Destination: Bath & Stonehenge

Today I took a trip to Bath & Stonehenge, juz to escape from Birmingham and enjoy the air at another city ^^ . Bath & Stonehenge are located at South-West of England, at the closest part to Wales. Bath, London and Birmingham form a balanced-triangle with London as one vertex as u can see in the map below:



About 30' away by coach to the South-East of Bath is Stonehenge - the infamous megalithic ruin that now is a heritage of England. For those who don't know what Stonehenge is, u better off dead! ( j/k ^^ ) . Here are some info about Stonehenge:

Stonehenge is not a single structure but consists of a series of earth, timber, and stone structures that were revised and re-modelled over a period of more than 1400 years including 3 phases. At phase III ( that u will be able to see in my photos), it was first built with Sarsen Circle and Trilithon Horseshoe:




Subsequently, a Bluestone Oval added within Trilithon Horseshoe and a Bluestone Circle added outside the Trilithon Horseshoe but inside the Sarsen Circle.


Then, an arc of stone was removed from the Bluestone Oval to form a Bluestone Horseshoe. Finally, two circles, one inside the other, known as the Y and Z Holes were dug for the placement of stones but were never filled.


Stonehenge is believed to be built by either Romans or Druids ( which is still a debate until now ) . Enough of background knowledge , here are some photos that I took:




Been there, done that ^^


After Stonehenge, I departed to Bath - a city that reflects Roman architecture deeply. Bath is a spectacularly beautiful city with a history dating back to the Roman times. Standing on the River Avon, Bath is a recognised worldwide as a World Heritage Site. In ancient times, the warm waters of the Bath springs were thought to be sacred, and when the Romans built a famous temple on the famous spring, the famous city of Bath was born.

City of Bath








Bath Abbey—Standing in the heart of Bath, the Bath Abbey has been built and ruined three times in the last twelve hundred years. The present building was finished in 1499, this unique building is the last of the great medieval English churches

Outside:


Inside:




At night ( very impressive! )




Bath is a small city therefore places of interests are within walking distance. After visiting Bath Abbey church, I walked to Royal Crescent which is one of the most distinctive parts of Bath, and almost unique in the UK, Royal Crescent is a semi circular building built by the famous John Wood the Younger in 1774. It consists of 30 magnificent houses, supported by 118 grand columns. Unfortunately, fog became so dense at that time that I couldn't hardly see the overall structure of Royal Crescent:



( been there, done that! )


Nearby Royal Crescent is The Circus - built in the eighteenth century by the famous architect John Wood the Elder and his son John Wood the Younger, the Circus is a very distinctive and beautiful garden surrounded by a row of circular buildings. Its three tiers of columns was described as 'the Colosseum turned outside in'. The acorns decorating the parapets reflect the Celtic legend of King Bladud, the founder of Bath. I could only took a photo of a part of it. The circle itself is so huge!



After patrolling around downtown of Bath, feeling tired and numb ( weather is getting cold in England, it's becoming like a place where the sun never shine through the dense fog that dub England the name: Kingdom of fog ( or smth like that ) ) , I got back to the coach station back to Birmingham. Had a fun and nice day!

Last photo: ( with some local crazyyy friendlyyy fellows that passed by ^^ )


Carpe diem