Trip to Stone henge and Roman Bath

It was less than 6 degrees and everybody around was still asleep including myself thats when my alarm rang, time was 5 am in the morning. We had decided to go to Stone henge and Bath, 2 very good places on the same day in UK. I had the task of waking up my friend too. By 7:20 we were at the YMCA, there was quite a big crowd by the time we started from YMCA, I think it was around 50.  It was a bad start as none of us were able to grab anything for breakfast.

It was the first time I was seeing the sunrise in weeks. within few minutes we were out of the city life and was passing through the army quarters and country side. We had a wonderful guide who was introduced by the organisers. Forgot to mention, earlier in the day as soon as we came to YMCA, my friend wanted to take a pic in front a plant next to Gandhiji's photo. while I was taking the picture behind came a comment from Mike saying  the plant behind my friend was good. me and my friend both were laughing at this, now it was the same guy who would be a guide for us the whole day.

Starting from where we had left, Mike started explaining about the country side and the place that we were going "Stone Henge". Stonehenge is a  prehistoric monument located in the English countyside, One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones and sits at the centre of the densest complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial grounds.

We were there at Stone Henge within 2.5 hours and we were having about an hour to finish Stone henge and back to the coach. Almost all of them who came with us were hungry, luckily bread slices that i had carried early in the morning helped a lot, at one time we had even eyed the bananas brought by another gang. As soon as my friend saw the Stone henge first response from him was " this is the same picture which is on my Windows desktop", one other friend answered him, yes Microsoft stole it from here.

We spent some time watching and listening to the history of the place and of course taking pictures from all the angles. Even before we can think of we were back on the coach. Organisers were little upset as few of them came as late as 30 mins. It was a tight schedule as we were about to cover 2 places on the same day.  Starting from there, it was very nice country side that we passed through and althrough the journey we had nice hindi songs played by the guys behind us on their mobile. Every now and then Mike used to give us details about the place.

By the time we reach the Roman bath it was nearly 1 and all of us were hungry. But Plan was to visit the Bath first and then have our lunch. It was a tough feeling to carry our lunch and take photographs and roam around the roman bath. It was a wonderful ancient place, though I wasnt very interested in listening to the history, enjoyed viewing the exhibits. 

The Roman Baths complex is a site of historical interest in the English city of Bath. The complex is a well-preserved Roman site for public bathing.The Roman Baths themselves are below the modern street level. There are four main features: the Sacred Spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House and the Museum holding finds from Roman Bath. The buildings above street level date from the 19th century.

From there we went on searching for the River side park, and after huge effort of nearly 40 minutes, we were on the bank of river Avon. Overlooking the river and the Pulteney bridge we had our lunch. We were accompanied by a friend from meghalaya, to be surprise she was the first person from meghalaya whom I had met.  With all our energies refilled, we were ready to explore the city of bath. 

First thing that caught our eye was St.John's Evangelist Catholic Church. It was a wonderful church and one of the best that I had seen. we didnt get in as there was a mass going on during that time, From there I took my friends saying I will show them the Cathedral ( though I dint really know what it was and how to go).  It was a long walk and at last we saw a beautiful building which i convinced my friends that it was Bath University. But it was St.Mary Virgin church. 

Next stop from there was at the Pulteney bridge which is the next best thing in Bath after the bath and Abbey. We didnt spend much time enjoying the bridge. This bridge is the only bridge in UK which has shops built on the Bridge. From there we went to the Abbey, for our dissaapointment, the entry was closed for the abbey tower. Spent some time viewing the abbey and headed back to our coach.

Speaking to others from our group, we came to know that we had missed viewing Royal Carnival too. Back on our way we spent most of the time in talking as it was already getting dark and we could hardly see anything outside. Overall it was a short wonderful trip.