Day Six: Stonehenge and Bath
We decided to take a day trip by bus to see Stonehenge and Bath. I went on the trip with four other students from my class. After about an hour bus ride, we arrived in Stonehenge. It is believed the stones were put into place in about 2500 BC. There are many myths and theories about what Stonehenge was used for, and I learned a lot about these legends through an audio tour of the site. The rocks are giant—it seems impossible that people had the ability to lift and move the rocks that many years ago. Some of the rocks are place horizontally on top of other rocks, and it seems like they would fall at any minute, but they don’t move. It was very cool to be in a place of such mystery and history. Due to the large number of burial sites nearby, the major theory is that Stonehenge was used as a burial site. Others believe in supernatural theories, while others believe it held religious significant. It’s really interesting to me that even today, despite archeological abilities and technologies, we still cannot figure out why the site was erected.
Next, we re-boarded the bus to drive another hour and a half to Bath. We drove through some English countryside, and I enjoyed seeing another part of the UK besides the craziness and fast-pace of London. The city was first established by the Romans in AD 43. Within the Roman Baths, there is a hot spring, which the Romans considered holy because they did not understand why the water was warm. The original architecture is still in place, with a big balcony looking down onto the baths. There was also an exhibit explaining how the original town area was set up. There was also a part of the original altar from their place of worship, as well as original entry ways and parts of the structure. In Bath, we were also able to see the Bath Abbey, and wander around the town, admiring the houses and shops. In order to preserve the history of the city, all new buildings must be made using the same expensive stone that the other buildings have. We also walked up the town a little bit to see the Royal Crescent, which has three different styles of roman pillars—doric, ionic and corinthian. Each floor had a different column style, each getting more complicated as it went higher. I was fascinated by that, because I remembered learning about those styles in history class freshman year of high school. Sometimes it’s easy to go through school just memorizing things and forgetting them two weeks later. It really makes all that class and studying worth it to have things connect in “real life.” I really enjoyed both Stonehenge and Bath, and was glad we were able to make the day trip there.
