Having been overseas for eight weeks now I’ve had the chance to do quite a bit of traveling around Britain. So, on the eve of my Spring Break I thought I would catch up with a quick blog on some of the locations I’ve visited on the island:
Bath
The first thing you notice when entering Bath is the uniform architecture throughout the city. Nearly every street is worth taking a few pictures of. The city is home to several notable sites, including the Royal Crescent, the Jane Austen Centre, Bath Abbey, and the Royal Victoria Park. And of course, the famous Roman baths. Although this was the first time I encountered large numbers of tourists at a site, I was still able to enjoy the experience of walking through the ancient location. The picture is of the hot spring that is the source of all the water. By the time it flows into the main baths the water will be cool enough to comfortably bathe in.
Castles
No trip to through Europe would be complete without a few castles, and the photo below is of Warwick Castle, which is the first one I visited in Britain. In spite of the rather touristy nature of the castle today, it is still easy to comprehend the original nature of its location. The castle is situated on the top of a hill and is defensible from all sides. From the top of the castle you can see for miles, even in England’s typically foggy weather. One of my favorite attractions from this location was watching the falconer’s birds dive at up to 200 mph.
Stonehenge
Although Stonehenge is set in a lonely location between two highways and surrounded by fields, it is one of the world’s most famous sites for a reason. The stones weigh between 4 and 40 tons each, and come from many miles away. Also, Stonehenge is oriented to frame the rising sun during the summer solstice and the setting sun during the winter solstice. The weather was abnormally cold and windy when I visited Stonehenge (you can see the snow), but this kept a lot of other tourists indoors, leading to several good pictures of the site. While tourists are now confined to the path surrounding Stonehenge, there are actually several other places in Britain that are similar, one or two of which I plan to stop at before the end of the semester.
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