England - Part 3 (The Midlands and South)

Due to all the caravan parks in Bath being seemingly full we ended up spending a night in Glastonbury, a nice surprise. We didn’t spend much time there but it had an interesting vibe. I’m not sure how one town can support so many crystal shops, but I enjoyed the street art.

In the same day we did a loop past Stonehenge. This brought up different feelings. At the start you’re thinking “I just paid £15 to stare at some rocks with a bunch of other idiots”. But once you’ve read a bit about it and had time to explore the nearby exhibition you feel somewhat better about it as you’ve now learned something.

After Stonehenge we spent the next day exploring Bath. Bath is another great town, very beautiful. We saw all the sights: The Roman Baths, The Abbey, The Circus, The Royal Crescent and Pulteney Bridge. I think it’s a nice mix of old and new. The Roman Baths are definitely worth the visit, it made us both keen to try a Turkish Bath out.

 The baths were originally covered by a 20m high roof, but since the roof is no longer there the bath water is green. You can see the abbey in the background. 

A golden head of Minerva (the Roman Goddess of Wisdom) in the Roman Baths. She was the main Goddess of the baths.

Pulteney Bridge

The Abbey - I think it's my favourtie Abbey so far

The Circus - a circle of appartments

The Royal Crescent - A semi circle of appartments

There was always a hot air balloon hanging around

We now had to start making our way back up North. On the way up we decided to check out Oxford. It was a pretty interesting town. Lots of great architecture, some Harry Potter film sets (they filmed the dining hall in the Christ Church building), history (sooooo many people have been to university there, including Mr Bean) and home to the Oxford English Dictionary. I was expecting to see just one grand University but turns out Oxford University is made up of a few different colleges and buildings that are integrated into the town. There is no Oxford University Campus per say. This is pretty much the first thing they tell you when you get on the tour bus so I’m not the only one who thought it.

Some of the fun architecture around

Christ Church

We had a night in Rugby (yep, home of the sport) to visit more friends. I got to chase squirrels around a grave yard.

Then we had to travel further north to give the van back. Vanning it was fun but definitely ready to be sleeping in some real beds again. Somehow we managed to complete our trip with not a drop of rain. A very special thanks to everyone who hosted us during this mini trip. We’ll pay you back when you come to Australia.