I caught my guided tour from the street just adjacent to Bath Abbey. The skies had been quite foreboding since the night before, when rain began to fall, and even now the gray skies continued to pelt me with the kind of rain that seems to say "I plan on sticking around for a while." Hoping for the best but expecting the worst, I boarded the small minibus, and soon eight of us were loaded and on our way.
First, I need to make a disclaimer that taking a tour is NOT generally my modus operandi, but I felt it was worth making an exception in this case. I wanted to cover an awful lot of ground in order to see Stonehenge, Avebury, and the Cotswolds. By taking this tour, I would be able to take it all in, before leaving this evening for London.First stop was Stonehenge, the impressive circle of monoliths which stand as one of the oldest remnants of ancient civilizations in England. It is believed that each stone was shipped by boat and then dragged across miles of barren land (the wheel had not been invented yet!) to the spot where they now rest.
There are so many layers of thoughtful planning to both this site and our second stop, Avebury (16 times the size of Stonehenge, though much less known). The Druids took into consideration calendar and sun positions, so that, for instance in Avebury, at summer solstice the shadow cast from the center (male) stone forms a perfect eclipse with the primary round (female) stone, symbolizing fertility for both the fields and the beginning of another life cycle for the people. They also considered ley lines, or channels of the earth's magnetic energy which they used as links between one site and the next.Honestly, I was disappointed with the size of Stonehenge -- I suppose I envisioned them much more massive. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find I was able to stand closer to the site than I had imagined. Stonehenge is retained by a fence, which prohibits visitors from wandering among the stones, unlike Avebury, where you are free to roam to your heart's content. And finally, being here off-season (and on a rainy day, no less) certainly made my visit here more personal. So I suppose there is something to be said for rainy days.
It was at Stonehenge that I introduced myself to a mother and daughter traveling together. The daughter was currently on a study-abroad university program, but I was absolutely blown away when she told me that she and her mom were from Harrisburg, PA!! What a small, small world! Another couple were visiting from Savannah, GA, where I had been just two weeks before visiting my brother.
En route to Avebury, we passed several thatched- roof houses, and our guide explained that these roofs, made of mud, straw, and other earthy materials lasted 300-400 years. But it didn't take long before birds, beetles, mice, and other creatures began making a home for themselves in the thatch. So you might be peacefully sleeping in the middle of the night and awaken to find a baby rodent had fallen on top of your head! It was for this reason that canopy beds were invented!I enjoyed my wander around the stones of Avebury. It was interesting to see, as my guide pointed out, the alternating rounded and angular stones, representative of male and female counterparts. Also intriguing was the fact that much of Avebury was destroyed by the early Christians who settled here, because they found this pagan site to be offensive to their ultra-religious psyche. The rain persisted still, and the wind was at times unbearably cold. I was hanging onto a small hope that the sun might show its face before the day ended...
We made a stop at LaCocke National Trust Village for lunch in a traditional tavern and a bit of wandering. It was at the abbey here that parts of Harry Potter were filmed. Also, the BBC's rendition of 'Pride and Prejudice' was filmed here. A brief walk about was enough to transport me back in time a few hundred years and imagine a much simpler life.Our last stop was in the Cotswolds, the rural Hansel-and-Gretel like villages interspersed among the rolling hills. As I wandered down the one street in this quaint yet breathtaking village, the rainclouds cleared away and the warm rays of afternoon sun penetrated down over the rooftops. This was the moment I had hoped for all day, and what a glorious moment it was! I passed a small, tranquil stream that meandered alongside the stone-faced gingerbread house, and thought of my grandfather, who crafted the wooden swan used in the filming of the original 'Dr. Doolittle,' which was shot here.
Too quickly, the sun vanished away behind thick gray clouds, and I found myself back in Bath. After a quick visit with Chris, I was off to the station to catch my evening bus connection to London, where surely another adventure would await...
~Melanie
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