On our car trip to Stonehenge on July 4th we listened to a radio station that was honoring the US Independence Day with a melody of songs for the occasion. Some were rather strange like "Swanee", but a lot of patriotic songs too! We arrived at Stonehenge, the most recognizable monument in the UK. To think that Stonehenge was constructed between 3000 and 2920 BC is remarkable. These Sarsen stones (a type of extremely hard limestone), some over 40 tons, which the closest distance known is 19 miles away and bluestones from distances of 150 miles up in Wales have various theories on how they were moved to this location. There may be some folks that started a move but died before the move was completed for that stone over the years. The history and theories are fascinating and can be reached at www.english-heritage.org.uk/stonehenge.
The Stonehenge marker
Magnificent Stonehenge
The Fab Four at Stonehenge
We continued our journey to the City of Bath. Here the Romans built the ancient bathhouse and pool. The architecture in the city is wonderful with the carved stone.The Roman Bath House
The home of the Roman Baths
Carved Stone Architecture
In Bath we passed a bakery with wonderful sweets displayed in their windows. We gained about five pounds just looking in the window at this Chocolate delight. Wouldn't you just die to dive into it?
Chocolate, anyone?
As we walked through the streets of Bath, we came across the British Hatter that the Queen uses to raise money for her hats by selling them in her own thrift store. We were so lucky to stumble upon this by accident. And if you believe this tale, please contact me about the ocean-front property I am trying to sell in Arizona!
The British Hatter
The British Hatter
A great selection of ladies' hats in the store-front window
Leaving Bath we headed for the Longleat Estate where we had booked rooms at The Bath Arms hotel. It is a great stone building that is now a hotel with each room in a different motif. It is a wonderful place that we would recommend to all to stay if ever going to England. When you have time, visit their website at www.batharms.co.uk! Mary Anne and Larry had the "Oriental Suite" on the third level. Of course, there were no lifts (elevators for you US kinds!) and we should have consolidated our luggage to one small case for this one-night stay, but we didn't. However, we made it up there with two large luggage bags. From the outside you can't even see our windows through the ivy but we had a gorgeous view looking out.
The Bath Arms at Longleat
The Bath Arms at Longleat
Our simply fabulous Bath Arms room, the Oriental
For dinner, we ate in the dining room with reserved tables for the four of us. Whether it was Larry's Duck, Ray's Pork, or Mary Anne's and Sandra's Fish, it didn't matter ... they all just melted in our mouths. With a good wine and all of the trimmings, we had a delightful meal followed by fabulous desserts.
Larry with melt-in-your mouth duck over potatoes
Larry with melt-in-your mouth duck over potatoes
Ray with an exquisite pork dish
And the ladies with pan fried fish over a bed of greens
Check out the descriptions of the desserts in the album captions ... so wonderful!
So what do you do after this kind of a meal? We take a walk around the area and absorb the local countryside and walk off some of those calories! But the food was definitely worth it.
Thatched roof stone house around Longleat
Thatched roof stone house around Longleat
The gentle Longleat countryside
Be sure to see this complete album at this link.
 |
0 comments:
Post a Comment