Stonehenge, Bath, and Beyond

IES plans several excursions for students, but most of our weekends are free, so last weekend, a few of the girls and I got out our "diaries" (British for planners) and scheduled a few excursions of our own. The big excursion this week was a trip to Stonehenge and Bath. We booked a tour with a local touring company, and our first stop was Stonehenge.





After a walk around the mysterious stones (which are situated between two motorways...not quite as surreal and serene as they want you to believe), we got back on the bus and continued on to one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. Bath is named after the Roman Baths, which were built upon the only hot spring in Great Britain.






So, according to legend, the King of the area many, many years ago left to go do the great kingly things that kings do and when he returned, he had contracted leprosy. Since it is a contagious and incurable disease, his subjects would not let him back, and he was forced to become a pig farmer. However, since leprosy is so contagious, the pigs developed leprosy as well. This king would wander the countryside with his sick pigs, until one day, the pigs returned from wallowing completely healed. The king was amazed, so he followed them the next day to the wallowing spot and discovered a hot spring. Since the pigs were healed, the king thought he would try the healing powers of the spring on himself. Miraculously, the king was healed as well, so he returned to his subjects and resumed his rule, but in doing so, he relocated his kingdom to the hot spring. And that is the story of the beginnings of Bath. This summer, several local artists were given a chance to decorate pig statues, and these statues will be auctioned off in a few weeks, but it was fun to walk around and see all the pigs on display. I have pictures of 25 different pigs that we saw in our ramblings around the city. My favourite: the binary pig below.