Wanderlust: Day 2 - Bath & Stonehenge

Today we are on a tour to Bath and Stonehenge. We stayed in Bath a few years ago so I wanted to ‘revisit’ this beautiful city and I’ve always wanted to see Stonehenge!

We left Victoria St depot with Prestige Tours at 8.30am for the 2 ½ hour journey to Bath. This heritage listed city is very pretty, totally constructed from the local Bath stone – even new buildings must use the same materials and style in keeping with the surrounding environs. Our first stop was Bath Abbey – an amazing example of Gothic architecture with beautiful ‘fanned’ buttresses. We didn’t go to the Baths this time, having already done an extensive tour in the past, but just walked around, venturing across Pulteney Bridge, through small arcades, into delicious chocolate (Charlotte Brunswick) and fudge (Fudge Factory) shops – I’m only human – a stop at “Sally Lunn’s” and ending at a local pub for wine and snacks.

A further thirty minutes on and we arrive at Stonehenge. There is a new visitor centre opened recently where you board a commuter bus that takes you to the monolithic structure. They are restoring the surrounds with new grass etc to protect the area so it’s about ten metres from you to the rocks. Close enough to get a very good view. There are a number of campers on the surrounding roads who have obviously come to view Stonehenge for the Winter solstice, which is apparently thought to be one of the reasons it was built – to align the sun’s rays during both the Winter and Summer solstice.

We were dropped off in South Kensington so took a cab back to the hotel – GBP4.75 per single journey on a train whereas the cab was only about 11 pound.

Back at the hotel Gordy’s asleep so looks like it’s an early night!