Okay, it is one of the coolest places in the world. The building of it, considering it was assembled in the prehistoric age, is unimaginable. The guide was telling us that each one of the slabs would take close to a full calendar year to pull from their original site 20 miles north of Stonehedge. That would only be possible with close to 600 people working around the clock pulling it! With close to 12 larger, 45 tonne rocks at Stonehedge, that is an amazing feat. So yes, it is a very impressive site. But... it is a pile of stones (I got bored after 20 minutes of looking at them) and there is a country road right next to it, which sorta takes away from the whole ambiance.
Then, we ventured farther west to the city of Bath. Bath was a very impressive, charming city that I took for granted when I was originally thinking about places to tour while I was over here. Some parts were a little bit too commercialized for my taste, one section of street had designer shops, american food chains and of course a starbucks. We went to the Roman Baths which were cool. The museum was a hodgepodge of old Roman artifacts. The only part of the museum that I was really impressed by was the actual baths where the natural springs filled the aqua green colored pools. The large amounts of iron in the water discolored most of the rocks around the hot spring.
After the Roman baths, we went to the Bath Abbey, walked around the small downtown and stopped in a local pub called the Old Green Tree for a half pint of porter beer. Then, we checked out Jane Austen's home for most of her life. One of the cooler attributes of the city that I liked was that most of the buildings were made out of limestone. Their were no street signs but the street names were engraved in the sides of the buildings. Back when they originally built the downtown (which had parts of it had to be renovated and rebuilt after the WWII bombings), the limestone was very soft when it was harvested from the ground. Street signs were etched in and then slowly over time the stone would oxidize and become hard. One of the funnier moments of the day was when we got on the bus we drove by a rugby stadium where there was a game starting soon and the tour guide turned to the bus driver and asked, "Do you know by chance who's playing Bath today?" He replied, "I think Bath plays Shower today if I'm not mistaken, miss." She paused for a moment and said back to him, "Ahhh, piss off!"
Today, we went to Camden Market. This was one of the first very eclectic atmospheres I'd been to in a long time. From a Rastafarian selling Bob Marley memorabilia to a shop full of Japanese printed t-shirts, the marketplace was full of cool stuff to pass by and take a look at while walking up and down the streets in a complete daze. I think I want to take Caitlin back to the market when she visits, if not, Portobella for sure. Last night, the guys and I got a little ambitious and ordered tickets to Munich for this weekend. We were sitting around the room talking and Petro brought up how he went to a beer garden in Munich last summer which was "heaven on earth" complete with pretzel girls and full liter glasses of beer. We booked tickets 30 minutes later. We plan on going here: http://www.hofbraeuhaus.de/ and enjoying Germany at its finest.
After this week of school things really pick up since we now are going to Munich for the weekend and then after that we go to Istanbul, Turkey for 4 days and then after that Cait comes to visit. Crazy! I'll write soon. I'm going to sleep at 6 tonight to make up for the sleep that I'm going to lose on our weekend trip to Germany.
Auf Wiedersehen! I'm going back to the Wesenberg's homeland! Don't worry McDaniels, I'm planning a trip to Ireland soon.
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