A Brief Stay in the English Countryside

Well, it's been quite the week.  We took off Tuesday morning on a coach bus to Bristol.  I had my first hostel experience (it was a good one, overall), tried and loved South African food, took over 500 pictures, hiked over 12 miles, and survived with no wifi for four days.

After about an hour and a half of driving, we came over this hill, and BAM! There was Stonehenge. The sun was beaming through the clouds onto the luscious green grass.  It was quite a magnificent sight.  There isn't so much to see -- you just walk around the stones in a 50 foot perimeter.  They are big, but not huge.  Fascinating and impressive.  And a good photo op. :) I took many...

Avebury was our next stop, about 30 minutes from Stonehenge.  It's a similar attraction: really old rocks. Big rocks. Older rocks. More rocks. You get the idea.  But we had a great tour guide named Pam whose favorite word was "fab".  I loved her.  She made us say Avebury is infinitely better than Stonehenge. And in some respects, it was.  We could touch the stones...

After Avebury we stopped in Caen to look at the locks along the canal there.  I'm not going to lie, I wasn't excited about it.  But once we got walking along the canal, I fell in love with it all: I loved the canal, the walk, the countryside, the wildflowers, the opportunity to think in peace... By the end of the walk (which ended up being several miles) I had thoroughly enjoyed myself and picked a lovely bouquet of wildflowers that I left on someone's doorstep.

We arrived at the youth hostel in Bristol in time to find dinner on our own, so we looked around the college town for a while and settled on Nando's, a South African grill. It was yummy.  And...I stumbled upon my favorite piece of graffiti yet.  The hostel rooms had two bunk beds, a toilet, sink, and a shower; that's better accommodations than we have at the center. Except my feet hung off the edge of the bed, and I woke up sore from the extremely firm mattress...But other than that, no complaints at all.

Wednesday morning we headed to Bath to explore the ancient Roman baths and the rest of the little city. I really loved Bath.  The buildings are almost all identical in shape, color, size, and design, and there's nothing too remarkable about any of them (except the cathedral, of course), but how they are arranged is stunning.  Structures like the Royal Circus and the Royal Crescent  are so elegant.     We had some down time, and after we ventured through an overgrown cemetery and the quaint residential districts, I climbed up on a ledge overlooking a nice little park and the river to read Pride and Prejudice.  It was lovely.

Thursday we drove to Wales and visited Tintern Abbey.  When we first rounded the corner, I literally could not breathe, the sight was so beautiful.  I have never seen such green grass, beautiful stone, and blue skies with perfect, fluffy white clouds.  It was unbelievable; no wonder it has inspired so many writers and artists.  The best part was climbing it.  It was quite a sight to see 40 young adults climbing all over an abandoned, disintegrated, historical 12th century abbey like it was a playground with monkey bars and a slide! Little did we know we weren't supposed to be climbing on it, and some mean lady told us to get down, but not before we got pictures!

After Tintern Abbey, of which I was sad to leave, we returned to England to visit the cutest little town of Chipping and Campden.  This is the most adorable, picture-perfect, from-a-movie town I've ever seen.  I also happened to forget my camera on the bus during this outing...but believe me, it was cute.  Then we went on another beautiful hike through the Cotswold hills/mountains. The English countryside is the best!


The Friday: Wells Cathedral and Durdle Door.  Wells Cathedral was cool, but after some of the cathedrals we've seen, nothing too distinct except for the owl shaped in the double arch above the altar... But Wells was a cute little town too.  Durdle Door, however, was incredibly fantastic.  We were driving (and you've got to understand driving on a huge bus on little, windy roads... is quite an experience), and suddenly I gasp and yell "I see the ocean!". Sadly, it's been a while since I've been to the coast, and I was so excited to be near the ocean again.  After I hiked up the small mountain along the coast and descended to the beach at  the Durdle Door arch (a natural arch formed in the rocks by erosion) I marveled at the sight, sound, smell, and feel of the beach and ocean.  As you can see, I continued with my new-found love of hiking, listening to music, and picking wildflower bouquets while taking a bajillion pictures. :)

Well, what I lucky girl I am! I had a wonderful week.  The UK is really spoiling me... And I'm loving it!