Stonehenge Really Needs to Take A Bath

The second leg of our trip took us to Stonehenge and Bath. It was so exciting as we left London because it felt like we were finally going to England. London was fun because it was so diverse and chaotic, but as we left London I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief--I had gone to England to see the countryside and hear British accents and I was really looking forward to experiencing a less chaotic lifestyle. Ironically, pretty much everywhere we went in England was thriving and chaotic . . . it wasn't just in London! That kind of surprised me, I thought it would be much more tranquil the further we got away from the city, but there are so many people in England. I just had no idea. Shows you that all of my "research" netted me nothing.

We drove a lot on our trip, over 1,500 miles! Whoa. But I loved driving through the countryside and seeing the lush green trees and the fields that seem to be perfectly separated by old stone walls or quaint little bushes. The fields all seemed so tidy over there. I'm not sure if I am just missing something but the grass always looked like it had just been trimmed. I don't think I took a picture of that which is such a shame.

This is the view from our car (so I'm sorry if it looks a little hazy). Being from the desert of Washington as well as the desert of Salt Lake City . . . well, all of this green was just magical.

A look at our rental car . . . jam packed with luggage.

Carrie, our fearless driver. Luckily since Carrie served her mission in England she had also driven there as well. She did a great job and I was never worried with her driving.

I served as navigator. Thankfully we had GPS which we affectionately nicknamed Toma (yes, I'm supertitious. I never wanted to anger the GPS gods). Driving in England is definitely a new experience. If I ever had to do it I would need an automatic. I know that I don't really know how to drive a manual, but even if I did I think it's too many things to think about all at once. Shifting and driving on the left side of the road? Whoa . . . intense. I would have gone into overload.

The locals always made me laugh when they asked us what we thought about driving on the left side of the road, or as they said, the "correct" side of the road.

Driving (or should I say being a passenger) on the "correct" side of the road wasn't as difficult a transition for me as I would have thought. I had a lot of faith in Carrie, but basically you're still just driving on a road. I will say that your mind has to be fully engaged that the lefthand side is where you should be, I had many experiences where out of habit I just expected Carrie to drive onto the righthand side of the road. It made me wonder if I would ever have made that mistake if I were driving, which probably means I absolutely would have.

A funny thing happened as we drove to our first destination, Stonehenge. We got caught in traffic for about an hour. It was no big deal to us, Carrie was still acclimating to driving on the "correct" side of the road and it was so fun to just watch the scenery as we drove past. While we were caught in stop-and-go traffic a car of guys about our age slowly drove past us and then abruptly slowed down for us. And then the rear window rolled down. "Hey!" This guy yells (yeah, he was kinda cute), "Nice car." Hilarious. They rolled down their window to tell us they liked our car? Smooth. We chatted a little bit. Like I said, 5 American girls in England generated some attention. The same guy who complimented our car asked where we were going. I replied Stonehenge and he exclaimed, "Why the f*** would you want to go there?" We erupted into laughter at this.

This is funny to me for two reasons: 1) The obvious reason that he swore; 2) Someone else said the same thing as we were picking up our rental car. Okay, he didn't swear, but he seemed just as shocked as the other guy that we were going to Stonehenge. It made me think that either Stonehenge was a bust or that we were engaging in what old, retired people do. And yep, you guessed it, our entire trip was filled with events that apparently only the old, retired people do, which makes you wonder a little bit is all I have to say. Anyway, I had asked both people if Stonehenge was disappointing and they both admitted that they'd never been there before; the younger guy who stopped us from his car seemed more concerned about the nightlife than anything else. My initial reaction was shock, "You've never been to Stonehenge?!" And then I think about the fact that I live in Utah and have only been to Moab, Zions, and the Uintahs once. I wouldn't really consider myself an expert on stuff to do and see in Utah.

I should probably say that almost all of my pictures seem to be a little dark. It was really overcast that day and my pictures just seem to be shrouded in shadow. I'm a little disappointed, especially with my Bath pictures. I thought they would turn out better than they did. Anyway, you've been warned.

We arrived at Stonehenge first. One of the ways that England keeps their economy going is that they charge for EVERYTHING. This shouldn't surprise me, but apparently I'm cheap and never expect to be charged. Especially with Stonehenge because aren't they just rocks? Call me cynical and a miser.

The fun thing is that when you get to Stonehenge (and pay) they give you a handheld walkie talkie which you listen to as you walk around Stonehenge. The walkie talkie talks about everything from how they think it was built to the legends surrounding the mysterious Stonehenge.

Like I said, my initial thought about Stonehenge is that it's just a bunch of rocks. But once you see the view from the road I was beyond excited. The idea that I got to stand in a place that has caused so much mystery and unfulfilled theories kind of leaves you quiet with wonder.

Archaeologists believe that Stonehenge was erected sometime around 2500 BC, although there are many varying ideas as to when it was actually erected. There are many theories as to the purpose of Stonehenge--a burial ground, healing rocks, or that Merlin the wizard directed its removal from Ireland. There is actual evidence of cremated remains found on the site which makes it seem most likely that it did serve as a burial ground; whether it had any other purpose is unknown.

Listening to my walkie talkie . . . have to be a nerd and take a picture of myself as well.

There is actually no evidence how Stonehenge was constructed which is why a lot of people believe that supernatural powers were behind it.

I think my favorite nugget of information is that Merlin removed Stonehenge from Ireland and placed it in England. It was supposedly erected on Mount Killaraus by Giants who brought the stones from Africa. The stones apparently were healing rocks, called the Giant's dance, which giants brought to Ireland for their healing properties. According to lore, Merlin's father was sent by the King of England to go to Ireland and retrieve the rocks. They slew 7,000 Irish but the knights could not move the rocks with rope or force. Then Merlin, using "gear" and skill, easily dismantled the stones and sent them over to Britain.

Off the beaten path, one of those times when we just got lost. I think this is a barn, but I'm not really sure. Either way, I liked it enough to take a picture.

Another view from the car.

One of my favorite parts of the trip, Bath. These pictures will never capture the beauty of Bath. My only associations with Bath were mostly from Jane Austen novels and so I was really looking forward to seeing the city. But in my thoughtless expectations I just expected a small city. Instead, it was massive.

Bath is honestly one of the most romantic places I have ever been. The stone is honey-colored and smooth. You just want to fall in love there. Beautiful. And as hard as I'm trying to tell you how I felt or what I thought when I got to Bath, really none of it does any justice. If you go to England, you MUST visit Bath and spend at least a day there. The city is just gorgeous.

As I said before, my associations with Bath stem primarily from Jane Austen novels. Bath was the place where the fashionable and elite met during the summer months, and Austen writes about it in almost every novel. Both Northanger Abbey and Persuasion are largely set in the city of Bath and almost all of her novels mention it as the place everyone will be for the summer.

What surprised me is that Jane Austen did not like Bath. I thought Bath was so charming that I couldn't imagine anybody else disagreeing. Although she only lived there for a short time she felt the large, ornate buildings were more indicative of snobbery and excessive money as it was the generally wealthy who resided there. Even at that it was considered a place to get away--a vacation place of sorts. As Austen's father was a clergyman, they were probably part of the inner circle but only to a certain degree. They came from a respectable family but they were not considered amongst the elite. It sounds like an oxymoron of sorts--you come from a respectable family so you're allowed to interact with the wealthy but you're expected to marry in your own standing and not above. If any of you like Austen you'll notice this is a consistent theme in her novels of women's dependence on a good marriage. Anyway . . . I love Jane Austen just too much apparently.

I do really like this picture.

And this one.

Sadly, we missed seeing the Roman Baths and a few other Jane Austen things , but I'm not sorry that we went even if it was only for a couple of hours. I had a great time in Bath and thought it was so lovely. I'm trying to picture a place in the States that I have thought had as much charm and grace and I can't think of any.

London, Baby!

London . . . where do I begin? Overall, England was just phenomenal. I couldn't have asked for better friends or a better place to be. So many experiences along the way that in thinking back, it was definitely life-altering in many ways. I'm grateful I could go. I had a friend mention to me the other day that she couldn't believe I got to just get up and go to England as she couldn't pick up and go to Las Vegas let alone to England. Needless to say, I'm really grateful for the memories and the opportunities. Sorry to get all emotional on you, but I think it's the only way to truly begin detailing my trip. I'm really overcome with gratitude that I could go.

Anyway, this is me the night before I left. Notice how bright-eyed I am. How clear my skin looks. The brilliance of my smile. Remember this later on.

Mindy and I before take off. We're just excited!

Kaylin and I. Kaylin and I were such fools on the trip, literally documenting every little detail. I took over 1,000 pictures, Kaylin took WAY more than that and mentioned yesterday that she wished she had taken more. That kills me, by the end of the trip I was kind of done taking pictures. But Kaylin's a pro. I saw a lot of her pictures and they just put mine to shame.

Like I said, remember the aforementioned picture, ha. I can't believe I'm posting this picture because clearly I look like the walking dead. Oh, yeah, that's because I was. I did sleep on the plane (thank you, sleeping pills), but jet lag still hit and it hit hard. On top of that, London is hot and muggy and my skin just felt like it oozed sweat. Sorry for the visual, but that's how I felt. We left for London around 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning, this picture was taken around 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. Ugh. I look awful and I think my face shows how awful I feel too. To be honest, this picture cracks me up.

We arrived in London around 8 a.m. and pretty much started walking the streets right away. Obviously, this picture is posed (thanks, guys). Here's a funny thing about England streets, their street signs are located on the walls of buildings about eye-level, not up high like they are here in the States. I thought it was ineffective, but hey, it's what you know, right? Maybe it works for them. Navigating was a little difficult on foot because the roads criscross and the signs are not easily seen. Getting lost was just inevitable.

One of the first things we saw, the Natural History Museum.

This now inside the Victoria and Albert Museum, also referred to as the V & A Museum. It was much more interesting than the Natural History Museum. It had a display of fashion through history as well as quite a few statues, but I'm unsure the period they were from. Renaissance? Medieval? Not sure. I'm sure there was much more but we weren't there for very long. Also British pop singer Duffy was there the same day except we missed her! To be so close and yet so far away . . . crushing. I love her.

This is a baptismal font. Note the 12 oxen holding it up.

Princess Diana's dress!

This picture is out of place, but it's the next morning after a good night's sleep. We all look much better. This is also the hostel where we stayed in London. Hostels always get such a bad rap, but this was quite nice. It was clean and not crowded at all.

Buckingham Palace. Eh. The fence is too high to really appreciate it in my opinion. I understand that the Queen stays there and you have to have the fence, but I wasn't super excited seeing it.

Big Ben! So exciting! It was so beautiful and it seemed everywhere we went it figured prominently in our sights. I loved it. I also love this picture.

The Palace of Westminster. Love it! Did you know that Big Ben was once the largest clock in the world? It no longer is, but it is the largest in England. Big Ben is actually a nickname for the Clock Tower at the Palace of Westminster. Big Ben refers to the clock's hour bell, the largest of the clock's five bells.

We visited the London Eye which is kind of like a ferris wheel but of a much larger magnitude. Basically you get inside pods that have a standing platform and it rotates around like a ferris wheel. I was really excited to get on. It was a little expensive but I think it was worth it, especially as it was the first thing we did. What an introduction into the city of London! This is the view from the top. Crazy.

The pods that you stand in. There is a bench you can sit on as well.

Okay, so I missed our faces when I took the picture. But I love it. Check out our cute freckles.

After a long day, the Underground quickly put us to sleep. Talk about jet lag catching up with us. Ha ha, they don't know I took these pictures.

The next day. This is the view of the Underground station. I think I mentioned it in my last post, but I LOVED using the Underground. So easy and fun. It is obviously really crowded, especially at 9 in the morning.

More of Big Ben. I like these pictures. This is from the River Thames (pronounced tames).

I had to put in both pictures.

A picture of the London Eye from our River Thames cruise. I'm not sure what the big building was, I should probably know.

The cruise of the River Thames was great. We just took a boat ride across the river and got a great view of London. Check out how sunny it is, the weather was beautiful. So much that I got a sunburn . . . seriously. Being on the water did not help. One fun fact, I was even whiter than the people in London. Not cool. I thought my people lived there and there would be other whiteys. Uh uh.

My favorite view. The London Tower Bridge. I couldn't get enough of this view.

The Tower of London. The Tower consists of a fortress, palace, and prison. Henry VIII lived there with his harem of women. This is where a lot of royal prisoners were sent to, look up the Princes in the Tower and the future Queen Elizabeth I.

We posed with this guy and he said in his cute British accent, "I love my job." I especially liked his hat.

The Crown jewels were located inside this building. It's funny, because jewels are not as bright and shiny as one would expect. Which makes me wonder why people make such a big deal about diamonds and stuff. Just saying.

An interesting thing we saw was the Imperial Crown of India which was commissioned specifically for King George V when he visited Delhi as Emperor of India. British law prohibited the removal of the official Crown Jewel from the country so the Imperial Crown was made for his trip. It weighs 34.05 ounces and is set with emeralds, rubies, diamonds, and pearls. It was only worn once. In fact, there was a journal entry that was highlighted next to the Imperial Crown in which King George V wrote that he had worn the Imperial Crown for many hours; it was very heavy and his head hurt.

By the way, see if you can spot Kaylin in the picture. She's wearing a pink skirt.

I believe that Queen Anne Boelyn lived here for a short time.

Inside the gift shop. Note my anger for Mindy. She is admirably fighting a losing battle.

Another view of the London Tower Bridge. Marvelous. I can't say enough how much I loved it.

From the side.

I confess, I do not know the name of this cathedral. But I just liked it and took some pictures.

I'm not sure why I took a picture in front of a boat that looks like a pirate's ship.

Shakespeare's Globe! Ah, I just love him. Of course, this is not the original, just a replica of The Globe that Shakespeare owned during his lifetime. It's the only building in all of London, maybe England, that can have a thatched roof.

Yep, we rode in one.

Their taxis look much cooler than ours.

Harrod's, their super fancy department store. Seriously, I was uncomfortable in here. I shop almost exclusively at Target. I've been known to buy clothes at Wal-Mart. I think Banana Republic is too expensive. Harrod's was bright and shiny and clean. Their bathroom had lotions and perfumes in it. They sold Prada, Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, whatever. I was just afraid I would break something.

This reminded me of my cousin Tracy. If you know Tracy, you know she likes to dress her dog Mojo up. Can't you just see yourself doing this, Tracy?

So wrong, and yet it's just so funny.

Yes, we had to take a picture inside the red phone booth. Except, it smelled like pee. In the worst possible way.

Leaving London! On our way to Stonehenge and Bath.

I'm Baaack!

Well, I am officially a world traveler. I have made it safely back from England and lived to tell the tale. England is amazing, I loved being there. It was so new and exciting, I learned so much (seriously, every tour of a city or castle comes with an audio tape), and I felt so privileged to be there. I have so much to share, I hope people don't care if I post a lot of my pictures and share a lot of anecdotes from the trip. In many ways I view this blog as a journal and I really want to document as much as I can. So if you get tired of hearing me talk about England . . . send me a shout out and I'll come up with something much more interesting like Obama's foreign policy.

Before I get my pictures up and running (since they still need to be downloaded to my computer), here are some funny / interesting things I learned:

• The people of England LOVE juice. They don't drink water, they drink juice or fizzy drinks (soda). I thought it was funny especially because I love a tall glass of ice water. Another funny thing, they never add ice to anything. I would have killed for ice in my juice. I don't really like my drinks tepid.
• The building are all prehistoric old; the cars, however, are brand new. Such a contradiction. It seems completely reversed here in the States.
• I don't think roundabouts are as efficient as everyone's been telling me. Instead, I think they just disrupted the flow of traffic. Give me a street light anyday.
• Everything closes at 5 pm, much to my chagrin. Every pub, however, fills up after 5 pm. I just didn't get it, I would have thought that they would keep the touristy places open a little later. Apparently they do not. Sadly, we missed out on a few things because of this weird rule. What can you do?
• 5 American girls generated a lot of attention--more than I was expecting. We were definitely a novelty over there. I'll admit, it certainly was a boost to the old self esteem.
• The people over there definitely keep in shape by doing a lot of walking and running. We saw runners everywhere and you have to walk a lot just to get to places. I loved the walking. I kept thinking I need to walk more but really, it would take too long.
• Deep fried fish and chips are actually healthier than pizza or burgers. Funny, huh? They only had about 600 calories. Most of the salads at the Cheesecake Factory are AT LEAST that much. So I didn't really feel bad about eating fish and chips.
• The locals really love music videos. They really love Lady Gaga and Eminem, by the way. Their music was everywhere.

Anyway, I could probably keep going. Stay tuned. I took over 1000 pictures. I wanted to capture every vista before me. I don't think you can really do it justice with pictures, but it was so fun trying.