Stonehenge & Bath

me and an ol' buddy of mine
see all photos »

Announcement: Sorry I haven't been able to stay updated with writing my blog entries because I got very sick for the past 2 weeks, but I'm all better now. So, I'm going to pump these blogs out like clockwork, be ready.

Today was a day of extensive traveling, Stonehenge is a mystery to some, very confusing to many, and everyone else really doesn't care. I'm one of those people that care, kind of. This was the second time that I got to visit Stonehenge, the other time was when I was in 5th grade or something, so that was around 8 or 9 years ago. While I was visiting England's most historic site, I learned that if you come around 8 A.M. before the attraction opens, you're allowed to come close to and walk through Stonehenge! It's pretty cool if you think about it, but you can only go in groups of 20 people or less, and we had way too many students. So, that option was ruled out.

I forgot my swimsuit
see all photos »

To give you all a little history on Stonehenge, it was built over a span of 3,000 years, and it's more than just the large stones standing. There are twice as many stones implanted in the ground. It is by far the oldest structure in the British Isles. It was originally thought to be a Druid pagan shrine or place of worship. Many experts think that it was used for astronomical purposes, but now it really isn't clear what the purpose of Stonehenge was.

After Stonehenge, I took a trip to Lacock to have lunch, it's a very old town where apparently parts of Harry Potter was filmed, so that was pretty cool.

Stonehenge in full
see all photos »

Following Lacock, I spent the afternoon in Bath visiting the Roman Baths (or Thermae) and the William Herschel museum. I went to the Roman Baths before, around the same time I went to Stonehenge the first time. The Roman Baths were built on a hot spring, which were used as a public site for anyone's use, whether you were rich or poor. The Baths were very important to the Romans because it was a place where people could gather together and socialize.

After the Baths, I visited the William Herschel Museum, which is also located in Bath. William Herschel was significant because he was a musician and an astronomer, who was the first person to discover the planet Uranus. My trip to the museum wasn't voluntary mostly because I was sick at the time, but it was part of my History of Science course for Dickinson.

Coming soon: Oxford, Kew Gardens, Greenwich, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Birmingham (stay tuned).