Bath and Stonehenge, UK

My most recent trip was to Stonehenge and Bath on the 1st October 2017, a day before I officially start classes for my postgraduate. This was one of the most visited places when you come to the UK for holiday. I joined this tour alone because I was pretty much new to the UK and didn't have many friends yet and school have not really started. Also, most of friends who lived in UK for a few years has already visited this place. 

I received this offer on my student email and it was organised by a student organisation who does weekend trips around UK. Sign up for it for about 42 pound which include ticket into Stonehenge. I asked around and it's pretty reasonable. Meeting point was at Euston, right in front of Ibis Hotel. We departed at about 9.30am and made our way to Stonehenge which took us about 2 hours. We arrived at 11.30pm and we were given an audio phone (not sure what is it called) to gives us information about the place. I guess its so technology oriented that you do not get a tour guide but just a recorder of all-you-need-to-know about the place. Not really sure how to feel about this. 

Anyway, I decided to join this other two girls who was also travelling on their own. When I first walked up to the bus, I noticed everyone came with a friend. I was glad there were others who travel alone as well because we ended up grouping up and travel around together. Well, I guess when you go trips like this, you'll end up making friends. 

Stonehenge

Back to Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument / landmark in Wiltshire, England. Stonehenge is an ancient temple aligned on the movement of the sun. The stones were raised 4500 year ago by sophisticated prehistoric people. There were still a lot about the stones that the researcher have not gotten information about. It's a ring of standing stones where there is a ditch (sort of) 100 m away from the stones and as the ground were really soft, tourist would only get to visit from afar. Apparently, it is said that if too many people standing on the ground there, it may destroy the area (according to the audio guide). There were the healing stones and sacrifice stones in that ring which were used by the prehistoric people back in the old old days. 

This gigantic looking stone here tied to the wood below was how the people in the old days transfer stones. Information on board state that it would take at least 100 people to move this road. Hmmm..

Sneak peak of the residential area of prehistoric people.. their little cute huts.. I was amazed by the place to see that it was so simple and they didn't need much for space unlike the houses we have now. My only question was : Would the fire be enough to keep them warm in this hut? 

So, me and two other girl decided to walk to the Stonehenge area from the tour office which took us about 20 minutes. It was indeed a long walk and a cold one too. Half way, it started drizzling and I was praying hard for it not to be heavy! An alternative was a shuttle bus which I decided not to take. I thought walking there, enjoying the scenery (gloomy day AGAIN) but it wasn't worth the cold and view. 

Basically this was my view from the start till the end when I finally reached the stonehenge area. It was also an uphill battle for me, and I finally reached, so relieved. Finally able to start my audio guide and walk around the stone henge. Not going to talk much about the history of the area. 

Wind was so strong that this was pretty much the most decent photo I have without my hair covering my place and flying around like a mad woman. But here's more photo of the different angle of the stonehenge.....

And yeap, thats Stonehenge. It may look pretty boring but if you hear the audio guide on what each stones were used for, its actually quite interesting. 

Took the shuttle bus back this time and then headed of to City of Bath. 

Bath

So, I was told by my best friend that you must visit the Roman Bath for sure. Its an interesting place to visit and I would recommend to visit in the evening when they switch on the lights. It look much prettier. I totally love the city itself, the design were really classic and consistent. It wasn't messy and it reminded me a lot of Luxembourg. The city itself were like a shopping area. The Roman Bath is within the city and it was walkable everywhere. 

I love building of this kind and you can even more beautiful structure building like this in Prague. Prague is my current favourite city as it gives you a classic feel. Being in the city doesn't make you feel like you are in the 20th century. I like how they kept these building and did not refurbish to modern looking building. I guess this shows how each city is special. That's how I see it. 

The Roman Bath

So, after strolling around the city, I decided to head to The Roman Bath and damn, the line was really long. I think this is what you get when you go there during the weekend. We waited about 40 minutes before we finally got our ticket and straight visiting the place. You'll start from the top first floor and then to the ground floor. They had arrows to direct you around the place so you would not get lost and its pretty systematic. 

They provided me with an audio guide here to guide me around the Bath. The ticket cost about 14.75 pounds for student. This was the exterior of the Roman Bath and the second floor. Pretty much just this that I saw when I there. Moving on the ground floor....

Apart from just the Bath, there is museum inside which gives you more information about the bath, where the water come from, the ditch and also informations about historic people. 

They definitely did renovate the inside and made it more accessible and friendly for tourist and they kept the water system to the Bath the way it is. Some part of the interior look pretty modern and technology savvy. They explained really detail how the water system worked and some area are quite smelly. They even allow you to test the spa water. I tried it, it was super salty. I think we weren't suppose to drink it but I wasn't sure where they gave us a cup filled with the water. 

The whole tour took me about an hour and I still had 1.5 hours left before we had to regroup. So I decided to visit the Bath Royal Crescent. 

Royal Crescent

It took me about 15 minutes to walk there. It was basically buildings build in a form of a crescent shape. There was a park right opposite the building for you to just chill and picnic there. This was the city most iconic architecture. I couldn't get the whole crescent shape photo, camera not enough pro. HAHA! 

The greens tho....got a soft spot for this. I didn't think it was worth visiting because it was pretty much normal. However, I think if i had more time, I would definitely go up a hill where you can get a whole view of Bath city. That would definitely be an amazing view. You'll get to see all the buildings and also the royal crescent shape building of course. If only, the sky wasn't this gloomy.

I was warned that it can get really gloomy in the UK. It was sunny the entire week and then the day where I was going around to travel and it goes all gloomy on meee.... whyyy... whyy...

If you are super big fan of UNESCO buildings or even love visiting historic places like this, you can find more of these amazing experiences by heading onto Tracy Travels in Time  to read more about it. :) Its so interesting how these buildings has so much history on how they came about and I do always aim to visit them if I am in a city which has them. 

Anyway, this sum of my day trip here and I thought it was pretty good. I didn't get to see a nice scenery but I definitely learn a lot of water system and historical stuff. 

"History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul"