Sunday, September 10, 2017

Chipping Campden

Today was driving and sightseeing.

First was Stonehenge. It's only about 10 miles outside Salisbury. You can't drive straight to it, you have to park about a mile away and either walk or take a free bus. I took the bus.

At first, I was a bit surprised at how small it is. I expected larger. But it's still really cool. You can't go in it, but the path takes you only 20 or 30 feet away, so you're close enough:




And it's not like you are alone with it, either. There were 3 or 4 busloads of people all around it.



But, still, it's Stonehenge!



Next was Blenheim Palace. Considered one of the best country palaces in England.



It was built in the early 1700s by an ancestor of Winston Churchill, the first duke of Marlborough. The land and money to build it was given to him as a reward for winning the battleof Blenheim, which stopped the expansionist moves by the French King Louis XIV, in 1704.

It's all 1700s on the outside and on the inside:



It's set in the middle of a huge park/garden:






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Wenesday, September 20, 2017 London, England So I had my second day out and, boy are my feet tired (again)! I spent the entire day – 7 hours in the British Museum, mostly on my feet, and probablyonly saw ¼ of it. The place is huge and full of stuff – and people. A bit about traveling around. I was advised to get an Oyster card and an app for the Underground (that's what they call their subway system here). The Oyster card is like a prepaid credit card that works in the main public transport systems here – Underground, trains and buses. For the Underground, you just put it against the turnstile on the way in and on the way out. You can top it up in any station at a ticket machine. It works great. I got an app for the phone that lets me put a starting and ending point in and it gives me the routes to take and which stations to change at. It's all very convenient. Now about the museum. It's huge! And crowded! Full of schoolkids and tou...
Read more
Another trip! When I got home from Africa last September, I realized that the trip had taught me how to do what I had always wanted to do - travel to Europe. So, there were decisions to make. The first was where. After a couple of months thought, I decided on England. I like history and they've got lots of it. Hopefully there wouldn't be much of a language problem. Next was when. After reading forums and travel sites, I decided on September. That's after the big tourist season of July and August and before the weather turns really rainy in November. The itinerary was next. After searching around, I found a bare bones one on Rick Steve's website. He has been writing travel guides for Europe for 30 years or more. His website had several for England, ranging from 1 to 3 weeks. I chose the 3 week one and , after a minor change, settled on this: Sept 2 – Leave Denver Sept 3 - Arrive in London – train to Bath Sept 4 – Explore Bath –...
Read more
Image
September 4, 2017 Bath, England Still in Bath. Yesterday was rainy and chilly. Today is gray, but dry and a bit warmer. This morning I toured the Roman baths. Soon after the conquest of Britain by the Romans in the 60's AD, they built a temple and bath complex here. There is a natural hot spring that they built the temple for. Nearby, they channeled some of the water into a bath system. Much of the original Roman stonework is still here: The paving around the bath and the bases of the columns are original Roman works. You're allowed to walk on them even today. I was supposed to pick up the rental car today, but they had some difficulty, so it will be tomorrow. That's not really a problem as I didn't need it today. Instead, I toured the abbey cathedral. Construction started in around 1500. There are memorials and burials in it going back to 1608. I saw one marked 1687. After that, I went to see some of the larger ...
Read more