The tour guide Jason was quite interesting and funny, as can be expected for (apparently) the most senior guide in the city, along with the driver that had been driving coaches "since time immemorial". He had a fair amount of interesting tidbits about the castle, countryside, country...city... and all in all it turned out to be a nice day, though rather long.
The English countryside really is rather nice looking, and the country roads are picturesque, most of them lined with trees... and would be absolutely fabulous to drive a car or motorcycle along, with all the twists and turns.... and tank crossings. Odd bit of signage, that...
Anyways, the castle was VERY big... and we didn't even see most of them... and certainly not the apartments that our dear Queen was feeling ill within. Stomach bug or something, apparently.
Following the castle, a rather brief stop in Stonehenge for a rotation around the path surrounding the gigantic rocks (that they still can't figure out the "how" or "why" behind, go figure), and then on to a pub lunch in Lacock. Apparently used quite often in film-making for period architecture, and appears very briefly in one of the deathly hallows movies of harry potter. Fun stuff! Also, food was good... bonus!
On to the main point here... the roman baths in.....*drum roll*... Bath! Miranda went to go to the Jane Austin museum (and apparently didn't get in), and since I haven't seen the baths, and she had, I took a turn through the roman baths exhibit.
The sheer amount of information there was staggering. Each audio guide location had at least 2 different messages, one was the main information, and the second was an actor as one of a few different characters who may have been involved in the baths (and a couple who actually were). I'd been listening to a fair amount of the normal information stops, and realized that at my current pace, I'd take 4 or 5 hours to get through the entire place, and had to start skipping information. I could certainly go through there with a whole day in Bath, and get quite a bit out of the audio guide.
The actual waters were quite interesting, as well as the lead pipe plumbing that the Romans used for high pressure conveyance to a fountain and a separate pool. They even had steam/fire heated floors to use in a sauna type room for massages, with the floor tiles being supported by stacks of smaller tiles, and slaves fanning the hot steam/air into the space between the main floor and the raised floor. They didn't say anything about the average lifespan of those slaves, though...
Met Miranda after the baths, and we had tea in the pump-room adjacent to the baths exhibit, and it was quite nice, if slightly rushed (and marred by Miranda forgetting the bag with her headband).
Now a quick trip back to London (only 2.5 hours on the bus!), to leave London the next day by train headed for Amsterdam... now if only I could get Miranda to say the name of the station right... It's St. Pancras, and if she were to ask for directions, we'd be getting directions to the hospital for an issue with the pancreas.
More from Amsterdam to come!
M&M
I miss you soooooooooooo much :(, but the trip looks great. Having a good time laughing at your descriptions lol. Love u lots xoxo from your island girl... Arnia :)
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