Rocks and Baths

16th -17th May 2009

We picked up our transport for the weekend, 'Bertha the Ford Galaxy' on Friday afternoon. It was time to test if we could still actually drive a car. It had been so long since any of us had gotten behind a wheel (Well a wheel on the right hand side of the car). We thought that we would make full advantage of having a car, and enjoy the luxury of supermarket shopping without having to lug everything home on the bus. We made our way to the biggest supermarket we could find, The Tesco in Pitsea and spent almost 2 hours browsing the supermarket. 130quid later we loaded up the car and headed back to unload (Finally we could buy ice cream and get it home without melting). After shopping we decided to set out for dinner and a quick tour of the local sights - at least the sights we can't see from the bus route. We toured Canvey Island and settled on a hearty dinner of KFC. After eating it was late and it was time for bed for the big weekend to come.

We woke, showered and packed and were on the road by 8am. First stop was to pick up Belinda and her housemates, Ellen and Dean from their school house in Grays; about 30 minutes away. Once the 6 Aussies were packed into the van we set off for Salisbury. This meant navigating the Dartford crossing; Big bridge crossing from Essex to Kent, and then finally trying to navigate London's infamous M25 Freeway or the "London Orbital" (It is the freeway that circles around the outside of London). An uneventful drive (I think I only got flustered driving once) and 2 and a half hours later we'd arrived in Salisbury; our first stop. We walked from the car to the centre of town and the first stop we saw was a furniture store "Southon's of Salisbury" - I think I got a little too excited. We wandered around for a little until we found our way to the Salisbury Cathedral, home of the Magna Carta. I must admit that I'd never heard of this Magna Carta before, but thanks to my resident historian, Hannah, I know have a little understanding. Basically it's a legal document that was signed by the King in the early 13th century. The woman that was guarding the document was a rather rude old biddy. Hannah asked if this was the whole thing (Hannah couldn't read it because it is all in Latin) to which the woman replied with "Well obviously it is because it starts of here with …. And ends here with … " Well Obviously. We left the cathedral for a quick lunch of Cornish Pasties - Yes Rob, they are good - and we were back on the road.

Not an overly long trip to the outskirts of Salisbury and we'd found ourselves at Old Sarum. This was a place I had read about some time ago in a book, and thought that it had something to do with witches. I got the name confused and thought it was called Old Salem. Hannah got even more confused and was calling it Old Slalom. Turns out it is the site of the earliest human inhabitation in Salisbury - about 3000BC. Then the Normans came and set up a Castle up there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Sarum pretty much explains it all. There wasn't much left there now. Just a big hill with some old stone ruins. And wind. The wind was so strong, at one point I thought that if I just took a run and jump that I'd take off. It was back into the car from here onto the big destination.

About 30 minutes later we arrived at a field in the middle of nowhere. Buses, cars and people were everyone. We had arrived at Stonehenge. We parked Bertha, and strolled in, collecting our audio guides on the way. We walked under the road and came up at the big famous rocks. We started listening to the drab man on our audio guides, but he bored us, so we just slowly made our way around the rocks. You can't actually get all that close to them, you have to stick to a path about 20m away from them. About half way around we decided it was time to start taking silly photographs of Stonehenge and us. Our 40 minute stop at Stonehenge ended with some souvenir purchasing in the gift shop. My favourite merchandise was the stuff with the slogan "Stonehenge Rocks". Clever. It was out of the wind and back into Bertha again.

Back on the road and I was navigating with some dodgy Google maps and a printout guide to the area off the Internet. We toyed with the idea of finding Woodhenge, but decided against it. A few wrong turns and we'd found ourselves there anyway. Woodhenge was built around the same time as Stonehenge (2500BC), but it doesn't exist really now. All that is on the site are cement pillars to show where the wood posts would have been. We parked the car and Dan ran. He ran straight through the gate and into the posts jumping and frolicking. Something strange had gotten into him. We all went and jumped on them and played for a few minutes in the little posts.

Back on the road, following stupid directions, in the aim of spotting a white horse on the way to Avebury. The pretty country roads were nice to drive along until we started to spot road signs that read "Warning Tanks Crossing" with a little picture of a tank. What the??? About 40 minutes up the road and we found a white horse carved with chalk into the side of the mountain. Some good navigating and we parked at the top of the hill, jumped some fences, walked through some paddocks and found ourselves standing on the horse. The sign on one of the gates read, "Animals please close gate". They must bread some smart animals in the East of England. From the white horse we were back on the way to our final Neolithic monument of the day; The Avebury Stone Circles.

The rocks of Avebury are actually older than Stonehenge, and you can touch them, kiss them, or hug them, or even try to push them over. We attempted all of the above. Basically, it's a few paddocks with these giant rocks in them arranged into two circles. There are a few missing, but they were replaced with more cement pillars. We strolled through the paddocks - I was happy chasing the sheep - then a quiet stroll through the village. The rocks sort of circle the outside of the village. Then it was back into the car for the final trip of the day.

With Dan navigating and me driving, we had our route to the hostel planned if we came in on a particular freeway. We had somehow managed to not be able to find that freeway so we took an alternative, and slightly longer route. Arriving in Bath an hour and a bit later we took many wrong turns in the city before we found our YHA for the night. We checked in, freshened up and were definitely ready for dinner. We decided that we'd take the bus into town, so we could all have a drink. We found a nice pub that we would eat at, but they had stopped serving meals for the night, so the barman directed us to a really nice Pizza place. He was right, it was really really nice. It was only next door were we all indulged in a little after dinner Italian ice cream. After ice cream we did a quick lap around the main town and headed back to our original pub for a quiet pint. On heading to the bus stop to catch the bus home, we saw it heading to the stop. We did the mad run across the middle of the street and up the road in order to catch it in time. After the quick trip up the hill we were back at the hostel for a nights sleep. The boys disappeared off to the boys dorm and the girls played sleepover in our room.

We woke up the next morning to find lots of wet stuff outside. There was lots of rain and it was certainly drab and yuk. That wasn't going to stop us though. We packed up, ate breakfast and checked out of the hotel. Loaded up the car and drove down to the centre of bath. We headed straight for the Roman baths.

Outside the baths were some weird arty sculptures that were supposed to be a Lady Hare and a Minotaur. However they looked more like creatures out of Donnie Darko and Dan had to pull some tough guy photo shots with them. We headed inside the Baths and picked up our audio guides and headed off into the museum part first. The audio guides explained certain things in the place. Some exhibits had a children's audio option. I liked these much better. Explained in a way that interested and engaged me. We took our time walking through the entire museum, but I was beginning to get bored, so I steamed on to the actual baths. You weren't allowed to touch the hot, murky, green water that was still in the Baths, but it was tempting. They are filled with over a million litres of water each day that comes up from inside the earth, pre-heated. The Romans thought that one of the Baths was where a goddess lived, so they didn't bathe in that particular one. We joined onto a little tour and learned about how the baths were found and what the Romans did and what not. Very interesting stuff. As we walked out of the baths we headed back up to street level. A nice lady in the restaurant offered us a glass of the water to try on our way out. It was hot and not very nice. We didn't drink the whole glass. We walked outside and of course it started raining again. We ducked into a café for a drink and a rest and to decide on our next moves. The girls wanted to go see the Jane Austen centre. Clearly I was not too keen on that option, so Dan and I decided to go our own way while the other 4 went to relive the literary works of Jane Austen. We went and shifted the car so we wouldn't get a ticket, then strolled around the streets of Bath - in the rain. It was nice until my shoes were so soaked through that my socks were wet and my jeans were wet up to the knees. We made our way to the Bath Abbey. Because it was a Sunday there was only a limited time we were allowed to go in and see it. We walked in and wandered around looking at all the old plaques on the walls. Again Dan was amazed at the size of the organ. We found a stained glass window that for some reason was dedicated to Australia. There were also ones for NZ, Canada, India and others. The others had caught up to us by now, and we all went and found the plaque dedicated to Admiral Arthur Phillip, who actually died in Bath. First Governor General of Australia but headed home to die. There was an Australian flag hanging up above it.

We left the Abbey and walked out into the rain. We decided on a late lunch, and then we'd head home. We found a shopping centre near the car park and settled for the 2 pound steak sandwiches that were advertised, only to be told that there was no steak left. We all up and left to the Chinese restaurant next door. 6 pound buffet was a great idea. We all stuffed ourselves silly with the greasy food, and even ice cream, cake and jelly for dessert.

We packed into the car for the return journey. I was designated driver again, and just as we made it to the freeway it started bucketing down again. Steamed up windows and no visibility made it a very fun drive for about half an hour. People had started to fall asleep in the van so I decided to pull the old 'slam on the breaks and scream' stunt, although it was too dangerous to slap on the breaks so I just settled with the scream. It was well worth it. A comfort break in Reading and we were back on the road. The hellish M25 was full of traffic and we didn't move for quite some time. We played I-Spy for some time, then celebrity 20 questions for the rest of the trip back to Essex. We dropped off Belle, Ellen and Dean and then headed the last little bit back to Benfleet. The 4.5-hour journey really stuffed me, so it was straight to bed with no dinner for me; I was still full from all the Chinese anyway.