The last weekend of February took this traveler to south western England and the lovely town of Bath. This trip was a refreshing contrast to Ireland in the fact that I would be traveling with the school on a coach. I did not have to worry about transportation in the slightest. I welcomed the stress reliever, and I promised to count this weekend as a relaxing get away to one of England's more famous cities.
After a long coach ride, my friends and I visited the historic Roman Baths. The site was a tourist hotspot and we filed in among the hundreds of other travelers to see a glimpse of culture in Roman-occupied England. Our audio guides filled our minds with information, and slowly we allowed ourselves to imagine the environment of the baths thousands of years ago! We concluded the tour by tasting the bath water, needless to say it was less then appetizing. In fact, we found it rather tasted like the American pennies that we had just a few minutes earlier tossed into the bottom of the bath pool.
After the Roman Baths, we made our way to the Jane Austin Center! Austen visited Bath often as a young woman and even spent several years living in the city; furthermore, two of her novels are set in Bath. All of the tour guides were dressed in Austen-era clothing and there was a section of the museum dedicated to dressing up in your own dress and bonnet! It was a fun pilgrimage to make as an English major and Austen lover. I left with a few cards depicting Mr and Mrs. Darcy, and I felt quite content.
The next day we hopped back on the coach to make a short drive to Wells Cathedral and Glastonbury Abbey. Our first stop was at Wells Cathedral. The building was beautiful, but the highlight of the trip had to be Louis, the cathedral cat. We saw him as we first entered the building. This fat ginger cat sauntered through the glorious building as if he owned the place, judging by his size we figured the Abbey fed him as though he did. We walked out of the cathedral to see a fresh farmers market in full swing. I bought a bag of fried donuts that tasted almost like the Kansas State Fair. I was in heaven.
The next part of the day was my favorite. Glastonbury Abbey was beautiful. Now just ruins, this remarkable landmark reveals glimpses of the splendor that was once one of the finest monasteries of its time. While beautiful, the Abbey is also home to several legends - the famous King Arthur is to supposedly have been buried at the Abbey. Unfortunately following the dissolution and King Henry VIII's creation of the Anglican Church the Abbey was largely destroyed. On the day we visited the flowers were just beginning to bloom around the ruined monastery. We danced through the open fields and ruined walls. As we snapped pictures and admired the blossoming blooms, snow began to tumble from the heavens. It was gloriously beautiful. Once we were fully chilled to the bone we made our way into the town for lunch. Glastonbury is the Lawrence, KS of England. It was hippie central. About a third of the restaurants we encountered were entirely vegetarian, and all of the bookstores were full of pages documenting how to live greener, become a yogi, and cook vegan cupcakes. I was in total bliss.
That afternoon we took a final stop at Avebury, a rock formation that is supposedly older than stonehenge. Unfortunately, Avebury did claim the kind of awe that stonehenge would, but we made the best of the stop and took ornery pictures next to the ancient rock formations. (I may have even tasted one...)
That night we cooked our own meal at the hostel, and then spent the evening listening to one another share our "life-stories." It was a relaxing and much needed evening. Sunday morning we loaded onto the coach once again to see one of the most famous sites in the world - Stonehenge. The trip was worth it, even in the bitter cold. The mystery surrounding its origins and the sheer size of the rock formation was captivating. I spent thirty minutes walking about the site, despite the freezing temperatures. It was an impressive conclusion to a weekend of beautiful ruins.
