Day 2: Bath, Salisbury, Stonehenge, and Avebury

The first stop of the day was the City of Bath. This city once known as the Roman town Aquae Sulis has now simply become Bath as that is where people would go to take a bath. It is the only natural mineral hot spring bath here in England. The Romans first built a structure around the baths in the 1st century but the hot springs have been used since prehistoric times. Much of the original Roman structure including a neighboring temple has been excavated and can be toured along with the improvements that were made in the 18th century. It was very interesting to tour the remains and see the artifacts from that time. The popularity of this town waxed and waned over the centuries until the late 17th century when Queen Mary fighting infertility bathed here and bore a child 10 months later. The water is said to also have other curative powers gained from soaking in it and drinking it. We had a chance to taste the water and I hope I got all the cures I need from the one sip as it was pretty awful tasting. You can't actually bathe in the old baths for health reasons but there is a nearby modern spa that has water from the spring that is delivered through newer bore holes.

The interest in the town took off in the 18th century and many new buildings that still remain were erected during that time. After leaving the baths we headed out for a wonderful walk around town to check out the architecture. I loved the flying buttresses on the church and the circle of curving homes.

On our walk we stopped to check out the Fashion Museum. I know it doesn't seem like something our family would be into but it was very interesting to see some of the fashions from the mid-1700's and some of the early bathing suits made of wool (sounds very itchy!). The dress below is from the 1760's, I'm sure glad I wasn't alive then. Whitney also had a chance to try on some of the fashions to include a corset and the steel rimmed skirt that replaced the layers of petticoats that were previously worn. She wasn't too fond of either item! Overall we weren't super impressed with the museum but seeing some of the early fashions was cool.

The next stop was the Salisbury cathedral. This cathedral has the tallest spire and is one of the largest here is Britain. There are so many old churches and castles here that you have to be selective as to which ones you stop and see. The Salisbury cathedral also houses the world's oldest working clock from 1386 AD and the best preserved of the remaining four original copies of the Magna Carta.

Next we headed north to check out Stonehenge. They don't let you get very close to this monument anymore so we opted to just view it from the road. Definitely an amazing work given the time period it was constructed.

We then headed a little further north to Avebury which a prehistoric site similar to Stonehenge but dates to an earlier time period, is 4 times as large, and you can walk throughout the site. Many of the rocks at this site were damaged beginning in the 14th century to be used in the construction of local buildings. The earthworks (ditch) that surrounds the stone circles were amazing in that they are 70 feet wide, 36 feet deep, and over 3/4 mile long and dug by hand with deer antlers.