Stonehenge, Bath & Salisbury Cathedral

Day 4 in London, early start we left our hotel just after 6am, to avoid any peak hour crushing us on the underground. It's very cold and raining, yep, another typical London day. We go around around Victoria Station trying to find the coach terminal. We finally arrive damp and cold (hoping frost bite doesn't set in), it's so cold.

As we board the coach and our little toes & fingers start to get feeling back, ahh the warmth yay!

So first stop is The City of Bath, this was built by the Roman Empire over 2000 years ago. It still has hot thermal springs bubbling up from over 2 miles beneath the surface!! This was where the Romans came to bathe and heal themselves. Legend has it these natural springs were found by a cast out son of a king. He was cast out after contracting leprosy. He wondered the woods with his "unclean" animals "pigs". One day his pigs found warm springs to bathe and roll around in whilst their keeper slept, when he awoke his unclean animals were now clean! He too bathed in the hot springs and when he came out he was rid of his leprosy. These springs have been known for their healing powers. The "Pump Room" as its known by now is a tourist attraction and to think as we walked around these springs, we were walking on ground where the Romans did over 2000yrs ago!

Roman Bath...

One of my favourites the reflection at the Roman Bath...

The Steam...

Next stop was Stonehenge, this is where we froze in time... Zero degrees and windy, just how we like it! This place is a little eerie, over 5000yrs old and over 900 burial mounds around the area known as "Beaker Mounds". This is where someone of stature was buried and also with some of their possessions such as water containers known as beakers, arrows, jewellery and in some instances their horses! The site now is about half of its original size and some of these chunks of stone are over 50 tonne each!

Stonehenge by day...

Stonehenge at sunset... 

Our last stop of the tour is Salisbury Cathedral this dates back over 750 years!!! There is a stone in here called the "Bumping Stone" this is where choir boys once initiated, traditionally had their heads banged 7 times on this stone!!! Over the years as you can see how much use this stone has endured!!! This is also the home of one of the last 4 original "Magna Caters" signed by King John of England on 19th June 1215. There were no pictures allowed of it but this copy apparently is the best kept one left in the world. The clock in the Cathedral is the worlds oldest working clock and dates back to 1386, it is designed not to tell the time but to chime the tower bell on the hour and has done since the 14th century!

Spire at sunset, truly magical...

Lighting was magical...

Baptism font...

The "Bumping Stone"...

The oldest working clock without a face 1386...