Tuesday, January 22, 2013

All things ancient

I had written and I thought posted this last night, and again twice tonight, but it looks like it didn't work for some reason, so here's what I think I wrote.
Continuing with the "it's hard to fathom how old these things are" theme of my time in England....
Wednesday we went to see the standing stones of Avebury and then onto Bath to see the hot springs bathes built during the Roman occupation of Britain, around 50 A.D.
The stones were amazing. I think they are much more mysterious in the fog and frost. Matt and I both really enjoy photography, so we got all artsy with the pictures. We were practically the only people there. Anne and Chris hurried through for two reasons. One, it was freaking cold and two, there was a cartoon in the 1960's in Britain called "The Stones are Alive" which featured, well, the stones coming alive and chasing children. So you can see why Anne was justifiably a tad bit creeped out.
Bath was amazing. We had a fantastic meal at a restaurant named Browns. I had a sea bass on couscous with pomegranate seeds. Seriously good. Everyone warned me the food in England would be bland and expensive, but I really didn't find it to be that at all. I had really nice meals and as locals, Anne and Matt took me to non-touristy places. I also had sticky toffee pudding every chance I got. If you haven't it, you should. It's a steamed spongy cake, usually with dates, covered in a toffee sauce and  usually served with ice cream or a custard sauce. This one came with a scoop of clotted cream, which is kind of like when you whip cream just a tad past the whipped cream stage, but it's not quite butter yet. I forgot that's what it was and took a spoonful with blueberries, and said "that's not ice cream". Everyone laughed. It was tasty, but a wee bit over the top for having a spoonful like that.
I loved the Roman Baths. It is so interesting how much they've unearthed and how much they've figured out about life so long ago. The cathedral just outside the baths was amazing. The flying buttresses were really lovely. We didn't have much time in Bath other than for the Roman Baths because it gets dark so early at this time of the year.
I'm hurrying through this today because I need to get up early tomorrow and drive quite a way on the other side of the road than I'm used to driving on. I'm currently in my absolute favorite place in the world, Scotland. I'm staying at an abbey on the shores of Loch Ness in an amazing apt. Tomorrow I'm driving to Skye, and it's not good to do so tired. I'll post more on that very soon.

So here's the pics of Avebury and Bath:
The stones and birds in Avebury
The Bath Cathedral
Sticky Toffee pudding
The Roman Baths
A wishing well going back to Romans throwing in coins and wishing
A store window in Bath that I liked

























1 comment:

Julie said...

I can just picture a Highlander sword fight around those stones. There can be only one!