Last day in Salisbury. Last days are coming thick and fast now, with only a week to go before we are on an aeroplane back to Australia. Depressing.
We visited Stonehenge’s little brother today, the Avebury stone circles. You might need to look that one up on Google, as it has much better overall views of the circles than I could hope to provide. The site is less spectacular than Stonehenge to view on the ground but is every bit as interesting given the size of the site and the number of stones. Apparently it’s also much older.
For your edification, Stonehenge isn’t a henge. A henge has the ditch on the inside and the mound on the outside. Avebury is a henge. Stonehenge has its ditch on the outside and mound on the inside. The world is full of fascinating contradictions, isn’t it?
Okay, let’s get to Bath. Only 32 miles and an hour later we are in Bath. Like me you have probably heard stories about how little people travelled in the ‘old days’ and how most people “never travelled more than 20 miles from their home their whole lives”. I now know why. It takes you most of your life to travel 20 miles.
Don’t get me wrong, I love these little narrow windy roads and lanes. To me it’s a novelty. Just don’t expect to get too far, too fast. A 100-mile drive is not a walk in the park, it’s about three hours on a good day (ignore the obvious contradiction with the previous paragraph, that was hyperbole). That three hours is full on in terms of required concentration, number of gear changes and need for brakes.
But back to Bath. What did we do? We looked at the Roman baths, what else. Another very good experience, with a very well designed exhibition. The original thermal spring that supplied the baths in Roman times is still running today and still supplying the same baths. Still warm too. Not a lot else to say, they are baths after all.
Tomorrow we head for Wales and the next rugby game. Wales take on Fiji at Millenium Stadium at 4:45pm tomorrow and I’m hoping for a closer game than the corresponding fixture in 2011. I was in Hamilton, New Zealand for that one and poor old Fiji were on the wrong end of a 50-point thrashing.
All for now, Steve J.
I am guessing you have a pretty fixed itinerary and no spare time, but a trip to Falmouth in Cornwall and on down to Penzance and St Michaels Mount would be worthwhile. Budock Church just out of Falmouth is where Thomas Nunn Jewell was christened, his dad being in the Coast Guard and stationed at Falmouth at that point. Also, higher up in Cornwall, a trip to Fowey and Polruan for another bit of family history could be good! Looking for Lanteglos-by-Fowey church a few miles out in the country where Thomas Nunn Jewell’s Mum was married and is buried. Nice walk. Get the key to the church from School Farm opposite.