Outside London - The All Day Tour!

Sorry for the abrupt halt of my London travel posts. We moved onto Paris and the "free wifi" at the hotel never worked. At any rate, I'm home. I'm also fried. However, I have a long weekend to recover AND catch you all up on my travel experiences.

So, where were we? Ah yes, London! Well, aside from working each day out of the London office and eating my way about town by night, I did manage to get in a bit of R&R before hopping a train to Paris. One of my work colleagues and I decided to spend a day away from the UK cube farm in order to try and see a bit of the countryside. We grabbed my husband and boarded a bus bound for the west of England!

First stop, Bath!

Although there is much to see in this fair city, our tour was to drop us off at the Roman Spa for a few hours before moving onto the next locale.





Our visit did not disappoint as the site itself is huge, taking the tourist from street level down into the subterranean structure of the Spa itself. There were artifacts galore and the handy audio guide was my companion throughout the visit, highlighting points of interest as I snaked my way about the maze of stone and thermal hot springs.

I was definitely drawn to the mosaics. Think intarsia charts peeps!



And I have a thing for ginormous heads...





Needless to say, what I found to be the most interesting artifacts were the spinning and weaving tools that had been excavated around the site...



Today's spinning and weaving tools have changed little. You know the old cliche, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, definitely applies.

Upon completion of our tour de spa, we were back on the bus traveling to stop numero dos, Salisbury Cathedral, home of the Magna Carta and "one of the finest medieval Cathedrals in Britain"!



The exterior is stunning in size and scope. Riddled with details, one could spend the whole day meandering about the edifice uncovering architectural characteristics galore.







Once inside, the sheer size of the structure hit home. I was awed. My few pictures hardly do the place justice, but here's a few anyway...







Did you catch that altar piece above? Yeah, well, needlepoint is alive and well at Salisbury Cathedral. After noticing that particular altar piece, I began to notice a plethora of needlepoint chair cushions as well. Each one a piece of art...



I love needlepoint. If I weren't currently knitting, crocheting, weaving, dyeing and spinning, I'd definitely be doing a bit of needlepoint. However, I'm just a tad too busy.

Moving right along.

After basking in the glow of the Magna Carta, we made our way back the bus for our final stop, Stonehenge!



How about a round of applause for managing to snap a pic devoid of my fellow tourists???

Although, normally, I hate these one day touristic extravaganzas, this one was totally tolerable. Because of my work schedule, it was my best hope to see some of the heritage sites about Britain.

Next post is all about France...