Bath.
I'm a few days behind on the updating. I'm going to get this one written and then go back from there. If you want to read more, my travel blog is, as always, here.
We arrived in Bath last night, after spending the day wandering around Oxford. On the train we sat with a professor from Oxford who teaches Spanish and Spanish Theatre. He explained the whole college system to us, and told us about the hardships of teaching there. Professors live in beautiful colleges, eat in the dining facilities, have their rooms cleaned and their sheetes laundered, and have 24 hour, unlimited access to a profs-only den with all manner of alcoholic beverages available. Sounds rough.
On account of a rather... late night the previous evening, we were tired, cranky, and ready for naps as soon as we arrived. Checked into our hostel (a very exciting place on Halloween - lots of kids yelling and wrapping themselves in plastic wrap) and wandered the quiet streets until we found something to eat. Pizza may not be the most British thing around, but combined with a large glass of pepsi, was the perfect thing for the day after the night before.
This morning I was up before the crack of too-early and accomplished some things before Mish awoke. Time differences are fun! I called D at 745 British time and he had just arrived home from a late night working at the bar. Now I've got info about a local pub that serves only microbrews and will hopefully be excellent. I've been whining about the paucity of dark or hoppy beer for days. This seems to be the land of mediocre lagers, sadly, much like most places at home.
Later we wandered the streets, which are tiny and beautiful, though by about noon they are so completely jam packed with people that it's just frustrating. Honestly. Picture Main Street at Disney on a hot summer holiday weekend, and that was Bath's High Street today. Still nice, but loses some of the effect.
I paid the ten quid to go into the Roman Baths, 'cause I figure I'm only going to be here once, maybe, so I'd better do it. And they're beautiful. Again, packed with people, so artsy pics were out of the question, but stunning all the same. The water is this amazing cloudy green colour, and it constantly looks like there's steam coming off of it. There is, but not because it's boiling, rather on account of the gases that are being emitted from the water below the earth. The green colour with the hovering 'smoke' made me think of a Shakespearan witches' brew more than once.
There was much talk of the goddess Minerva through the museum (it was her temple, after all), and some beautiful carved images of her, as well as of the Gorgon, which, in this case, is imagined as a male figure. Very celtic looking - an interesting mix with the Roman stuff. The final wonderful thing was a Scared Pool where they would have tossed coins as offerings to the goddess, way back in the day. Today it's lit in such a way that it looks very magical which delighted me.
After the Baths we killed some time by going into the Victoria Art Gallery (free) only to discover that they were having a children's activity involving pastels, scissors, paper, and glue. The nice lady running it told us we'd be welcome to join, so we spent half an hour colouring things to add to the 'at the seaside' theme collage hanging on the wall. I made Sneasly the Snail. He's beautiful. There're pictures.
And in harsh contrast to the children's play and colouring, we returned to the Baths to have high tea at The Pump Room, complete with three-tiered silver service, scones, curdled cream, white table cloths, piano music, and an enormous chandelier. It was wickedly expensive, but wonderful, though we came nowhere close to finishing our 'sweets'.
Mish is on the train back to Winchester now, while I'm spending another night in Bath so I can go on a tour of Stonehenge and Avebury tomorrow. I know everyone tells me it's lost the impact and it's not worth it and blah-de-blah, but I was raised in a very pagan house, and stone circles are important to me. I'd feel ridiculous if I didn't go and draw my own conclusions about the site.
Oh, also... I'm cold and wet. Wearing my mitts, toque, scarf, and jacket all the time. I've also added an Oxford Uni hoodie because I just couldn't take it anymore. It's camp, but cozy.
We arrived in Bath last night, after spending the day wandering around Oxford. On the train we sat with a professor from Oxford who teaches Spanish and Spanish Theatre. He explained the whole college system to us, and told us about the hardships of teaching there. Professors live in beautiful colleges, eat in the dining facilities, have their rooms cleaned and their sheetes laundered, and have 24 hour, unlimited access to a profs-only den with all manner of alcoholic beverages available. Sounds rough.
On account of a rather... late night the previous evening, we were tired, cranky, and ready for naps as soon as we arrived. Checked into our hostel (a very exciting place on Halloween - lots of kids yelling and wrapping themselves in plastic wrap) and wandered the quiet streets until we found something to eat. Pizza may not be the most British thing around, but combined with a large glass of pepsi, was the perfect thing for the day after the night before.
This morning I was up before the crack of too-early and accomplished some things before Mish awoke. Time differences are fun! I called D at 745 British time and he had just arrived home from a late night working at the bar. Now I've got info about a local pub that serves only microbrews and will hopefully be excellent. I've been whining about the paucity of dark or hoppy beer for days. This seems to be the land of mediocre lagers, sadly, much like most places at home.
Later we wandered the streets, which are tiny and beautiful, though by about noon they are so completely jam packed with people that it's just frustrating. Honestly. Picture Main Street at Disney on a hot summer holiday weekend, and that was Bath's High Street today. Still nice, but loses some of the effect.
I paid the ten quid to go into the Roman Baths, 'cause I figure I'm only going to be here once, maybe, so I'd better do it. And they're beautiful. Again, packed with people, so artsy pics were out of the question, but stunning all the same. The water is this amazing cloudy green colour, and it constantly looks like there's steam coming off of it. There is, but not because it's boiling, rather on account of the gases that are being emitted from the water below the earth. The green colour with the hovering 'smoke' made me think of a Shakespearan witches' brew more than once.
There was much talk of the goddess Minerva through the museum (it was her temple, after all), and some beautiful carved images of her, as well as of the Gorgon, which, in this case, is imagined as a male figure. Very celtic looking - an interesting mix with the Roman stuff. The final wonderful thing was a Scared Pool where they would have tossed coins as offerings to the goddess, way back in the day. Today it's lit in such a way that it looks very magical which delighted me.
After the Baths we killed some time by going into the Victoria Art Gallery (free) only to discover that they were having a children's activity involving pastels, scissors, paper, and glue. The nice lady running it told us we'd be welcome to join, so we spent half an hour colouring things to add to the 'at the seaside' theme collage hanging on the wall. I made Sneasly the Snail. He's beautiful. There're pictures.
And in harsh contrast to the children's play and colouring, we returned to the Baths to have high tea at The Pump Room, complete with three-tiered silver service, scones, curdled cream, white table cloths, piano music, and an enormous chandelier. It was wickedly expensive, but wonderful, though we came nowhere close to finishing our 'sweets'.
Mish is on the train back to Winchester now, while I'm spending another night in Bath so I can go on a tour of Stonehenge and Avebury tomorrow. I know everyone tells me it's lost the impact and it's not worth it and blah-de-blah, but I was raised in a very pagan house, and stone circles are important to me. I'd feel ridiculous if I didn't go and draw my own conclusions about the site.
Oh, also... I'm cold and wet. Wearing my mitts, toque, scarf, and jacket all the time. I've also added an Oxford Uni hoodie because I just couldn't take it anymore. It's camp, but cozy.