Day 9: England in One Day

Posted on July 7, 2011 by mreece85

It was a long night in our little room.  The day started early with our England in 1 Day Trip.  Quite a tour, huh?  Our tour started with a two hour drive to Stonehenge.  It was more compact than I thought.  The stones were about as tall as I imagined, but they were closer together.  It is interesting to ponder how they moved the stones and why they did.  It was mentioned that at that time, religion and science was not seen as something so separate.  It is a shame that it is today.

After Stonehenge, we took an hour drive to Bath.  I really liked Bath.  It was a much larger town that I expected.  We tried to find Cornish Pasties after Barry gave us directions, but we had a really hard time following directions on this trip.  So we just picked up some quick sandwiches to curve the hunger.  Next, we were on our way to the Roman Baths.  This would be a great place to visit without a crowd.  There was this obnoxious kid playing his video game with the music audible.  I’m sure he got a lot out of the experience.  He probably got to the next level.  Anyway, we toured the baths and saw the hot water spring.  I downed a glass of the spa water.  It contains 43 minerals and is served at a temperature of 115 degrees Fahrenheit.  It had a similar metallic taste to blood.  It is supposed to have healing powers though, so maybe it will be helpful.

We then took a two hour trip to Stratford.  We had a champagne reception with short skits.  We walked through the birthplace and gardens.  There was a tree that I really liked.  The guide told us that all of the plants and flowers are from Shakespeare’s stories, except for that tree.  I think it is funny that is the one I like the most.  I thought it was interesting that back then they used to sleep upright.  They did this for two reasons.  One is that they thought that death would take you if you were lying down because he would think you are dead.  Two, there was so much smoke in the air; it would be difficult to breathe.  The curator also said that boys dressed as girls at a young age because the plague “demon” would skip over innocent girls.  Quite a bit of superstition during this time period.  I guess I can understand it though.  With so much death and disease spreading, I think we try to find reasoning in what is happening and why.  We also learned that leather was softened with feces (called tanning).  I hope they have found new methods for our current leather.  We returned home around 8 and did not do much for the rest of that night.