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Day 3 Stonehenge and Nasty Bathwater

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Today was mostly spent on a tour bus, but it was still pretty awesome. We didn't realize how much of the city we were missing riding the tube. We got a lot of ideas for more things to do. Things like Baker St and The Globe. We didn't even think about it until the tour bus was on Baker St. The bus drove through the Royal Borough of Kensington, which was rich with Victorian architecture. Such a difference from the slightly run-down section we're staying in.

The drive to Stonehenge was beautiful once we reached the countryside. Rolling hills with sections of farmland surrounded by small woods. Many of the fields we passed were bright yellow! Apparently canola is regular crop here. But instead of canola they call it "rapeseed". Again, weird.


It took us a few hours to reach Stonehenge. We were disappointed that they didn't let us into the actual circle. It's been roped off since the 70's, due to vandalism. We still got close. Not lick the stones close, but close enough. We got to walk around the stones taking some amazing selfies, and listening to an equally amazing audio tour. Even though we learned a lot about Stonehenge, we were still left with the simple question: "but whhhyyy?" We're pretty sure everyone there was listening to this song in their head: 


You might see in theses selfies that Kaylea has tissue in her ears. It was actually so cold that she felt like her ears could start bleeding at any minute. Aaron was also pretending that his audio tour device was a phone.


Next was the Roman bathhouse of Bath. Bath was surrounded by the villages Box and Bunny. We had actually bought the budget tour that lacked entrance to the bath house, knowing we'd save roughly $10 each by purchasing entrance directly from the ticket booth. Woot. The site was astounding! You could actually walk over the same floor the Romans did over 2,000 years ago. You could see the bubbles rising from the hot spring into the bath. You could also see the columns of tiles that original floors were build upon to allow heat to spread under the floors. Unfortunately, guests were not allowed to touch the water. Evidently, the Romans' lifespans were too short to feel the effects of lead poisoning from the lead pipes pumping the hot water into the multiple baths. But we were able to taste water directly from the spring. For the record, it was warm and tasted like iron. 


We had about 30 minutes after the bathhouse which was just enough time to go inside the Abby next door. European churches are always amazing. It's always cool to be in a building that's older than the country you live in. Granted, it's Europe. Everything is older than the country we live in. I'm sure the allure on antiquity will wear off soon, but for now it's in full force. Aaron spent a good amount of time trying to take photo-spheres. He looked a bit ridiculous spinning in a circle, his phone pressed to his nose, taking pictures in the middle of a church. Totally worth it!


From there, a long, sleepy bus ride back to Kings Cross. Finished out the day with some fantastic chicken tikka masala, and a bit of blogging. We're gonna take some time to figure out our plan for the next few days. 

You stay classy, America.
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