That's funny, it didn't look Druish...

You've probably heard of it already, but in case you've been living under a rock: Stonehenge is a circle of stones erected quite some time ago in the south of England.  If you want more infos, drop some education on yourself here.

Stonehenge was on the agenda on Monday, our third full day in England.  Chris had to work, but Heather was free for some weekday adventuring.  They run some reasonably priced bus tours that make a day trip of it.  Of course, this is Britain, so the buses are really "coaches" and "reasonably priced" is measured in pounds, which are rather expensive these days.

It was really early morning when we left and slightly-less-early-but-still-pretty-early when we got to Stonehenge.  It was all foggy and stuff, but that just added to the mystical appeal.

Stonhenge rocks!  Puns don't!

You can walk around the whole thing on a path, but you're not allowed in unless it's the summer solstice, in which case it would be so crowded that you wouldn't fit.  They have little hand-held audio tour gizmos and in keeping with the ancient druidic traditions, there's a sizable gift shop.

Don't understate the hugeness of the object.

Neat though it might be, Stonehenge is kind of a "been there, done that" kinda thing.  I might be Californian, but it would take a level of hippiness advanced well beyond my own to amuse myself there amongst the rocks for an entire day.  The "coach" tour operators agreed and dedicated the remainder of your trip to the city of Bath.

Bath is also in the south of England, somewhat near to the border of Wales.  The city was founded in Roman times around some natural springs.  The springs were used for bathing, ergo "Bath."

The semi-preserved ruins of the old Roman baths were wrapped in a museum of sorts that we were able to walk through.  Pretty cool stuff.  There were tons of old columns, statues and the like.  Things were very historical.

Roman lifeguard?

The baths were in the shadow of a newer (but still old) cathedral in the town square.

This is Europe: a few hundred years old isn't old or new, but middle school (aka Middle Ages).

Bath is actually a pretty neat town in its own right.  Local ordinance requires all structures to be built out of the same sort of stone, so the skyline is pretty unique.

You can get a house in any color you'd like as long as it's light brown.

The river through town is the Avon (upon which Stratford famously is), and I found it to be awesome.  If I couldn't live on the ocean anymore, I'd want to live on a river.  Bath has a couple of old time-y bridges over the Avon, and a big weir.  

Birdies love Bridges

The weir

We had a little time before we had to catch our "coach," so we got to walk down the river for a bit.  They had a nifty little garden with a stone maze through some grass, a bunch of boats parked along the river's edge, a rugby stadium, another old church and some houses.

Heather and Melch enjoying the scenery 

Riverside walk on the Avon

Once back in town we picked up some pasties from a take-out joint and ate them on the trot as we did a quick walking tour of the downtown area before departing.  Back in London, we had kept the riverside theme alive by walking home to Putney from Hammersmith along the Thames.

Heather cooked us some tacos (another traditional British dish) and we hung out around the house until it was time for bed.

If you'd like to see more photos from this adventure, go here.