Statue in from of the Abbey-
Bridge Across the River Avon: Bath was built several meters above sea level. Apparently, "Avon" is an old Anglo-Saxon word meaning "river," so there are dozens of River Avons in England. It is this very River Avon that people had used to transport the rocks for Stonehenge. You can also notice that there are stores within the bridge; they use every single space that they can.
Night time view across the river-
Bath Circus- A square in the northern part of the town, it forms a circular enclosure, with openings for three different roadways. Each arc of the circle contains about 8-9 housing units, w/ each unit going for about $2 million. Each unit has 3 floors and an attic (shown here) and 2 sublevels.
Roman Baths- Built during the Roman occupation of Britain, the Roman Bath are highly preserved. The entire site contained a temple (Temple of Sulis Minerva) and hundreds of labyrinth of rooms for bathing and cleaning. The steam that you see from the water is from the sulfur gases being released upon contact with the atmosphere. The water is still warm, ~ 50°C. The Baths are no longer open to the general public, but they constructing a new spa for tourists, scheduled to open in the near future, using processed water from the spa.
Source Spring of the Roman Baths- This is the source of all the water in the Baths. Essentially, the baths are an overfill pool, collecting the water from the spring beneath.
Roman Heating System- The Romans heated the floors by forcing steam beneath the floors. The floor would have originally stood on top of these tiles picture below.
Kings Spa in the Pump Room- The Pump Room is now a lavish dining hall. It contains the King's Spa, from which you can still drink the Bath water, if you choose to do so. A cup of water costs .50 p (~$1) and it tastes a bit like sulfur (some say it tastes like blood).
View down a street in Bath- The building to the right, Sally Lunn's, is the oldest building in Bath, built back in the 1200's. The building is still in use today as a bakery. Pictured below is the owl sitting in the roof of the building. Apparently, during those times, it was considered to be able to have an owl live in your roof. They often helped in controlling the rodent problem in the city.
Backpacker's Hostel- This is the place we stayed at overnight. The picture was taken in the "Dungeon" of the hostel, a colorfully painted room to chill in. Going clockwise, Me, Stella, Jorge, and Annie.
Avesbury Stone Circle- The stone circle here consists of an outer and inner circle, with the outer circle spanning a circumfrence of 1 mile. The stones found here were used for the outer circle at Stonehenge, transported via land and river. Considering society didn't have the wheel, this was a ridiculously laborous job.
Thatched roofing of a pub- Thatched roofs are popular in the Cotswold region of Britain, even for new construction. Apparently, the outer thatch lasts for 50-60 years and the inner thatch can last for as long as 300 years. Sure beats the tiled roofs of the NE America.
Images from the sleepy English village of Castle Combe- It was voted the prettiest English village back in 1962 by the National Press and has been used for filming in several movies, including the original Dr. Doolittle and Harry Potter.
The Stream by the Manor House. You can get a room at the manor house for about $750/night.
Picture at the town center
The Manor House: apparently this staircase was featured in Charlie's Angels 2
Pictures of some house by the stream
Village of Lacock, The Red Lion- This village was used for filming of Pride and Prejudice
Silbury Hill- Spanning some 5 acres, this is the largest archaeological monument in Europe. Archaeologists are not quite sure what its purpose was (its not a burial monument).
Wiltshire Horse- In the Cotswolds, chalk can be found right beneath the soil. This is a carving of a horse in the soil.
Stonehenge- The biggest stone monument from Pre-Historic Europe. The stones from the outer circle were obtained from Avesbury. The inner stones, known as Blue stones, were obtained from the mountains of Wales. Apparently, people had used to transport these stones, across the ~300 miles of land and water.
Blue Stone-
Cool picture I took of the stone circle and the moon (towards the upper left)
