Cultures Long dead revisited!

17/10/09 Just left Stonehenge, on a bus towards Bath. It really was quite epic in a way. Some of these stones have been here for over 5,000 years. That's five times as much as any anglo-saxon history on this Island, let alone almost twenty times over American History. We were not allowed to go and walk around the inside of the stone circles, but It was epic enough from afar.
Now the inner circle have smaller 'blue stones', which are about five feet in height and weigh a couple tons. These are from the Preseli Mountains in Wales, over 240 miles away. Now there were waterways to travel these stones over here, but only as close as 20 km away, and there were over 80 blue stones. So still a mystery on how they were transported so far. The larger stones are arsen stones, brought from Marborough Downs, about 19 miles away. There is a circular ditch around the outside of the stones. That is the Henge and it was made in 3050 B.C. They know this because they found deer antlers used as tools which are easy to carbon date to a precise year. The rest was made and arranged over 1,000 years until 1500 B.C., over 3,500-4,500 years ago. What is fascinating is that at the summer and winter solstice, the sun aligns perfectly with the Avenue over the heel stone to hit the alter stone in the center perfectly!

15:20 Our Tour Guide is a bitch. God forbid we Americans spend twenty extra minutes at Stonehenge, a place older than history itself, where most of us will NEVER see again. We are all truly sinners and deserve the sarcastic and rude remarks by a bitter tour guide. We are presently leaving Bath, with a LOOONG 'a' of course. The Ice Queen made us practice getting rid of our terrible American accents. Here we toured the Roman Baths that were built above the only known natural hot springs in the UK. However, the Anglo-saxons didn't bathe as much as the Romans, so when they took power, they just built over it. Not until Medieval times did they realize what was beneath them. After than, the built the Kings' Bath over the Roman ones. The Roman ruins of the Bath house was re-discovered in the 19th century and excavated to learn more about Roman life. Very cool to see three sets of history all in one city block, Roman, Medieval, and Georgian.
In the City of Bath, Jane Austin lived, but supposedly hated it here. The City itself is very commercial and all made in Georgian Architecture with this yellow-brown 'Bath Stone.' Interesting fact: all new buildings have to be made with Bath stone to go along with the look of the entire city by Law. Beautiful city. I would have enjoyed it more if the White Witch didn't threaten to leave us behind if we were not on the bus at 3:20 PM. She even showed us the train station and told us all the possibilities of getting back to London on our own. As someone said about her, "Get this bitch off my back."