After a very long travel day, which is not the way I would do it if I were traveling this way again, and a good night sleep we had a fantastic day of history and wonderment. What could be better than a morning at the Roman Baths, followed by an afternoon at Stonehenge.
Bath, England
First the Roman Baths – and the reason the town is named Bath.
My girls are at the far side of the Roman Baths, can you spot them?
Melissa checks out the temperature of this natural mineral hot pool
The statues all along the top were added in the 19th century
You know there had to be Romans . . .
More photos from the town of Bath:
Stonehenge
Next Stonehenge, which apparently you used to be able to hire a hammer and chip off a souvenir. Not anymore, now you can’t even get close to the rocks, but it is still pretty impressive. Imagine, they built this over 4,000 years ago.
Travel tip: Don’t take the four hour ferry across the southern Irish Sea on a rainy, windy, choppy morning especially if it is the last day of a bank holiday in Ireland and the final day of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in England. It makes for rough seas and miserable traffic. Our total travel time from Wexford to Bath was All Day.
All photos on this page © Rhonda Albom 2012
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Yeah the traffic on any Bank holiday in the UK can be abysmal. Can’t imagine what you endured. We stayed an extra night one long weekend in Abergavenny, Wales (remember the song?) because we’d heard that there was a “tailback” on the main motorway back to London that extended all the way to the Welsh border!
You were smarter than we were. What long day of nothing.
Great picts. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Joyce. (Hope you are feeling better soon)
Pleased you enjoyed Bath and Stonehenge, and next stop Southampton, where it rained even more 🙁
Rain yes, but it was overshadowed by great company.
Hi Rhonda! I’m Leslie (Monica’s daughter) 🙂
I just wanted to say that I really enjoy looking at your beautiful photos and reading your fun stories! They are a way to travel just by sitting on my computer 🙂
Visiting Stonehenge must be amazing, it’s one of my life’s dreams! Along with England.. and the whole world to be honest haha!
Love from Chile! 🙂
Leslie
Hi Leslie, So glad to see you here. Thanks for leaving a comment, and the timing was perfect, just when I was thinking I was tired of blogging, your comment revitalized me. We are headed down to a Spanish speaking country tomorrow. The girls have been studying, so we will see how our communication goes.
Que les valla muy bien! 😀
Looks like we are already in trouble as we cannot translate “les valla.”
Ok, got it now, gracias!
Que les valla bien: good luck / best wishes 😀
I hope you guys keep having a great journey!
Gracias!
Head off in the morning and after a couple of hours driving you will see Stonehenge a couple of hundred feet away from the car as you travel down the A303 – this is almost as close as you would get if you stopped, parked and paid. By lunchtime you will be in Castle Combe – a very pretty English village that has appeared in more films and TV shows than I can count. Have lunch here in one of the two excellent pubs then press on to be in the beautiful city of Bath by afternoon tea. This is Jane Austen country and is the most perfect Georgian city in Europe. You can vist the Pump Rooms, Roman Baths, Royal Crescent and Bath Abbey then eat well in one of the many top-notch restaurants and stay overnight. The following day you can take in Cheddar Gorge and Wells Cathedral then either do the Wye valley, Symons Yatt and Tintern Abbey or tour the Cotswold villages before getting on the M4 and driving the three hours back to London. If you really want to you can take a small diversion down the A344 to see Stonehenge again but from the opposite side on the way back.
Sounds a lot like our day in reverse. Sorry we missed Castle Combe. Thanks for the comment and suggestions for my readers.