Bath/Avebury/Glastonbury/Wells/Stonehenge

Saturday, September 27th

Today we took a tour of the Roman Baths from 2,000 years ago with a natural hot spring that is still pumping out tons of water every day. It was awesome to walk around on the same floors and be hanging out at the same bath just like the Romans. After we left there, we saw some street performers wearing just underwear hold themselves up on giant metal poles and do handstands while having flaming sparklers in their butts. Talk about a great time. We continued to learn more about the town when Bill took us on a short walk up to the circus (a big circular area where there are beautiful buildings sculpted by Thomas Moore) and the crescent (made my Moore’s son), and when you look at them from overhead, it looks like a giant question mark. Also, there were tons of pigs around town, pieces of art that were on top of buildings, in the middle of courtyards, in a market, in the Roman Baths, everywhere. This is supposed to be the symbol of the cit of Bath because, as legend has it, Bladud (who was supposed to be the next ruler of Rome) acquired leprosy, as did his pig. He was banished from Rome and he had heard about the magical powers of the bubbling springs found in Bath, supposedly work of the Gods, and he went there with his pig. His pig rolled around in the mud and its leprosy was cured, so Bladud did the same and, sure enough, he was cured and was able to go back to Rome and reclaim his honor. So, pigs in Bath.
Following Bath we made our final stop on this trip to Stonehenge. It was really awe-inspiring to see this monument still standing. It’s much smaller and more compact than the one at Avebury, but the stones had been hauled for an incredible distance to get to Stonehenge and they are sculpted so that they form a perfect circle, and even have little notches and groove on the trilithons (the thing that looks kinda like a lower-case n). It was a little strange to see where Stonehenge is though, which is in the middle of a giant flat field with a road going right by it. I thought it would be somewhere way up on top of a hill that we would have to hike 5 miles to get to and all of a sudden we get to the top and there’s a clearing with Stonehenge in the middle. But nope, just hangin out in the middle of a huge field. With cars whizzing by. Still really freaking impressive.


Friday, September 26th

We left very early this morning to begin the trip to Bath and beyond. Our first stop was Avebury where there is an ancient stone circle that is much bigger and a bit older than Stonehenge, but less popular for some reason. The circle encompasses part of the town of Avebury and there is said to have been a link to fertility with this circle (something about women would rub up against it in order to help them become pregnant). Also, there were sheep everywhere. It was really beautiful out in the English countryside and quite humbling to look at the work of these people over 5,000 years ago that still remains today.
After Averbury we drove up to Glastonbury, home of the remains of the Glastonbury Abbey which holds the burial place of King Arthur and is said to have the Holy Grail hidden in it somewhere. We thought we found it when we looked into a hole in one of the walls of the Abbey and saw a plastic cup, but apparently that wasn’t it. Also in Glastonbury is the Tor, a huge hill with a stone structure up at the top, which is where some people would be beheaded and all that fun stuff. It was one heluva walk, but at the top the view was extraordinary. We could see for miles and miles. And as soon as we got to the top, what’d we find? Cows. A whole herd of cows just chillin out at the top of a huge hill munching on all the grass and snuggling up to visitors. I don’t think I’ve ever been that close to a cow before. Regardless, it was an awesome place to be.
Then we walked back down the hill and stopped at a local pub to see what kind of English drinks we could find. I had some hard cider and Omar had a pint of some sort of amber beer. It’s so strange that they serve beer and cider at about room temperature in this country, and when you see “extra cold” on the tap, it really means just slightly under room temperature. The English are big into their “Bitters” which are supposed to be drank at room temperature, so I guess they just do the same for the rest of their beers.
Following Glastonbury was the town of Wells, home of the Wells Cathedral (which we studied in British Art & Architecture). It was a magnificent structure, and the inside was absolutely gorgeous. I think I have a better understanding and appreciation of architecture after being in this class, which I suppose is a good thing. The little town of Wells was very quaint and had all these awesome shops including a fudge store (where I got 100g of cider apple and maple walnut fudge) and a gelato place (where I had a bowl of strawberry gelato and it was amazing). I was on quite the sugar-high after that. Ah well.
The last stop of the very long day was the city of Bath, where we stayed at a YMCA for the night. We got in around dinnertime, so we headed out to find some food and explore. There was a restaurant/pub that had two meals for 6.95 pounds, which is pretty freaking awesome, so we did that. The service was absolutely terrible (probably because they had this terrible cowboy DJ coming in to help celebrate Jack Daniels’ birthday) but the food was awesome. I had a pretty big bacon cheeseburger, a Belgian waffle covered in vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce and a pint of John Smith’s for 7.50 pounds. After Andrew ate two bacon cheeseburgers (thinking the ‘two meal’ deal was meant for one person) we waited for two hours as he finished his Guiness. That man was full.
We walked around town for a little bit, going into an Irish pub called Flan O’Briens and I was carded. The drinking age is 18…whatever. It was like student teaching all over again when I would get lunch in the cafeteria and the same lunch lady always thought I was a student. Maybe I’ll be happy that I look young in like 20 years, but not right now. After that pub, we slowly made our way back to the Y to crash for the night at like 11.30. Yeah, it’s lame to go to bed before midnight but it was an exhausting day.


Thursday, September 25th

We talked about Progressive Rock in British Pop music today, and also covered Led Zeppelin, Supertramp, Kate Bush (her voice sounds like stepping on a cat), Fleetwood Mac and Kraftwerk (a German group that were pioneers in using electronic music in the pop scene, especially with their hit “Autobahn”). Following class I went to my second euphonium lesson with David Powell. I felt like it was a bit easier to play for him this time, but I still sounded like crap. I don’t think I’m used to warming-up then spending 45 minutes riding the subway and walking to a random house in South London before playing again. It’s much longer than the 30-second walk up the stairs to Dave’s office back at Ithaca.
That night I saw a production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at the Tricycle theatre/cinema and it was ridiculous. They left out a ton from the play, including whole characters and scenes, but it was very entertaining and only lasted 90 minutes. It was like a jazz/funk/fusion band up on stage performing Shakespeare, and there was a great deal of audience participation, such as getting up on stage and dancing during a crazy party, handing out pizzas to the audience and even bringing two audience members up to do tequila shots. Nuts. They definitely botched the traditional aspects of it and went for pure entertainment, and I left happy.