stonehenge & bath.

though most people found stonehenge underwhelming and dismissed it as just "stones," i was still very impressed. some think it took over 1000 years to complete this mysterious monument, which is pretty incredible considering that even the most ambitious gothic churches took no more than 600 - 700 years to complete. I was surprised less by its size, but by how compact it was. I imagined it to be spread out, and hard to recognize its composition. but i could easily envision it being a religious monument/temple, which i think was its purpose. it's hard to wrap your head around the fact that people were able to mobilize in such a way to move these huge stones and carry on the construction for a millenium. i spent an hour just walking around it. the geometry and spacing of the stones were extremely consistent. oh, and the sheep were also entertaining too; free roaming sheep grazing near a world heritage site. enough said, here are pictures.

then we took an hour bus ride to our actual destination; Bath. i didn't know about it before signing up for the trip so here's quick background. it's famous for being the only place in the British isles with natural hot springs. there are three in total, and the hottest one was recently developed into a very posh spa called "thermal spa" as a part of their millenium project. there's also renovating an adjacent old classical building into a 5 star hotel to bring more people into the city. though its claim to fame is its hot springs, it was also a religious center during the georgian period 1700s to early 1800s. I was pleasantly surprised by how beautiful and quaint the city was; there's a nice mix of classical and georgian architecture. Bath is also where Jane Austen lived from 1800 - 1805, and apparently the city and society of Bath served as inspiration for some of her novels. the entire city is a world heritage site. I definitely recommend people to visit if they ever come to england.

entrance to roman baths.

gothic church, right next to the roman baths. nice contrast of architecture. nicknamed the "lantern" because at night, when the interior is lit with candles, light floods out of the HUGE windows.

the famous royal crescent. series of apartments/houses shaped in a crescent. the famous architect of bath is John Wood. basically everything worth seeing in bath was designed by John Wood, or his son, also named John Wood.

fun story: as a world heritage site, none of these buildings are allowed to be altered by its inhabitants. for example, all the doors are to be painted white to preserve continuity. however, in the 70s this badass lady got pissed that the local police painted yellow parking lines on her cobblestone walkway, so she painted her door yellow in protest. she went to court, and surprisingly won her case, so her door is the only non-white one. and now, no one is allowed to paint over her yellow door.

roman bath! in 400 AD, the roman bath complex included a temple dedicated to the goddess minerva, because divinity was their only explanation for hot water spewing out of the ground. you can see the steam.

coins found in the springs/fountains. found with these coins were metal plates/scraps of paper where citizens asked goddess minerva to curse those who have wronged them. ex: the thief who stole my hooded trench (coat)

all in all, great sunday.