The Cotswolds

The next goal was to get to Burton-on-the-Water and a restaurant/pub called the Lamb located in the Cotswolds (they had excellent reviews on Google).

The highway numbering system is interesting in this part of England.  Suppose you are driving on highway 4 and turn off on a smaller highway.  That might be highway 42.  A smaller road that comes off of that might be called 423.  Each time you turn off onto a smaller road they add another digit to the number.  We saw a couple of interesting sites on our way to the Cotswolds.  The first was Waggon and Horses Pub which was frequented by Charles Dickens.  We also drove past Silbury Hill, the largest man-made hill in prehistoric Europe and the Cherhill white horse.

The Waggon and Horses pub was a popular spot with Charles Dickens.  It served as the inspiration for a pub in Great Expectations.

We took a wrong turn and ended up at a recycling facility.  Finally we found ourselves driving past Avebury.  Avebury has a large stone circle much larger than Stonehenge and it also is a quaint village.  It cost money to see the garden.  Laurie went in and Matt and I went out to see the stone circle.

An interesting building in Avebury.

Part of the Avebury mound

This large barn with a thatched roof is located in Avebury.

The estate gardens in Avebury.  Laurie went in to see the gardens.

Some topiary at Avebury.

The gardens at Avebury

Inside the house was pretty bare.

These are some of the Avebury stones they are arranged in a couple large circles and there is a mound arranged in a circle.

Some of the stones had been used for stone for the village.  Others were carved down into posts in the past.

The Avebury mounds and trenches.  Did they use these for defense?

Avebury was a great stop.  We saw some people playing cricket there.

Cricket game in progress at Avebury June 26, 2010

After Avebury we continued towards the Cotswolds.  We were doing fine until we got to Swindon.  I tried to follow the highway to by-pass Swindon but ended up taking a wrong turn and we ended up driving around Swindon for about an hour.  We finally went to a grocery store to look at a map.  From the map it appeared to me that we would have to go back through town to get on the right road.  

We were about to give up on the Cotswolds but I went to a gas station (noticed my car was the only one facing the opposite direction compared to the other 15 or so cars at the gas station) to ask for directions.  The attendant told me to just follow the road and keep taking the round-abouts to the right and we we be on the right road.  I started to pick up on the accent after talking to her for a bit.  We dubiously followed her directions and amazingly ended up in the Cotswolds, an area of picturesque hills and quaint villages where people had become wealthy raising sheep.  Finally got to Burton-on-the-Water around 6:30-7:00 PM & parked at a parking lot for 2 L.

Typical buildings in the Cotswolds

The world cup was going on and Laurie thought it was strange to have signs on the church.

Walked through the quaint village for a bit, then continued on to the Lamb.  I had found the reference to the Lamb by searching Google and looking at recommendations.  This was the highest rated restaurant in the Cotswolds.  There was a single lane road going to the site of the restaurant.  Laurie had fish, I had ostrich steak and Matt had chicken.  The food was very good.  This was our 18th wedding anniversary dinner June 26, 2010.

The Lamb turned out to be the best meal of our entire trip in Europe

We drove back to Bath without further incident after dark and spent our third night at the Y in Bath.

Stonehenge

Saturday June 26, 2010

The next day we had two goals.  To get to Stonhenge in the morning and the Costwolds by the afternoon.  This was to be my second day of driving.  I was glad to have had a driving free day the day before.  I was concerned that I might not be able to leave the car parked for long periods but no problems.  You just put your ticket and a credit card into a machine before you leave and it validates your parking to leave the gate within the next 10-15 minutes.

Drove out - started out in the wrong direction, turned around.  Ran into some trouble with and inclined stop, killed the engine a few times, got going again.  Drove through a number of towns.  The drivers like to drive fast on the little winding roads, with barely enough room for a car and no shoulders.  Surprisingly though, there are tour buses.

This part of England had quite a few thatched roofs which I thought were maybe very old until we got here and someone was putting on a new thatched roof.

This shows a house with a thatched roof.  You can also see a bit of the highway.

Sometimes there are cars parked on the road in your lane in the little villages.  The technique seems to be to swerve over into the oncoming traffic lane and get past them quickly and swerve back to your lane before someone comes.  If the cars are parked on your side and there is on coming traffic you must stop and wait.

Got to Stonehenge which is a remarkable site.  Built about 5000 years ago the structure took 100's of years to build.  The rocks were brought up the river.  It is unclear what the original purpose was but it does work as a 12 month calendar and precisely predicts the equinox and solstice.

Of course 5000 years ago humans would have had essentially the same intelligence as we have today and apparently had great skill in moving large blocks of stone and erecting them.  The massive stones are about 1/3 underground, 2/3 above ground.  They believe the builders dug holes 1/3 as deep as the stones and tipped the stones into them, then pushed them upright.  It is unclear how the top stones were put into position.

Notice that the stone in the center of this picture has a peg carved into it.  The top piece would have a notch carved into it to fit the peg.  The top piece to this one is now missing.

In the past some stones were carried off to be used as fences stones, and pieces were chipped off for souvenirs.  Obviously the builders belonged to an advanced society/civilization that lasted for hundreds of years.  The druids did not use Stonehenge (as some believe) and came much later.

Sightseeing in Bath

Friday June 25, 2010

The next day I got up early and went for a walk to get my bearings.  I bought a coke at a shop to get some coins.  The night before I kept seeing these maps of Bath available for 1 pound coins only.  By the way, the British coins consist of 1 pence copper, tupence large copper, 5p small silver, 10p large silver, 20p medium silver 50p even larger than 10p, 1 pound gold (brass?) and thick also called a quid, 2 pounds, larger version of the pound, paper: 5, 10 & 20 L each a bit larger rather than all bills the same size (which must help blind people I suppose).  I also discovered on my walk that we were close to the Roman Baths and the Abbey and many other of the sights of Bath.

This is the map I got showing the parking area, the YMCA and the Roman Baths

The YMCA included breakfast which I usually had as muselix, coffee and juice.

The Roman Baths are located in the town square.  Adults cost L11.50 and children were L7.50.  Usually there were a few street musicians performing in the square.  We got the audio tours at the Baths and we really liked them.  Some of the other audio tours we got on our trip were not as well done but we liked those at the Baths.  You walk around and punch in the number to hear about the exhibit.

Matt really loved learning about this ancient site.  It is the only hot springs in England.  It was a sacred site before the Romans arrived.

 The Romans enhanced the site considerably, building large steam rooms, saunas and a large pool that is still water tight today after thousands of years.

A model of the Roman Baths

A map of the baths during Roman times

This relief predated the Romans.  The Romans modified it to resemble Neptune.

Some artwork, I think Roman.  There was a pool like a wishing well where people would write curses on pieces of metal and through them in the pool.  One read something like, "may whoever stole my robes be cursed with a violent death" etc.

Some of the Roman foundation

Some of the steps had deep grooves worn in them from the many visitors to the baths.  Impressive since visitors were usually barefoot or wore sandals.

A roman aquaduct

Local actors pose as Romans for photo ops.

 Bubbles come up from the spring making it appear as if the water is boiling.

You can see the effervescent bubbles coming up from the springs.

This was part of a raised floor in a hot room in the baths, like a steam room or a sauna.  They had many different rooms some for heating up and other for cooling down.

After the bath site we walked around to a small mall and got some pastries at a deli.  I wanted to get a picnic lunch to sit outside and listen to the street musicians.  We got: 1 sausage roll, 1 onion pastry, 1 scotch egg, 1 pork pie.  This is more food than three people can eat.  We also got some juice and went and sat in the square and listened to the musicians, while the pigeons ate our crumbs.

These were some nice gardens but it cost something to go in and we didn't go in.

We next toured the Abbey which had immense ceilings, large stained glass windows and a large organ.  It was built around 1200 AD although it was on the site of a Roman temple and before the Romans it had been a holy site.

Matt in front of Bath Abbey

Cool ceilings!

These stained glass window earned the Bath Cathedral the nickname Lantern of the West.

This is a model of the cathedral.  These pictures are from the basement.

A tomb

This was a weather vane.

This was used to trigger the carillon bells in the cathedral like a giant music box.

This is the organ in the Cathedral

Next we went back to the Hotel and took a nap.  We had planned to take it easy the first few days to get used to the jet lag.  After walking around a bit more we went to an Indian restaurant recommended by Rick Steves for supper, Rajpoot Tandoori at 4 Argyle Street. http://www.rajpoot.com/ It was expensive and the wait staff tended to be a bit pushy but the food was very good.  It was served in heated trays on the table and we were all able to share each other's entrees.  This was one of our first experiences with Indian cuisine and it has since become a favorite at our house.

This is the famous Pulteney Bridge.  We had to go across this to get to the Indian Restaurant.

After dinner we took Matt back to the hotel and Laurie and I walked up the street to a bar where they were supposed to have live jazz nightly according to the Rick Steves book but there was no music this night so we didn't stay and went back to the Y and went to bed.