Speechless and breathless. Those are
the only words that can used to describe the state I was in for the majority of
the weekend; the state that all the sights I had the pleasure to view rendered
me into.
This weekend, I went on two tours:
one a boat tour down the River Thames to Greenwich and the other one to Bath
and Stonehenge. Both tours were amazing and I saw so many places and artifacts
that my mind is still reeling from the beauty of all of it.
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| Millennium Bridge |
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| Tower Bridge |
Saturday was
the boat tour and it was our first day of the typical London weather: gray
skies and rain. Luckily for us, the boat that had a glass ceiling, allowing us
to be protected from the elements and still take great pictures, although, I did
venture outside a couple of times to get a better view, namely of the Tower
Bridge and Millennium Bridge, known to me as the bridge from the beginning of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. This
bridge was not the only movie location that we had the pleasure to see that
day. In Greenwich, there is the Royal Naval Hospital/ Greenwich University,
which has been the location for many scenes in film including: The Dark Knight Rises (café scene), Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Skyfall,
and my personal favorite Les Misérables
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| Royal Naval Hospital |
. In Les Mis it was the location of the giant
elephant and where they sing “Do You Hear the People Sing” both times, which
led me and one my friends to break out into the song as we walked through the
area. The area without its film history was magnificent but with it added, it
was even more amazing.
Also on the University campus is
what our tour guide described to us as the most beautiful dining room that you
will ever see and he was correct. The room, called the Painted Hall, is covered
in murals of scenes depicting British royalty from the 1500s’, 1600s’, and
1700s’. The only word that I can think to describe it, granted it is a hyphenated
one, is awe-inspiring. It was one of the most gorgeous places that I have ever
had the pleasure to behold and while I was there, I did one of the things that I
came to England to do: stand somewhere that people had stood for hundreds of
years before me in awe and marvel. It was simply exquisite.
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| Painted Hall |
Once we left the dining room, we
went over to the Naval Museum to look at some exhibits, including an item from
the Titanic, and then we had the option to either go to the Royal Observatory
from which all time is set, as it is the place of Greenwich Mean Time, or go to
a market. I chose to go the observatory and with that, some other study abroad
students and I set out for our trek up a hill to the destination. When we got
there, it had cleared up, giving way to sunny skies, and we got a wonderful
view of the city.
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| View from Observatory |
We also got to go to the line that divides the eastern and
western hemispheres and with one foot on each side of the line, I was able to
be in two places at once.
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| Two places at once |
After we took in the views, we were
able to go to the market before we went home and there I purchased a delicious pumpkin
chocolate chip cupcake. Not wanting to rush and eat before I got on the tube
(that day being the first that I had ever ridden any underground transportation)
I ate it when I got back to my dorm, closing out the day in a tasty way.
On Sunday, a group of us got up
bright and early to go on a tour of Bath and Stonehenge. From our campus, the
bus ride to Bath was two and half hours long, giving me the opportunity to view
the English countryside and get some reading for a class done. The countryside
reminded me a lot of Wisconsin, so for that reason, as we were driving, it felt
like I was back home and going on a road trip with some friends, but that all
changed when we got to Bath.
Bath is a city that has been around
for thousands of years and contains the country’s only hot spring, which was
utilized by the Romans for many years. Although after the Romans left the city
wasn’t as popular for many centuries, it regained its status in the 18th
century when a group of men set to reinvigorate it and made it into something
that is similar to a resort town with amazing architecture. The first stop we
made on our tour was to the Royal Crescent. The Royal Crescent, like many of
the buildings in bath, is made from sandstone and was designed John Wood, who
worked with his father of the same name of the other buildings. It is a
beautiful building, also like all those Bath.
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| The Royal Crescent |
Our next stop was the Circus, which
is a series of buildings built in a circle around a roundabout.
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| The Circus |
This had been
one of the things that I most wanted to see when I came to the town and I definitely
wasn’t disappointed in the sight. From there we walked through the streets,
past the Jane Austen Centre, Queen’s Square, the Bath Abbey (more on that
later), and to the Roman Baths. The Roman Baths are the actual place where the Romans
thousands of years before enjoyed the hot springs and tried to heal themselves
through them. This place was one of the most interesting places that we visited
and I found it amazing that the baths were that well preserved for how many
years that they had been around. While I did not touch or drink the water and
get to enjoy its healing powers, I did buy a bottle of the waters as souvenir.
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| Roman Baths |
Following the Roman Baths, my
friends and I walked through the town and after picking up some lunch, we found
our way to the Pulteney Bridge. This bridge is astounding and was also the
scene of a memorable Russell Crowe scene in Les
Misérables.
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| Pulteney Bridge |
The area around the bridge is a mixture of architecture and a
park, which when we went in it was the most beautiful and well-kept park, aside
from Hyde Park, that I had ever been in.
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| Park |
I found myself saying that I would
move to Bath because of how beautiful it was and because it was so peaceful.
Also, as a lover of books and an aspiring writer, to be living in a place where
Jane Austen walked and set her books in would simply be amazing. It was amazing
just to walk where she did for a couple of hours.
Our final stop was the most
breathtaking.
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| Bath Abbey |
The Bath Abbey was built in 15
th century and is called
the “Lantern of the West” due to its stained glass windows. While the windows
are beautiful, it was the ceiling that really stopped me in my tracks and
caused me to look up with my mouth agog.
The architecture of it was intricate and
wondrous and I was in awe. As I write this, I still find my words unattainable
when trying to describe it, so I will let the pictures attempt to do it justice
instead.
Once we were out of Bath, we began
our drive to Stonehenge which was about an hour away. On the trip, our tour
guide informed us of its history and told us that from what they can tell,
Stonehenge was built around 3000 BCE by thousands of people (apparently, it
wasn’t aliens) and was built for the purpose of healing and to worship the sun.
People were brought there to be cured of disease but also to be sacrificed to
the gods. From our coach, we walked to
an area where we waited in line to be taken on another bus to the site.
When I first
saw it in the distance through the bus windows, the sense of marvel came over
me and I as I walked around it, it stayed. The stones are huge and to think that
people who had minimal tools compared to what we have today were able to carve
and move these stones long distances is mind blowing. It was also incredible to
be there because it was the oldest site that I had ever been to, as it has been
around 5000 years and as I stood there, taking it all in, I had to wonder if
the people who built it would have ever thought that it would be still
standing, outlasting them by thousands of years, and that it would have drawn
so much attention over that time; I don’t think they did, because I don’t think
that anyone really anticipates that anything will last that long.
Between Stonehenge, Bath, and the Greenwich tour, the weekend
was a tour of history that took me from ancient times to the present, making it
the coolest mashup of past and present that I have partaken in to this day. This
weekend here has been one of my favorites and I cannot wait to do more
sightseeing in the future!
