Although we had hoped to go back some day, our hopes are oft-delayed. Maybe this will be the year. It is too soon to tell. The following travelogue originally ran on SERENDIPITY. We can always dream, can’t we?
THE Great Charter, by Rich Paschall
There are many tour operators in London. Besides the trips they offer around town, you can go out on a day trip that will take you to one or more famous places. On a previous visit to London, I took the day trip to Oxford, then on to Warwick Castle, and finally to Stratford on Avon. Shakespeare was not home when we arrived at Stratford, but we saw his boyhood home anyway. These trips last all day so you need to be ready for an adventure of up to 12 hours.
While you can reserve a tour at many locations in central London, we chose to book in advance before we left on our journey. A visit to visitlondon.com and other tourist sites will link you to the leading tour companies. We picked the Stonehenge and Bath tour and saved a little by buying in the USA and taking our vouchers with us. Once in London, we received an email saying our trip was canceled but they would upgrade us to the Salisbury, Stonehenge, and Bath tour for the same price and on the same day. There was an additional entrance fee at Salisbury we did not have to pay, so we gained good savings.
The modern charter buses pick up at various hotels around town and take tourists to a central location, where you board your particular tour bus and head out of town. We got a slow start due to traffic but made our way on the road to Salisbury Cathedral. We knew little about it but learned a lot from our guide who explained everything to the group in both English and Spanish.
The Cathedral
The first thing we noticed was the size of the structure. The spire is the tallest one in Great Britain at 404 feet. While the church was finished in 1258, the massive spire was added later and finished in 1320. It would have long since toppled without additional supports over the centuries, including tie beams designed by Christopher Wren in 1668.
Impressive length and height
The tall nave is impressive in length, with tombs filling the spaces between many of the columns. The Diocese of Salisbury has been in existence since the beginning of construction in 1220. The building houses one of four remaining copies of the Magna Carta, agreed to by King John and rebellious Barons in 1215, basically a peace treaty. Unfortunately, the agreement was not honored by either side initially, but it did lay the basis for English laws in years to follow. No pictures are allowed of the ancient document and it is protected in a small enclosure you can enter for viewing. A full translation of the Latin document is nearby for true historians.
Just 8 miles north of Salisbury is the iconic Stonehenge. While it is thought to date back to 2000 BC, it could in fact be somewhat older. There is a mound containing burial sites around it which dates back hundreds of years before the structure. In front of that is a ditch that is clearly visible above. No, they do not let you cross the mounds or go into the center, except for four times a year. At the summer and winter solstice and Vernal and Autumnal Equinox. If you are a Neo-Druid or Pagan that may be your time to go. You can get rather close on one side at any time.
The locals are unimpressed with our visit
Yes, there are sheep in the valley alongside Stonehenge. It just seemed to fit appropriately in the countryside. A parking lot that was formerly close by the stones has been moved in order to restore the view. A visitor center opened in 2013 which is near the highway and well away from the structure. You can walk up the road to Stonehenge, but take the visitor’s shuttle. It is a long walk.
At the Roman baths
From there it was back on the bus to travel another 38 miles out to the town of Bath, Somerset. Much of the architecture of the town is distinctive in its golden-colored stone. From the spot above (on the extreme right) we entered into the ancient Roman baths.
The water is green and hot.
Dating back to 60 AD it is a popular tourist spot now. Fed by hot springs to this day, the waters are quite warm. While they advise tourists not to stick their hands in the calcium and sulfate ion-rich, and possibly disease-laden (dangerous amoeba) waters, people do it anyway to see just how hot it is. The site itself is a treasure trove of artifacts from Roman times. A slow tour of the facility is worth your time.
Near the Roman baths
Nearby the Roman baths is the Abbey dating from the early 16th century. While we got to see the building from several angles, there was no time to stop inside. We were approximately 97 miles from London at this point and ready for our long trip back.
Our original intent had been the two-stop trip in order to allow enough time at each place. The three stops this far out of our origin meant there was little time to explore, especially in Bath where we truly just ran out of time. Nonetheless, we were glad to see Salisbury for its architectural and historic significance.
The tour provided lunch on the bus in order to save time, but some heavy traffic, even in the off-season, slowed us down considerably. An alternative plan would have been to take the train from Paddington station in central London to Bath and catch a tour bus to Stonehenge from there. Since our visit to the three stops was relatively brief, it is safe to say we would not mind a longer visit to each one. Perhaps we will return someday in the future when worldwide travel returns without the restrictions now in place.
Related: Heathrow Express
Take The London Underground
A Tourist View Of England
London Calling
rjptalk 
So while I’m reading your story, my most recent copy of “The Smithsonian” magazine pops into my eyes. The story is about the archaeology at Timna in very southern Israel which is now a desert without so much as a blade of grass, but which once had trees and was the site of many copper mines, first worked by the Egyptians (before the 12th century BC — and before the massive drought which destroyed not only the Egyptian civilization (the real, early one) but also ancient Greece, Troy, Cyprus — pretty much all the civilizations surrounding the Mediterranean. Since I used to live there and archaeology was a topic that might have been even hotter than religion or politics or war, I had to read it — and then go back to YOUR story. I totally loved the ancientness of Israel and the endless layers of history you could see in a single shaft dug along a road between Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. I don’t miss Israel now as much as I used to, but when I read about ancient places, all of a sudden I remember finding old Roman coins just lying around by the (literal) buckets-full on the shore at Caesarea. Digging almost anywhere and finding remnants of Rome, Greece, Crusaders, Ottomans. It was breathtaking. It almost made the insanity of the politics and religious acrimony bearable.
Not bearable enough to stay there and live, though sometimes, I dream of it and all the Hebrew I can’t remember is there in my dream. It was the bath at Bath, you know? Ancient hot spring and wondering if when we have destroyed ourselves (again?) — what will they make of OUR civilization? Will the only thing remaining be aluminum cans (they still say “coca cola”) and old plastic water bottles?
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I remember Glastonbury, Glastonbury Tor, and Stonehenge very, very well.
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Stonehenge is interesting in that they moved everything away from the circle so as not to destroy the view. The visitors’ center is a healthy walk, or short shuttle bus ride away. Our time at Bath was too short. That green murky water was naturally quite warm. My friend had to feel it to make sure.
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