Thursday, 4 August 2016

England again part 3

The third of our appointments was on Monday. We got up early and walked to Gloucester Road Station, about 5 minutes from our flat. There, we met our tour guide and the rest out the group. The tour guide had pink hair, so she was easy to spot. At eight o'clock she took us round the corner to the coach, and we set off to Bath. It took about two and a half hours. We were told to meet up at the same place in three hours, or come on a guided tour if we wanted. (we chose to go alone) First to the Abbey, a Gothic building with a wonderful fan-vaulted ceiling.
This is the only photo I took inside.
Then we walked up to The Circus and The Royal Crescent, the first being England's first completely circular street. It has enormous plane trees in the centre, maybe the same age as the street (Georgian).
From Bath, it took an hour to get to Stonehenge. I went there probably in about 1970, and nowadays there are a lot more people trying to see it. Everything is well organised. From the bus we walked over to the Visitor Centre where we got on a shuttle bus which took  us about a kilometre  up the road to the site. There were hundreds of people, on the road, on the fields, on the buses, round the circle.





We could get closer than I expected. There is a rope all the way round and people stand by it and take selfies. It's very tricky, because you can't tell which direction they are taking pictures in!

I didn't think the Visitors' Centre was up to much, but we saw some straw huts and bought a few booklets. 
The return journey to Gloucester Road was two hours. A good excursion. 


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