Well, our 10-day cruise has come to an end and it's almost time to return to the real world. Key word: almost.
Southampton Port
Before we fly home, we have an overnight trip to explore southern England as we complete one more day-long road trip! So with the option to carry off our own luggage at 7:00 am, Bryan drug our suitcase through the port authority clearance and we were off to the Southhampton Airport for another SIXT rental car!
Salisbury Cathedral
Since we were able to get our rental car earlier than expected, we had extra time along our route, so we made a stop at Salisbury Cathedral, home of the Magna Carta.
If you are like me and have no idea what the Magna Carta is but have heard the name, here you go: it's the document from 1215 that outlined the limits of the king to keep power with the people. Anyway, that document is housed in the Salisbury Cathedral, but since we showed up during church services, the viewing room was closed for tourists.
Instead, we got to experience an English cathedral on Sunday morning! As we walked into the cloister (aka covered courtyard) Bryan stopped in his tracks and started Googling. He thought this was a Harry Potter filming location from the earlier movies because of the striking architecture! (He was wrong, the cathedral cloister used for filming is 2 hours from here, but he was close!) Either way, for this to be the first English Cathedral we have visited, this cloister was beautiful! Having zero crowds made it that much better too!
As we went to leave, we noticed the main cathedral was open for their Sunday service. As we walked in, we were greeted by the kindest old lady who invited us to attend the service starting in 30 minutes. Knowing we didn't have time to stay long, we thanked her and walked around before the service started. Normally it costs to visit this cathedral- we just timed it well to view the place right before a service!
As we walked back to our car, I got the stereotypical photo in a red phone booth, while Bryan enjoyed the ancient gate surrounded by modern buildings! There's Salisbury in an hour for ya!
Stonehenge
Onward to (one of the) main attractions today: the world-famous rocks!
Now when it came time to book tickets for Stonehenge I was appalled at the $31/person entry fee. Sure it got you into the museum and up close to the stones, but come on people. They're rocks in the middle of farmland, why can't we do this for free?
Well with a little research, I figured out how to see the stones for free. Using this blog, I found free parking a mile out that allowed us to walk to Stonehenge and view the stones from a free walking path! Score! As we made our way to the stones, we walked through an unofficial gypsy camp alongside a cow pasture. The people were friendly and the cows were happy- I just wouldn't recommend this walk at night. (I also don't think you would see the stones well once the sun sets anyway!)
One mile later, we made it to the free entrance gate that allowed us to walk alongside the paid roped-off area to Stonehenge and I'd say we got a pretty good view! Surrounded by bright green grass, Stonehenge is thought to be a prehistoric temple that aligned with the movements of the sun from the Neolithic Period. It was used as a worship area and as a burial ground as far back as 5,000 years.
And we got to see it and save $62.
We were happy (and really lucky) that the rain held off until after our hike back from the stones! Almost on cue, the rain started and continued for the entire ride to Bath. Dang, we know how to time it!
By noon, we had made it to Bath, England, and found a parking spot for the night. With our backpacks in tow and our suitcase hidden in the trunk, we made our way to the hotel in the pouring rain.
The Bath Stable
After checking in and dropping our backpacks, we faced the downpour again in search of food! We stumbled upon The Stable, a pizza and cider shop, that was right up our alley! As it continued to rain outside, we stayed dry and warm inside with a few ciders and pizzas!
Bath Abbey
We couldn't put off our entire afternoon of rain, so we braced ourselves for the wet and headed out for our scheduled walking tour of Bath. We met our tour guide, Phil, outside the Bath Abbey, where we learned about this famous area.
Phil started by teaching us the difference between an Abbey and a Cathedral: an abbey is a monastery where monks and/or nuns live, work, and worship, while a cathedral is a place for everyone else to worship.
He then went into detail explaining that the Abbey was designed for parishioners who couldn't read, so the relief sculptures tell Bible stories that the townspeople would know. The most noticeable of these is the story of Jacob's Ladder, where you can see Jesus at the top, surrounded by bats (that used to look like angels before nature took its toll) surrounding him. You can also spot the angels climbing up and down the sides of the Abbey!
The Cross Bath
Our next stop was The Cross Bath, a modern spa built using the Ancient Roman hot spring ruins. Phil also taught us that Bath is one of only three world heritage CITIES in the world. Instead of being a UNESCO World Heritage Site, like Stonehenge, the entire city of Bath is considered a site, thus it's a UNESCO city. The other two cities are the Vatican and Venice- all three cities have too much history to choose one "site!"
As our tour continued, Phil explained how Bath rose in popularity during the 18th century. Think Bridgerton: During the 1700s, wealthy families would leave London to enjoy the winter in Bath for 6 weeks, where they could continue the debutant season while bathing in the ancient Roman Baths and promenading around town.
As more and more people wanted to vacation here, architects quickly decided to build homes that would meet the city's popular demand while also showcasing beautiful architecture. To do so, they would hire several builders to make single townhouses that look like one building from the front. So the front looks fancy and wealthy, while the back shows the individual builder's style and size of the townhomes.
The building below was the first structure to be built with this mindset by John Wood. After its success, Wood expanded and continued to build apartments in this style.
Royal Crescent
Similar to the above building, The Royal Crescent was designed with the same vision: a beautiful facade on one side, while the backside holds the unique townhome look. In total, the Royal Crescent consists of 30 townhouses interconnected to create this half-circle facade!
Back during the 1700s, this giant field was used to promenade and show off to the other wealthy families who were in Bath for the season. It all came down to showing their wealth. Speaking of showing off wealth, the end of the Royal Crescent is actually the Featherington family's home in the Bridgerton shows! In the picture below, I am standing next to film stand divets in the grass from filming season three!
The Circus
As we continued our tour, we were faced with the newest of John Wood's visions: the Circus. Constructed in 1768, this set of 3 buildings was modeled on Ancient Rome's Coliseum and England's Stonehenge, forming this circular vision of townhomes. While it's now called the Circus, it was originally called the 'King's Circus' during those 18th-century times of courting!
Pulteney Bridge
The final stop on our tour was to Pulteney Bridge, which is famous all on its own. Similar to John Wood's drive to build townhomes, the Pulteney family wished to expand the city across the river by designing and funding this bridge.
What makes this bridge unique is that it not only connects the two sides of the river but the entire stretch of the bridge with shops on both sides. So when you walk onto the bridge, it appears like a regular street with storefronts; its not until you turn off the street, do you realize you just crossed over a bridge! It is one of only four bridges in the world still standing to have shops across its full span on both sides: the others being in Florence and Venice, Italy; and Erfurt, Germany.
The Roman Baths
After our fabulously wet tour with Phil around the city, it was finally time for us to enter the Roman Baths, the city's main attraction! Located 18 feet underground, the Roman Baths date back to 60 AD when the Romans built a temple surrounding a natural hot spring. With the expansion of the Roman Empire, the ancient city of Aquae Sulis continued to grow until 410 AD when the Romans left and the baths were abandoned.
As time went on, people built on top of the old baths. Then during the Georgian Era, excavators discovered the ancient Roman baths and discovered a deeper understanding of the ancient civilization.
Nowadays, we can tour the Roman Baths below the city. In total, there were 9 baths, but only two baths remain intact and show the natural spring bubbling up from the ground today.
Browns Bath
As you might imagine, we were pretty tired after our packed day! As the sun began to set, it was time to get a quick dinner before calling it a night! We stumbled upon Brown's, a restaurant that fills the old Bath police station! The food was good, the drinks were yummy and this meal made the perfect ending to an amazing day in Bath!
Monday, September 18: Homeward Bound
Today's the end of our travels! It's finally time to head home to our puppies and begin the huge piles of laundry we have built up over the last two weeks of travel! After checking out of our hotel, we dropped our bags at the car before walking back over to the Royal Crescent for one final (dry) look.
As we gazed at the awe-inspiring building, we enjoyed watching pups play in the field out front. I'm sure John Wood would be happy to see his buildings still standing and creating a community here in Bath!
Southampton Central Train Station
An hour and a half later, we dropped our rental car off and caught a train to London Gatwick Airport. Nothing beats a nice Starbucks while your husband lugs your huge suitcase up and down a couple of flights of stairs! My hero!
London Gatwick Airport
After another delayed flight, we eventually got to fly home to Sevilla! Thank God for direct flights and airport lounges!
Another major trip in the books; one that took us to FIVE new countries (six if you count the weekend before in Ireland) but whew! Are we ready for some time at home to recoup!?!
'til next time,
--Katie
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