Oxford, Stonehenge, and Bath

October 29-31, 2010

This weekend would be the final weekend 'school' trip for our semester at Harlaxton. (I say 'our' because I feel like I'm writing on behalf of Stephanie, Shelby, and myself) We left on Friday morning to drive to Oxford University. Oxford is the oldest Univeristy in the English-Speaking world - and second worldwide. I have already seen it's 'other half' - Cambridge, which is said to have been created by some academics that were disputing at Oxford. So they created Cambridge, the other half of the Oxbridge education that British history is known for. Arriving in the town of Oxford you don't get the University feel as you do when entering WKU's campus. It's not similar at all. It's a city and you don't know what is an academic building and what isn't. Our task for Biology was to do a Scientific walk around Oxford to check out sights, museums, etc. that will help us see what we are learning about in the British Influence on Science. One of the cool places we visited was The Natural History University Museum. We saw some fossils, and rocks, and animals - even one dressed like me!
Christ's Church was another place we visited. We just saw the outside and the gardens around but it was so gorgeous.

Here's Stephanie and I showing some love. You can't tell from this picture, but the vines on the building looked like they were the shape of a heart and we color accented the red.

After our quick 4 hour day at Oxford I feel like I didn't really get to see the entirety of it. Our day was cut short when we had to meet back at the bus in order to continue on to Bath. (said like moth but with a B) Our meet a family tried to teach us how to say it with an English accent. So funny!

We arrived in Bath at our hostel - way up a huge hill, practically overlooking the entire city of Bath. That evening we ventured into town where we indulged ourselves with real mashed potatoes and other yummy foods!

Day 2 began with a scheduled tour to the city of Wells where we saw Wells Cathedral. It is a very good example of well-preserved early English architecture, begun in the 12th century. It was really pretty inside but we weren't allowed to take pictures.

Then we made our way by coach to Glastonbury Abbey, the ruins of a monastery that is associated with the legend of King Arthur. Supposedly his remains were once at this monastery. Our tour guide, the youngest monk there, showed us around pointing out all the remains from the ancient monastery. The entire time we were kind of taken aback. As Shelby put it, "Needless to say, I was in a bit of shock." We weren't shocked at the structure itself, instead, we were shocked at the fact that he was acting as if he were alive during the time.He was about 1000 years old I guess. "The fact that he still looked so young and exhuberant was mindblowing," Shelby stated.

After our day of sightseeing we were dropped off in the town center in Bath. Bath is a really neat town. 200 years ago, Bath was the trendsetting Hollywood of Britain. First stop, a delicious candy store that had caramel covered apples, rolled in mini chocolate chips, and sporatic marshmellows! So delicious!!!! With more shopping on the agenda we carried on for a few more hours until heading up the dreaded hill back to the hostel.

As it was Oct. 30, all of us were going to dress up and go out for the night for Halloween!! We had so much fun just getting ready in the room. In our room for 10 people, there were literally 20 or more people that ended up in there!

Starting from the left there is Stephanie, the gangster, Shelby the dude, Katie as Rosie the Riveter and me as Kitty Kait :)

The next morning we got up to see what Bath is all about, The Roman Baths! The were really impressive. A museum surrounds the ancient bath showing artifacts, mosaics and the mouth of the spring. The bath is a large area where Romans would once bathe in the naturally heated water. They warn you not to touch the water, as it is not treated - but I was adventurous and touched it, it was really warm! We even got to talk to real Roman women that were taking baths - they looked really good too, for being so old. Haha.

I almost forgot to mention one of the most epic parts of the weekend. There was just so much that we did! The last part of the trip was our visit to Stonehenge. "As old as the pyramids, and older than the Acropolis and Colosseum, this iconic stone circle amazed medieval Europeans, who figured it was built by a race of giants" (Rick Steves). It's a very mysterious structure as no one knows exactly how, when, or why it was built. "Stonehenge still functions as a remarkably accurate celestial calendar. As the sun rises on the summer solstice (June 21), the 'heel stone' lines up with the sun and the altar at the center of the stone circle" (Rick Steves). Most of the stones are about 25 tons, and the largest is 45 tons. How they got them all the way from Wales, 'only' 240 miles away, and stacked them, is a mystery.

Overall it was a really great weekend. We saw so many sites of the United Kingdom- which is really important since this is where we are living. It's good not just to see the big city of London, that's not all the England is. There is so much more that tourists don't explore. With very few weekends left of time is drawing to the close. Still many more memories to write about though.

Ireland is next. Check back soon!

Aunt Kate