The Southwest

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Just returned tonight from a 3 day trip to Southwest England. A majority (two days) of it was spent in Bath. We left Bath this morning, and went to Wells, then to Stonehenge, then to Avebury, then back. Here's what happened. Anyways, like I said, we got to Bath on Saturday morning. Bath is (obviously) in the Southwest, and is aptly known for its baths and natural hot springs. It's sort of a big deal, as back in the 18th century, it was like, Hollywood in Britain. Important people hung out there, mainly just to see and be seen, as well as use the baths. The thing about the baths, is that they were originally constructed by the Romans like 1200 years ago. In the 1800's, they actually discovered the orignal Roman bath buried under a bunch of crap, and excavated it. So, people sort of added on to it, and all this stuff. Whatever. We got there Saturday morning, and after dropping our stuff off at the hostel, we walked around the city for a bit. The whole city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, because the whole city was pretty much built in the 18th century. There's a very famous building called the Royal Crescent, which is a huge crescent shaped group of townhomes. There is also a building called the Circus, which is 3 townhouse complexes that form a 3 part circle around a central courtyard. It's sort of hard to explain, but it forms a perfect circle from the air.

One of the things about this trip that set it apart from the others is the level of individual/small group bonding that was had, at least by me. Saturday, we had some free time after our morning/early afternoon tours, so Brandon, Emily, and I decided to go to Starbucks for some amazing peppermint mocha. If I had a top 10 list of the general best things about life, Starbucks' holiday peppermint mocha might very well be on it. What I at least imagined would be a quick stop evolved into a 2 hour long conversation over coffee in the upstairs seating area. I won't bore anyone with the details, but we talked about a ton of stuff, and gained a little more understanding about each other, I think. It was extremely enjoyable. Anyways, after that, we all ate dinner at an Alsatian restaurant (think France) called La Flamma. The Bath Mozart Fest is going on, so we were able to procure tickets to go see the London Philharmonic, which was playing in town. Although the lack of trombones severely disappointed me, it was a very good concert. They are much better than the Nottingham Philharmonia. They played a symphony by Haydn, then a Mozart concertino for violin and viola which some amazing soloists. Finished it all off with Symphony No. 41. Pretty intense. After the concert, we all just sort of walked around, ending up in a playground, which featured some very dangerous (by American standards) play equipment. But also very fun. We had a good time.

On Sunday, after way too many cups of machine prepared café au lait, and a very psychologically, emotionally, and mentally damaging defeat at foosball (it wasn't a regulation table, so I blame my loss on that. Plus, we didn't play until 10), a bunch of us went to church at the abbey in town. It was basically the British equivalent of Veteran's Day, so everyone is wearing this red paper poppies on their lapels. It's a big deal over here. So, church was nice, especially when the choir sang. The sermon was terrible. Anyways, after that, I just sort of walked around the city for a while. At 1:30, we had a tour of the Roman Baths. It was probably the most interesting "historic thing" I've done thus far in England. The audio tour was very well laid out, and it was just presented well in general I felt. Plus it was very interesting. The actual bath is original Roman, and used to be the center of a huge temple complex. The building that houses it now is either 18th or 19th century, but it's pretty intense that the actual baths and stuff are 2,000 years old. After that whole deal, we had afternoon tea in the Pump Room, which was where all the rich people hung out in the 1700's. It was exceedingly elegant, and quite good, but very expensive. I didn't pay for it though, Luther did, so I didn't think too much of it. Anyways, we had the opportunity to go to a not-so-fully-staged opera that night, for the Mozart Fest once again. I really was not feeling it, and neither was Mary, so we elected not to go. I mentioned earlier that this trip was notable for the amount of individual/group bonding, and this was the other big event in that. The two of us spent the next 3.5 hours or so just wandering the city, talking about a whole bunch of stuff. After a while we got hungry, so we found possibly the only eating establishment in town that wasn't a pub, and had some bruschetta at an Italian restaurant. Once again, I really enjoyed the whole evening. It was really nice to get to know someone I felt until now I did not know a whole lot. So, good.

Monday, we got up and went to Wells. A former Luther grad is head of the woodwind department at the Cathedral School, which is one of only 4 in the country to specialize in music. It's sort of like Interlochen, or maybe Juilliard high school style. But it's a normal school as well, it just has this intensely specialized music school within it. Anyways, I sat in on a theory class for a while, and these kids were tearing this Cage sonata apart at the seams. I was impressed with it, as they (as high school juniors) were throwing around stuff I learned in theory II at Luther. We then toured the actual cathedral and ate lunch. We then headed for Stonehenge. All I could think about at the actual site was the scene from "Spinal Tap" where they lower the tiny triptych and the dwarfs knock it over. If you haven't seen, I'd recommend it. Anyways, we took the poor mans tour of Stonehenge, in that we didn't actually pay the admission fee. We just looked at it from outside a fence on the road. Sort of like watching a baseball game from the roof of a building opposite the field. But it was pretty cool to see. I guess it's such an iconic thing, you're bound to be a little let down, but I thought it was pretty intense nonetheless. Just the fact they dragged these huge stones like, 200 miles or whatever. Yikes. Anyways, then we went to Avebury, which is a town in the middle of another prehistoric monument. It's like this huge circle created by a dug ditch, with huge rocks placed around, stone circles and such. It was cool, but it was night, so it was difficult to see. Anyways, then we drove back.

Needless to say, it was a good trip. Partially because I didn't have anything hanging over me, like a baseball tournament or whatever. But I really enjoyed Bath. If any readers are considering coming to England anytime soon, I'd recommend it. And I hear going to the actual Bath (they still have a communal bath/spa) is well worth the money. But most of all, I really enjoyed talking with the various Luther folk, especially our time in Starbucks and the wandering Sunday night Mary and I had. It's just nice to start to get a sense of who people are here. Good times. Later folks.