from the last two days of exploring the countryside of Wiltshire with George and Barbara Brown, the parents of one of my neighbors out in Clover Valley. They were really lovely people, very obviously a happy British couple who were aboslutley wonderful to stay with. Didn't wear anyone out with over-talking, nor was it too quiet in the car and at dinner.

They picked me up at Chipenham train station and from there we went to the Avebury Village area, where there is an older stone ring structure than Stonehendge. Since I am on Greg's computer and not sure how he would feel about my uploading photos, here is a link to a picture of the site from above. In the back you can see the huge man-made hill.



http://www.yankee.flyer.co.uk/scannedimages/family_jan/avebury_card3.jpg

http://documents.kennet.gov.uk/Tourism/placestovisit/town-villages/images/avebury.jpg

The second is a picture closer to the actual stones. It has a better idea of the size and scope of the things next to the village.

There is a HUGE ring of stones in alternating long tall and diamond shapes. Probably these were representing of male and female and this was basically a place for ritual. Leading to this is a long avenue of standing stones that makes a road from a nearby burial ground to this large ring. Also about a mile away is a huge man-made hill that has nothing inside, and pre-dates even these stones. No one has any idea what that is about.

We went through several little villages, got coffee in Malbrough and went to Stonehendge. Stonehendge was one of those tourist things that you expect to be smaller in real life than it's always been protrayed to you - like Big Ben, or the Statue of Liberty - but it was absolutely not. It was incredibally big, clearly sacred, and impecibally designed. All of this has been said about it, but wow, having seen it myself I have no disapointments to report. The great thing about nearly all the sites I've been to is that most of the English historical sites have taken on the same system that Alcatraz prison has: a headset tour guide. That way you go at your own pace, skip the parts you dont care about and never run the risk of a bad guide. Stonehendge, the Roman Bath and Westminster Abbey all had this, and it was a really fantastic system.

After taking my time at Stonehendge, we made our way make to Melkshre, where the Browns live. Ate dinner then watched some British television. We ended up watching BBC and for the first time, I saw footage of a city in Iraq being bombed. Insane to realize that I had never seen footage of that on US news. This morning we went through some more tiny ancient villages - saw a chruch built by the Saxons in the 11th century with a celtic cross and everything. Followed the river Avon to Bath, which was extraordinarily Victorian paush. Inside the city is the ancient Roman Bath, back from when the Romans concured England and found a natural hotspring there, which they decided to build a bath house and temple around. Here are some links to pictures.

http://www-staff.it.uts.edu.au/~jenny/photos/2006/uk2006n/slides/Roman%20Baths.JPG



http://www.farmaccommodation.co.uk/images/roman%20baths1.jpg



The first shows that the place is in fact a ruin. The second has a few of the Bath Abbey on the other side of the square, about where one of the Roman temples used to stand. The Bath was built when the Romans invaded and discovered the natural hot springs there. They built temples and the bath house for social use. The actual spring is considred a holy place, and people dropped money and hand-writen curses into the water. Some of these curses have somehow been found and preserved. Mostly they were asking the goddess to kill people who stole things from them. From that holy spring there was a very well designed system of ways for the water to move to the differnt pools in the bath house. There were even pipes under pressure to create a swirling effect in one pool. The whole place fell into disrepair when the Romans left, and the temples were destoryed. The old stairs and a few peices of the altar still remain, but that is about it. They keep discovering more and more to the baths - beyond the pictures of the main lounging area above. There were rooms like saunas and several different pools for different uses.

Later the kings, and, naturally, the nobels came to the springs when they were rediscovered for healing purposes. Drinking the water is supposed to heal you - and so I had a glass, for good measure. As well as throw ten cents into the holy spring. After seeing Bath Abbey and all of it's tombs and wall memorial-notes, I got on the train back to London. Lovely ride, listening to Joanna Newsom and drinking coffee, watching the countryside pass on by. I have learned how to effectively ride the London Tube, and made it back to Greg's easily. He is gone for the weekend, so I have his computer and bed, which is nice. I believe that after tonight, I will feel fully caught up on sleep.

It is late now, and my eyes hurt. I think I should run down to the store and buy some dinner-like food. Tomorrow I'll be back in London city to do all the things I've mapped out for myself.

I have learned that traveling alone is really quite great. I am liking having freedom to wander, and not needing to wonder if there is something we'd both like to be doing better. It's all me, and this is fantastic!