The travels of Tim and Megan: Salisbury, Stonehenge and Bath

On Monday Tim, Megan and Dianne rose early to make our way to Golden Tours bus station. We were booked in for a day trip out of London to Salisbury, Stonehenge and Bath. In a show of typical English efficiency, our bus was 40 minutes late in departing London, and once we finally left, the rain set in. Disappointing start, but by the time we arrived in Salisbury it had cleared and was actually quite nice.

Salisbury is a beautiful little town south west of London. The main attraction in Salisbury is the magnificent cathedral that dominates the town. It is the tallest cathedral in England, rising 120 metres. Unfortunately we were ushered through the cathedral rather quickly - you could easily spend 2-3 hours inside - but we only had about 30 minutes. The inside of the cathedral was beautiful. The stunning ceilings and stained glass windows are shown in the pictures below.

Another highlight of the cathedral tour was seeing one of the four original versions of the Magna Carta, one of the most important legal documents in Britain's (and New Zealand's) history. The Magna Carta was signed reluctantly by King John in 1215, conceding to the people some of the basic human rights that continue in our legal system today. The document was quite small and well guarded behind a glass case and an elderly woman...

After our brief tour of the cathedral, we had lunch in an historic pub called The Cloisters, in the centre of Salisbury. We all went for the bangers and mash option - free range pork sausages, potato and gravy, which was delicious. We had bread and butter pudding for dessert, which was very English, and not very tasty.

Back on the bus, next stop was Stonehenge. Megan and Tim got told off by the tour guide - Tim's third telling off in 24 hours - for talking while he was talking. We were much more exciting and interesting than him anyway, but once we started listening to him again we heard him explain to the bus full of tourists that "...the first time I saw it as a little boy I was very disappointed...it's spectacular, it's amazing, but it's just not very big...". Megan and Tim guessed that this may be his regular speech to the ladies, but turns out he was talking about Stonehenge.

We thought Stonehenge was actually about the right size - we weren't disappointed at all. It was very windy at Stonehenge, but we were grateful that it wasn't raining. Stonehenge really is stuck in the middle of nowhere and is very exposed to the elements. However, despite the wind, we remained dry and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

Stonehenge was constructed in three main phases. The first phase (around 5,000 years ago) saw a circular ditch and a bank (a henge) created; during the second stage (4,600 years ago) a wooden structure was added at the centre; and finally during the third phase (4,500 to 3,500 years ago) the stone monument was constructed, arranged and re-arranged over a period of almost 1,000 years. The larger stones you see in the circle are Sarsen stones, brought from Marlborough Downs around 30km away. The smaller stones, known as Bluestones, are from the mystical Preseli Mountains in Wales, about 380km away.

The third and final stop on our day trip was the beautiful city of Bath. The city of Bath was founded in the valley of the River Avon, around naturally occurring hot springs, where the Romans built baths and a temple. Much later it became popular as a spa resort during the Georgian era, which led to a major expansion and left a heritage of beautiful Georgian architecture in so many of the buildings we see there today.

Again, we could easily have spent an entire day in Bath, but we had less than a couple of hours to squeeze in as much as we could. We spent about half an hour in the Roman Baths, which was fascinating. The complex is a very well preserved Roman site of public bathing. We saw the Great Bath, the Sacred Spring and the museum full of artifacts from the Roman period, including objects which were thrown into the Sacred Spring, apparently as offerings to the goddess, as well as remnants of sculptures and tiles used at the Baths.

Next door to the Roman Baths is the Pump Room, where we each received a complimentary glass of spring water, straight from the ground. The water apparently contains 43 minerals and is very healthy, although it was warm and did not taste very nice!

After the visit to the Baths, we enjoyed meandering through the pretty streets of Bath checking out the shops and markets and the magnificent views of the river and the green hills in the distance. There is also an impressive looking church in the centre of Bath, which we did not have time to visit - Bath Abbey. Megan and Tim are already contemplating a return trip to Bath!