Bath, Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Hampton Court

Sorry for the minor delay in posts and pictures. We have the internet here at Byng but it can be quite spotty. We've also been really busy travelling the past few days so I haven't had much free time. Our bus has been leaving at 8:30 the past 3 mornings and then we spend a good chunk of the day on the bus travelling from place to place.

BATH

Yesterday we spent the majority of the day in Bath. It was beautiful. For some reason I thought there would be more Roman baths, but the one that we saw was very beautiful. The town around the bath was beatiful as well. I really wish I could back when there are fewer people. There were so many tourists since it was a saturday and there were a lot of locals because there was a small dance showcase and to top off all the chaos there was a wedding taking place as well. As I said, the baths and town were absolutly beatuiful. I really liked the architecture of the area. It has a very quaint feel, minus all the zillions of crazed tourists.

STONEHENGE

After Bath, we road about an hour and a half to Stonehenge. It was pretty much exactly what I was epxecting, a bunch of rocks in the middle of a very random field. For some reason I was under the impression it would be closer to a river, but I wasn't able to see one from the site, but I couldn't see one at Newgrange either. It was very cold and windy, similar to my experience at Newgrange, and the rocks were shorter than I anticipated. In all the professional photographs the monument seems to tall, but in actuality it is quite short. The drive between Bath and Stonehenge was beautiful, but not quite as nice as the drive between Oxford and Stratford. That truly was a BEAUTIFUL drive.

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Today we visited Windsor Castle and Hampton Court. I went to both of these places on a previous trip with Dr. Piper. I am glad I'd already been since our day tours on this trip are rather short and it seems just as we're getting settled on location it is time to get back on the bus. Really, all the places we've visited deserve no less than a FULL day each. I don't know how some tour groups get three to four in in one day.


WINDSOR

We got to Windsor just as it was opening this morning. We went in and a small group of us attended the church service in St. George's Cathedral. It was a very beautiful and moving expereince. Here we are, sitting in the church, in these really old seats (I quite literally had the best seat in the church. I don't know how I managed that) an amazing chorale, candels, beautiful prayers about peace and a sermon about the current struggles of the church, it was very small and peaceful. The church felt nice and warm despite the cold wind and rain outside. After the service we didn't have much time to wander around the rest of the castle, so we waited in line, for about 30 minutes, to see the doll house and walk through the state apartments. We gobbeled down lunch and it was on to the bus and out of the rain we go.


HAMPTON COURT

I really enjoyed our trip to Hampton Court. It was nice to see different parts of it that I had not seen last time. Our guide took us through, what she felt were, the most important parts and gave a us a brief history. Then we had time to wander around. Last time I came I spent a lot of time inside the palace and the kitchen. This time I chose to spend more time outside, despite the cold wind and rain. The gardens were lovely. There were so many beautiful flowers and I am in love the clouds and the sky here. Everything is just so breath-takingly beautiful. I can't imagine what it must have been like to live in such a grand palace. I only have a few photo links in this blog, but I would really encourage you to look through all the Hampton Court pictures on the online photo album. I haven't got time to put captions on each since the internet is so slow here, but they are all pretty obvious, and most are just of the garden. They are just so beautiful.

Well, it's about quarter to eight here. I haven't done my homework yet so I should probably get a move on that. I am enjoying my classes, but I am really really busy. The workload is really heavy, although the content is quite easy. A lot of people complained about it, so hopefully it will lighten a bit. If this were a full semester-long course the work they are asking us to do would be reasonable. Since it is only 6 weeks and we travel on the weekends, however, it is quite hard to find time to get everything done and still go out and explore England. Well, I'm just waiting for my pictures to finish uploading online so I can post the links into this blog then I'll get to the homework.

I'm really having a great time here. I absolutly love England. It's just so me.

PS: When I come for the semester, I will definitely need to pack WARM clothes.