Bath, Stonehenge, and Lacock Village

Thanks to the stellar UK rail Reggie and I were able to take full advantage of our week in England by traveling outside of London. Though it was hard to wave good bye to London even for one day, I am ecstatic that we took time out of Big Ben's Casa to explore the lovely city of Bath, as well as Stonehenge and an older-than-you-can-believe village called Lacock.

Two hundred years ago Bath was the ultra-popular Hollywood of Britain. This creamy, one-shade city has more protected historic buildings per capita than any other town in England. This entire city is built from warm-tone limestone called, "Bath stone" and it's stately, Georgian style gives it a high-class, museum feel. Word around the campfire is that the town is often banned from entering the "Britain in Bloom" contest to give other cities a fighting chance.

Bath is famous for it's mineral hot springs. Reggie and I decided to get our sightseeing out of the way before turning to the uber-relaxing spa treatment that these baths always offer.

Though Bath is gorgeous, it gets a 'Needs Improvement' in the creativity department. After awhile, things all start to look the same, as I'm sure you can see.

 "The Original Bath Power Salad." This surprising concoction of aged feta, sprouts, garbanzo beans, nuts, seeds, avocado, and EVOO was beyond scrumptious. I shrieked upon reading it on the menu on the door and Reggie kindly gave in, expecting he would never find something on the menu that would satisfy his hunger pains. Much to his surprise, his organic burger with chipotle mustard and handcut fries did the trick. Phew!

We finished lunch and, like always seems to happen, we had to run to our next reservation. Since we were only thirty minutes from Stonehenge we couldn't pass up the opportunity to check out the crazy rocks. We joined a group of twenty in a narrow bus (to fit on narrow streets, of course) and caught up on some Adele-listening as our group made it's way to Stonehenge.

Archaeologists believe that this iconic, prehistoric monument was erected in 2500 BC. Most recently, theory says that Stonehenge was used as a burial ground from the beginning. This world-famous creation was produced by a group that left no written records, leaving many questions up for debate.

Surrounded only by sheep, country roads, and millions of visitors each year, Stonehenge was a short, "what you see is what you get" kind of experience that we were happy to check off our list.




Back in our cozy (and by cozy I mean shoulder-to-shoulder, cramped as all get out) Mad Max bus, we headed to Lacock Village. A village too cute--and too old--to describe. Our tour guide gave us a great walking tour/comedy show of the village of 194 residents where nothing new has been built for two hundred years. There are four pubs for those 194 residents, which, of course, puts their hobbies into perspective.

The Crooked House was built in 1172. Gulp.

Our tour guide/comedian (in the center with his hands up) was full of stories.

Does this place look familiar? Of course it does, you Harry Potter fans! This house, along with several other of Lacock's buildings and streets, was used for the filming of several of the Harry Potter movies.

This was built to keep the sheep out of the church. Hello?! Sheep discrimination?!

Though there's not much more than one big square to see, Lovable Lacock kept us all occupied for the two hours we where there. A quiet bus ride brought us back to Bath where we soaked in the mineral baths for three heavenly hours before shoving dinner down our throats and catching our train back to London. Hooray for trains and the way they continue to give us the chance to see all the nooks and crannies of this awesome continent.