Mini Break: Day One

The English school system calendar is set up with lots and lots of "half-term holidays." That means every six weeks or so, we get a week to two weeks off (hooray!). For all my other half-term holidays, I've taken off on a trip away somewhere, usually to meet up with some other Fulbrighters. But I was feeling pretty tired and a little worn down in January, so instead of planning a big trip, I decided to stick around England for the February half-term week off. I doubted my decision at first, wondering if I should be taking advantage of every opportunity to travel Europe, but honestly, I was just too tired to deal with planning another trip. I shouldn't have doubted myself, though, and actually, I'm so glad I made the choice to stick around home this week because I was able to rest and just take a couple of fun mini breaks around England instead of one long trip.

After spending the first weekend of the holiday in York, I was struck down suddenly by a nasty stomach bug that kept me in bed for two days. Thankfully, I felt mostly better by Wednesday, which was the day my second mini break of half-term began. I signed up for a two-day, one-night tour with Rabbies of London. The tour would take us through Avebury, the Cotswolds, Bath and Oxford. I had a slight problem finding the tour group Wednesday morning, mostly because my body was still so fatigued from the flu that I could barely function normally. I was running and fever sweating all over the Victoria station area, from the tube station to the bus station and back again, trying to find the minibus pickup point and having no luck. Close to tears and more than a little frazzled (and also seriously doubting if I was even well enough to take this trip), I phoned up the company in a panic. The ladies on the end of the line were so nice; they assured me the group would not leave without me and stayed on the phone with me while I walked to the proper pick up location. Crisis one, solved. When I finally climbed aboard the 16-seat minibus, I was surprised to see only two other guests and the tour guide. "Am I the last one?" I asked, wondering if all my running around was in vain because we were clearly still waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. But nope. That was it. Me, the tour guide, and a mother-daughter pair. My first thought was that this might be one awkward trip. But I brushed aside my negativity and instead realized how cool it was that the company didn't cancel the trip on us. Plus, with only three of us, that surely meant we would have more flexibility at each stop, which to me means more shopping time! Yes!

The tour guide Kevin was wonderful. Funny and easy to talk to, I enjoyed listening to his stories and getting some of the inside scoop on the places we drove through. Our first stop was the Avebury Stone Circle. This neolithic stone circle dates back to 2800 BC, which makes it 600 years older than Stonehenge! The stones that are left are smaller in size than those at Stonehenge, but the circle is bigger. In fact, there are more than one stone circle at this site, the whole of it is much larger than Stonehenge. I really liked Avebury more than Stonehenge for one simple reason--you can walk up and touch these stones. You can even hug them. :) The stones themselves are believed to have been brought all the way from Wales, hundreds of miles away. It's more than a bit eerie to visit stone circles like this, and you find your mind running with all kinds of questions. How did they do this? Why would they go through all this trouble? How many millions of people have walked this ground before me and what have they done here? So creepy. So strange. So fascinating. I loved it.

Avebury's tourism department is...understated. Here's the little
welcome wagon in the parking lot of the stone circle. Too cute!

First I just posed in front of one of the stones.

Then I decided to touch it to see if I could go back in time like the
character in one of my favorite book series "Outlander."
I didn't go anywhere.

Then I got brave and decided to hug the stone. 

I quickly walked around the Avebury village just to see the cute houses
like this one.

This is the teacher's cottage. 

Quaint little No Parking signs. 

Then we hit the road again and drove past this big hill thing. Kevin didn't stop the bus, but he did tell us a little about it. It's called Silbury Hill, and it's a 130-foot high mount/fort that is more than 4,000 years old. It used to be fortified by a big wall all the way around it, and if the area was under attack, all the people of the villages used to run to it for protection.

This photo has a case of the Moving Bus Blurs, but you get the idea.
That's Silbury Hill.

We also drove past the Cherhill Horse, and we did stop here to get out and take a quick look. This monument of a horse was carved into the white chalk of the hillside in the late 1700s by a doctor who had an artist friend who liked to paint horses. Ok, whatever floats your boat!

It was hard to see him because it was such a grey day and the soil had
really washed down in all the rain, making the white chalk much more brown.

Our next stop was for a little walk in a small Cotswolds village called Lacock, which just happens to be where Lacock Abbey is--one of the sites where part of a Harry Potter movie was filmed. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to tour the abbey, but we had a lovely walk through the village and popped into a shop.

These little Cotswold villages are like stepping back
in time 300 years! They are amazing places! 

This is the old community barn.

I'm quickly becoming fascinated by the gorgeous old
doors I see everywhere in England.

Yep, I had to pop into this shop. But no, I didn't buy anything! Shocking!

Quintessential Cotswolds home.

Lacock Abbey, where scenes from HP were shot.

I thought she was super cute! And look--flowers! Spring!

Then it was on to Bath. I was fortunate enough to visit Bath around Christmastime with my sister, but I was also happy for a second chance to see the city as we only stopped for about three hours. Since we missed out on touring the baths last time I was in town, that was my first stop this trip. The Romans have quite a history in England, which I didn't know much about until I moved here. They built up this lovely bath house/recreation center/place of worship between 43 AD and 70 AD to remind them of life back in Rome. The natural hot springs is said to have healing powers, too. When they left England, the site eventually fell into decay but has experienced varied interested and popularity over the years. In the 1700s, Bath really gained interest among aristocracy and royals, and restorations began in full force, especially during the early 1800s.

The Roman bath

Learning from my audioguide

Excavations have uncovered amazing remains from the original Roman
baths, including this part of the front column entrance to the temple.

Here's what it would have looked like.

This is the original entrance to the baths. That door is actually where
thousands of Roman people would have walked to enter the bath.
See how worn it is? Amazing! 

The incredible Bronze head of Minerva, a goddess
worshiped at the Baths. This was one of the most amazing
things recovered from the original site.

The money display was my favorite part. All kinds of coins
from all over the world are here. These would have been
left behind by the bath's ancient visitors. Some coins
represent more than a month's wages, too!

This was a neat exhibit where you could pull on those pulleys to get a feel
for how hard it would have been to hoist up those giant stones used to
make the baths. They were SO heavy! And the Romans really did use
a pulley system like this in their building.

The bath from ground level. The green color is from the algae. But the original
Roman structure had this part covered, so the algae wouldn't have been a
problem like it is now. 

Haha, funny sign!

I actually can't remember what this is, but it was glowing all pretty and lit up really neatly.

After my tour of the baths, I decided to wander around town a little. I checked out a few shops and then headed up the hill to see the Circus and the Royal Crescent, which we also missed on our last trip to Bath. The Circus is a neat, fancy, circular Georgian housing structure built in the mid-1700s. Very posh.

The Circus

The Circus

Then just down the road is the Royal Crescent, which is also a circular row of buildings where more rich people live.

The Royal Crescent 

The other side of the Royal Crescent

Everything is fancy in this part of town. Even the phone booths are a nice
posh shade of grey, not the usually bright, loud red.

I found a few other interesting things in Bath before I had to head down to meet the group. Here's some of my favorites:

. 

The Jane Austen Centre. Austen lived in Bath for a
few years and a couple of her books are set here. The exhibit was
 closed, but the  gift shop was open. Perfect! I picked up a
great "I heard MrDarcy" bag and bumper sticker. 

Very odd shop entrance. I definitely jumped.

Same shop. Clearly these people have a good
sense of humor!

All the buildings in Bath are made from what they call Bath Stone, a local
resource. It's gorgeous and the light bounces off the stone in the
most beautiful way. 

It took us forever to get out of Bath because traffic was so bad, but I didn't mind. It gave me a chance to relax and reflect on our busy day. And from our slow moving minibus, I also caught some neat shots of the sun setting over the hills.