Bath, Stonehenge and Salisbury -- Abridged

What we have here are two different accounts of the same day (Jan 19). Both Mom and Dad sent a narrative on their day trip (Mom's arriving a couple days after Dad's). Dad's version is in black and Mom's is in purple. I took some editorial license and cut out information that would be irrelevant to the general readership.

We took our second day trip yesterday. Out the door at 7:15 and off to Bath! I instituted a new feature on the coach (a feature I borrowed from the Chamber Orchestra tour Mom and I were on a few years ago) called BUS FUN. I previously asked two of the girls (Mary Katherine and Janna Adaniya) to put together some fun things to present over the bus microphone to the group. They gave some news from home including the weather in Provo, BYU and Jazz updates, and made up 3 songs, each spotlighting one of the girls in the group. Very bubbly presentation, lots of personality--they both relished having control of the microphone for a few minutes. I think we'll continue with BUS FUN.

I've included a picture of Tony our busdriver. He is very talkative, but we love him. He's been with us twice now. As we were driving to Bath he explained that in order for a village to be a village it has to have a church and a pub. Otherwise it's a hamlet. He pointed out that we were passing by Nimlet, the hamlet, and if you blinked you missed it. Tony also taught as a new word - "wonky". He was showing us wonky timber houses which means their floors were saggy and crooked. He also told us that there used to be a "window tax" way back when and that's why some of the really old houses had boarded up their windows.

We arrived in Bath at 9:45, just in time for the opening of the Roman Baths. I've visited this site 4 or 5 times now and each visit offers something new. This time the audio guide had different listening options for the same object or moment along the tour. I listened mostly to Bill Bryson hold forth with his witty take on things British. Mom and I typically go through museums at our own pace and meet up in the gift shop. We also do gift shops at our own pace. Mom needs more time--me less. She keeps buying stuff and storing it in the chest of drawers in our extra bedroom. I'm in denial on how she plans on transporting all her purchases in June.

Mom and I went window shopping along the Pulteney Bridge spanning the River Avon--the bridge has lots of touristy-type shops. We then walked some other streets and stopped in a few stores and paused to listen to a trio of brass players playing Mozart, Ravel, and other classics. They actually played pretty well and even had a CD to sell. I bummed a pound off of Mom and threw it in their case. We stroll by Sally Lunn's house--the oldest house in Bath, now a restaurant featuring her famous buns from an original recipe. I've tried them in previous visits. They're very average and nothing to write home about--so why am I doing exactly that? Dunno...

Bath was fun - again. When I took a picture of the big gorgon head, I suddenly realized it looked like Richard Harris. See what you think. Tony drove us up past the crescent and the circus and showed us where Nicholas Cage lives.

We reboarded the coach at 12:30 and headed to Stonehenge, arriving 1:45. Even though this world wonder now holds little mystery and awe for me (I've been...what? 5 times now?), I still get a bit of a charge every time I see it. We will be going AGAIN with our spring group. By then, it will be warmer--so we plan on leaving VERY early in the morning and arranging a private tour of the stones. On such visits, the English Heritage folks let us go under the ropes and right up to the rocks. Anyway, the girls seemed to have a good time; they took lots of pictures. For some reason many girls stick one leg out and stretch one or two arms outward while posing. The sun shined a bit, but the cold still had us shivering.

Stonehenge was absolutely gorgeous. I don't think the weather was much colder than when we were there in June and the wind wasn't blowing that much. I was very happy to have the sheep there as an alternative to taking lots of pictures of stone.

ASIDE: Even on a clear blue day (rare) we don't see much of the sun. Our northern latitude means the sun rises in the southeast and sets in the southwest. It just seems stuck in the south when it makes an appearance--which is only for 4 or 5 hours tops. 4:30 PM seems like 9:00 PM.

We journeyed to Salisbury and the great Cathedral there. We arrived 3:00 and Dr. Crisler and I went ahead of the group to arrange payment for the students. We got a great discount, but the Salisbury folks insisted we tour the Cathedral in groups of 11 with their guides. I took the first group and we met our guide with his green sash inside. He must have been about 112 years old. He leaned on his cane and nearly tipped over a few times. He spoke in muffled, soft tones, at a VERY slow pace. We didn't move for 20 minutes. I started calculating how long it was going to take to get us around the nave, transept, side chapels, etc. Ironically, this guy had no concept of time, and the Cathedral houses the world's oldest clock along the northside of the nave. Yikes. At the very end of the tour, one goes to the Chapter House that displays an original copy of the Magna Carta. Ebeneezer (not our guide's real name, but it seems appropriate) finally shifted into a slightly higher gear, and we made it to the Magna Carta after an hour.

Unlike Dad, my group had a very cute old man as our guide in Salisbury Cathedral. We dashed through there but as you know, Dad and I are going back tomorrow.

Today I teach my classes and I'm having Mom do a spiel on Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Verdi--composers featured in tonight's concert required of all students at Royal Festival Hall. She's got her powerpoint presentation prepared, and she went out and bought CD's (purchased with program funds) to play for the class.

The concert was Fantastic! The orchestra is so good and the guest conductor was an Italian guy that was really fun to watch. In some of the more playful, less dense places, he'd just conduct with a shoulder twitch here or there. The girls had a good time I think.

This weekend, Mom and I return to Salisbury to attend Mattins on Sunday for my English Hymn research project.

*Editor's note: All photographs are provided by Mom (or Dad, who knows), except for Salisbury Cathedral. I had to google image that one because there were no pictures provided.

**Question to Mom and Dad: you keep referring to "the girls"... has BYU gone "all girl" or what?