Hey there!
Sorry this took so damn long to get up. However, here it goes...Stonehenge and Bath.

On Sunday January 3 me, Marlee, Kristin, Carrie and Jerid set off to conquer the ever famous Stonehenge and perhaps have the chance to bath..in Bath. Our trip started bright and early. Perhaps TO early for most of us, as I can honestly say I didn't see any of the trip to Stonehenge. The warmth of the bus made it pretty much impossible not to sleep. If you want to know what the country side looks like you'll have to ask Carrie!

It took about an hour and a bit to drive to Stonehenge. You could actually see Stonehenge before you got to it and my first thought was "wow, this is real life" Before this, Stonehenge was always just a picture in a book, something that I couldn't really comprehend, and something I for sure would never see. But here I was..at Stonehenge. We got there and we got these little audio guides to follow as we walked around the stones. We all particularly enjoyed the one where they talked about other explanations about Stonehenge. Some think that giants created the huge stone structure and some people even think it was the devil's doing. Whatever you may believe, I'm going to go with the realistic approach and assume that some humans made it.

I never realized how complex the actual grounds would be. Apparently it was built in three parts. All around the rocks there is a huge bank It was dug out using antlers and animal bone picks. I think that from now on I will start using deer antlers in the garden to dig rather than hang them up on the wall. Next, they found remnants of a timber posts circling the structure that they think were used as burial points. Next, the rocks. Whew, if I remember correctly the blue stone weighs something stupid like 25 tons each. Thinking about it now, I think that if I worked out for a couple weeks it would be no problem for me to build my own Stonehenge. I always think that Preeceville needs something cool. I mean Sturgis has that beautiful horse, Canora has the beautiful baba-Preeceville NEEDS something. Hence, I'll build a Stonehenge. If you want to volunteer please leave your name and number at the bottom. Great thanks.

ANYWAYS, some people are disappointed when they see this amazing structure because they think it's going to be bigger. I can't say that I was in the least bit disappointed but rather marveled in it's beauty. We took about 8082343284 pictures so check for them on facebook. we got to check it out for about 45 minutes even though you can't actually touch Stonehenge and can't even get that close to it at all. However, back in the day, you could touch Stonehenge, play on it, heck you could even buy a chisel at the gift shop and take a piece home with you. Now, it's a natural heritage site and the only time you can touch it or be close to it is summer and winter solstice.

We got back to the bus with rosy cheeks and frozen legs. Guess what we did.....YUP-we made a sandwich! Yum! Next we were off to Bath. Bath is a national heritage city with about 83,000 people living in it. Being a national heritage city, you can not alter the outside of the buildings and perhaps even better, if you build a new building, it has to match the existing architecture. Also, all over the city there are buildings with the windows blocked over using bricks. Back in the day, there was a window tax and you had to pay according to how many windows you had therefore, some people bricked up their windows. Another interesting fact about bath is that it is where Jane Austen grew up. There is a museum there that we went into before being shooed out for not paying! whoops! We went by Johnny Depp's apartment but I didn't catch a glimpse of him in his underwear from his bedroom window-maybe next time.

Interesting fact of how Bath was discovered: Back in the day, there was a Kings son. The Kings son who will now be called "Martin" from now on(hahaha sorry i forget his name) Anyways, Martin was shunned from his country because he had leprosy, he moved into the Bath area and did odd jobs just to keep himself living. He was mostly a pig herder and even his pigs were the lower class pigs and had nasty skin diseases too. One day, the pigs were rolling in this mud and after a few days, their skin diseases were improving. He then decided to jump into the mud too, and low and behold, his leprosy was cured by the water! AND voila! Bath was discovered. Martin went back to his dad, and later became King and created the town. And the rest is history...

The main point about going to Bath is to check out the ancient roman ruins. We walked into this building and sort of smelt like stale water. They gave us our mini cell phone audio guide again and off we went! We first walked into the biggest pool of water. The water is kind of a green nasty-ness with a steam rising. The architecture all around the water is something amazing. People back then were damn clever. It's hard to believe that something built so long ago is still standing. Anyways, at this main pool, they think that important Roman leaders would meet and make critical decisions. I think that the Canadian government should also try this technique. What would be better than sitting naked beside Stephan Harper discussing global warming- NOTHING. You then walk throughout the building and get a good idea of how the natural spring worked. One thing I found particularly interesting is looking at the stone. At the main door of the bath you can see the stone step is eroded from the millions of people who walked through the doors. Also, there is a display of items that they have since found in the drainage. Items such as combs, money, jewelery and other things they believed were given as offerings. Finally, at the end you get to walk around the lower level of the pool. There are signs everywhere that say you can't touch it, so of course me and Marlee touched it. You can't put up signs like that and expect people to head them- DON'T tempt me I say. The water was luke warm and indeed felt like "bath" water. Sorry, this really is a horrible attempt at trying to explain it. It was really just SOO complex that I am doing no justice to it! eeessh!

After checking out the roman Bath's we had a few hours to explore the city. First of all, Marlee has been having these extreme cravings for hot dogs. She talked about it so much that I too wanted an Olympic Hot Dog with ketchup and mustard cooked on the BBQ. I don't think they sell Olympic hot dogs, or even harvest..but rather large breakfast sausages that they call a hot dog. None the less, we still wanted one. While eating it, I put my arm in pigeon poop. yum. After eating our satisfying hot dog we went for a walk just to check out Bath. It's such a beautiful place. We went into the Abbey. It's a really really old amazing church and covering the walls and the floor are plaque's of dedications to people. I'll put some pictures of this on facebook as well.

Overall, the day was amazing. I am so glad that we got to check out both of these places. Again I learned so much in one day and saw so many things that I'd never seen!

I'm sorry that this blog is so full of small details and facts about both Stonehenge and Bath. I like to write what I remember and occasionally I like to do a bit of research myself! I hope you enjoy the small facts too and that I've saved you some time from looking it up yourself!

Thing's I learned today....

1) The pigs here are HUGE! We drove past this huge pig farm and I accidentally mistook the pigs as horses. I don't know how they breed them here, but I bet you could get A LOT of bacon off of one. (Me Kristin and Marlee once again found ourselves wondering what a group of pigs is called..it's a herd)

2) Pigeon poop doesn't ruin my mood or my will to eat a hot dog.

Until next time....