Around the Neighborhood
We are moving across town today but I went for a walk around the Bear Flat area one more time. I ran into a couple who live here. The woman asked if I have been up to Alexandra Park and I replied I hadn't. You have to go she said best views of the city. So up Shakespeare Rd I tread toward the best views of Bath. Boy was she right!


At first I thought, this is the cleanest radiator shop I have ever seen. Different kind of radiator.

Pass the Italian deli where we bought cheese and salami and it lasted for two great picnics

Past the Church just up the corner from the main drag

Beautiful Terrace houses that go all the way up the hill

It's June and everything is blooming

Entry to the Park.

Here are the money shots! Bath Abbey is right in the middle of the picture

Another shot with the bus station in the foreground

Those look like normal radiators to me. What is a radiator to you?

Day One Rick Steves Tour - Roman baths in Bath...or Bath's baths.
Today we started our Rick Steves tour. Some of you who followed our Croatia / Slovenia tour know that we haven't generally done tours but did one in Croatia and loved it. So we signed up for England. Had a guided tour of Bath in the AM, some of the stuff we've already seen and then went to the Roman Baths. I didn't realize this was such a large collection of artifacts. I thought you went in, saw the baths and moved on, but there is a lot going on in this attraction. Much of the stuff you see has been recreated since the Queen Anne days, in fact I think the discovery of the original Roman baths happened quite late. I took so many pictures I can't post them all, here's a few:


This "patio" is above the old Roman bath. It is not that old, the statues were done sometime in the 1890's.

In Roman times this was a huge complex with a temple. Inside the temple would have been a statue of Sulis Minerva. Head of Minerva, body has been lost.

This is in the East Baths. There would have been heated water surrounding these pillored tiles and a fire heating up the water creating a steam room for the ladies.

Original pool, a lot of sides and flooring of this level is the original Roman.

This would have been the Temple pediment, only some of that has been uncovered.

Here is a close up of the Medusa like head in the pediment except it's male

Close up of a coin. They found hoards of coins something like 20,000 or more.

As a coin collector it was very exciting to look at these coins. Romans, country men, lend me a dime. People would toss coins and other objects into the waters for good luck

Large bust of woman with the latest hair do...at that time.

Just to clarify -- you didn't walk through a 'hedge'. It is Stonehenge and Stonehenge is a henge

It’s one of the reason I love London and it feels like parts of LA and SF-the multicultural energy and how much it is embraced. We used to go to London every year for a work conference and I absolutely loved all the difference cuisines we could pick from. Our last trip was in 2023 and we happily went back to our beloved Spanish tapas, udon noodles, North African and Indian restaurants we had enjoyed many many times. Another great memory we have is the play we saw about the kinks and 1960’s London called Sunny Days. Very fun evening.

I was thinking about car radiators! Not sure if in England you call the cooling element in a car a radiator. These are of course radiators for heating which we see on the East Coast in older buildings but not so much on the West Coast. In the States if you see a radiator shop, it's going to be very greasy, parts layng all around and garage opening into the shop. Thanks for your post so I could clear that up.

DId I do that again!!! I know it's henge not hedge but I keep spelling it wrong!. Today at Avesbury we learned that the henge is actually the ditch around the stones, so even what I would think is Stonehenge, it's not the stones.

We do call the coolers in ICE cars radiators as well as heaters in houses. It's just that I think most people in the UK's first thought when hearing the word radiator would be those in the house and not in a car - exactly the other way round to you.

Romans were thrifty folk so often repurposed bodies of statues by swapping out the heads. So it may well be one body had thirty different heads over the centuries.

Glastonbury and Wells
Today we hopped on the bus Gus and headed to Glastonbury and Wells. I know very little about either location, I've seen Glastonbury Music Festival on TV many times. I didn't know anything about Arthur and Guinevere being "found" here and that Glastonbury has a Woo-Woo reputation. First stop was the Abbey Ruins. I found them to be quite spectacular and when we heard it was basically Henry the VIII that lead to their ruin it was kind of interesting how something so grand could be destroyed. It's not unlike Isis blowing up sites in the Middle East, just 700 years, Henry was 500 years earlier


Welcome sign
They live up to their reputation, you see this when you walk into town.

Downtown Glastonbury. There are tons of shops selling crystals, and mandalas and dragons etc. Could probably pick up a Hobbit or two.

Entry into the ruins. At one time in history, the large opening on the left was walled of and you couldn't get into the Abbey this way.

Lot's of ruins, the Cathdral was massive only a footprint remains.

More shots of the front of the Abbey

Inside looking out

The Abbot's kitchen survived

More tuins

As you walk along you come upon two or three little doors in the grass. When opened you can see some of the original floor

Here lies King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. Actually some people think it's Jimmy Hoffa

Wells Cathedral
We were supposed to go into Wells Cathedral on the tour but they were shooting a commercial. We asked one of the guys what they were shooting and he said, "It's for Lurpak, but don't spread it". Which would have been hilarious if any of us 26 knew that Lurpak was a British butter brand! Walked around the outside of the Cathedral and then down the Vicar's Close, the oldest continuously occupied complete street in Europe. (according to our tour book). We did get into the Bishop's Palace and Gardens which was not the Cathedral but pretty interesting and the garden's are beautiful right now. Drove back to Bath where I stumbled onto an open mic for songwriters at the Grapes. I've included a picture, it was interesting, 7 or 8 musicians around a table and they moved the mic to the next person.







Wells Cathedral with scaffolding on the right.

Big historic clock outside of the Cathedral on the east wall

Long shot of the Cathedral

Crossing the moat into the Bishop's Palace

Entry to the actual palace

The Bishop's Chapel

Gardens

Kind of a cool shot

Another picture of the moat and tower

Singer / Songwriters in Bath

Today's Journey: Avebury and Oxford
Elvis has left Bath. Spent 6 nights there and enjoyed them all. Our first stop was Avebury which iyears s interesting in a number of ways. First the overall area is way bigger the Stonehenge. Also over the years a village has built itself around the stones. It's believed there were two sets of circles here but most of the stones are from the outside circle. The other interesting thing is that the area is covered in sheep, that was really cool. We did most of the circle and are heading to Oxford.


Entry sign from the car park. Hopefully you will be able to see some of the map

The Henge around the stones.

Sheep everywhere in and amongst the stones

Some of the sheep were closer than others

One interesting stone. Although most of the stones are smaller than Stonehenge, there were a few large ones.

Coming down the hill at the end of the tour

To be completely pedantic Lurpak is a Danish brand, not British. But I doubt that will help any of you!

Did you see the point where the swan rings the bell on the moat outside the Wells bishop's palace to be fed?

We were told about it but didn't actually see it. Also there don't seem to be many swans around this year. Saw lots of ducks.

Oxford.
After our tour of Avebury, we headed toward Oxford. We had lunch in a market at Gloucester Green Town Square, just down from the Ashmolean Museum. The museum looked nice but it wasn't on the schedule today. Lunch was fun because we sat at a communal table and got to talk to 3 students at the university. After lunch we took a tour of Oxford. Oxford is like the movie set for every film I would want to be in. Ever corner has a very old building that looks like something in a fantasy movie. We took a tour of St. John's College. Learned that each college is primarily a residential building with a chapel, cafeteria and some halls for tutorials but the majority of classes are held somewhere else on campus. In the States I think we generally call the students dorms a Hall. I didn't get as many photos as I should have to do Oxford justice but here are a few.


Inner courtyard of St. John's College

Big entry way with the Charles the First at the top

The chapel for the college.

The Martyrs Memorial for a three priests that were burned at the stake in Oxford in 1555.

This is the Bodleian library, the main research library for the school. My library card didn't work. Elitists!

Wait, this is the Bodleian Library with King James holding a bible, maybe the last picture is part of the library also.

Christ Church College

Some random building that looked really cool.

Round building is Radcliffe Camera.

Thanks MmePerdu, I'm assuming thats not Daniel Radcliffe Camera! LOL, it seems like a lot of Harry Potter was shot in Oxford.

There is no Campus. I received about half my tuition in college and half in the technical part of the University.

The Bodleian is everywhere, it is in the basement under so many buildings while the "stacks" the partially automated racking system goes from cellar to cellar for miles. The Bodleian is one of three or four libraries that has to receive one copy of every book published in the UK and of course has many more copies and a bunch of rarities. The bit I used to use is about half a mile from the Camera. Camera basically means "Room".

The Monument is also called the "Sunken Cathedral" as if it just sank and that is a spire still sticking up.

Hey bilboburglar, yeah the no Campus thing was quite a eye opener for us given that most of our universities are pretty well contained. Yes maybe in a large area, blocks and blocks, and quite a bit of student housing "off" campus, but still pretty contained.