Just enough weird to keep it interesting

Earlier this year, we tried ‘London for a weekend’ and it was decidedly a ‘no’ for us. See original: https://cobbsdoeurope.com/2018/01/13/london-for-a-weekend-probably-a-no/

But last minute we thought we’d try again for a longer weekend and skip London and it was a delightful ‘YES!’ Honestly another England trip wasn’t even on our radar, mostly because I wanted to see something Justin swore he’d never let me see – Stonehenge 😉. But it happened! Stonehenge, Salisbury, Avebury, Bath and Newbury were our main stops with some random places in between.

Our Airbnb was super cute and out in the country. Our ‘host’ was very helpful and had tons of suggestions for what to visit and provided me with my favorite new phrase. She described the local attractions and then said “it just depends on your appetite for the weird” 😂. I love it. I had already described our trip as *just* weird enough to keep it interesting, but now I have to say that it filled my appetite for it! Fun phrases I’ve never heard, circles of rocks, misadventures in the Roman baths…*just* weird enough.

The trip kind of turned out to be one of our rare journeys where, for the most part, everything kind of falls into place easily and we stumble into cool things without planning. I much prefer that to the super-stressful-trying-to-get-to-65-places-in-one-day trips (a la Justin). But true to me and my misadventures, we did have one hiccup – oh Natalie! – story to come.

Fresh off the Chunnel train, we had a great drive (on the left!). The countryside was beautiful and the weather was amazing with an amazing forecast for the next 3 days (when does that happen in England!?!). Then I noticed something – something off in the distance. Turns out, we were driving right by Stonehenge! No traffic, no people, perfect sunset.

The Rocks

I’ve always wanted to see Stonehenge – and for no specific reason. Probably just because it’s one of those things that feels like you’re *supposed* to. On the contrary, Justin thinks it’s prehistoric nonsense and considering the pyramids of Egypt were built at the same time, he feels Stonehenge is the opposite of any kind of amazing marvel of its day. But, the more he denied my request over the last year, the more I decided I wanted to see it – JUST because he didn’t 😂.

Our timing at the museum/rocks was perfect. It was early the next morning and not very crowded so we were able to be in and out in an hour or so – win!

The funny thing is that it really is just a bunch of rocks. I’m glad we went, but wasn’t really moved in any kind of profound way. Great pictures though!

Since we were already in a prehistoric rock mood, we also added Avebury’s Neolithic rock circle to our day. It’s listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and claims it is “One of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain and it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in the world.” It was cool, but still just rocks.

Both Stonehenge and Avebury are awesome for pictures on social media (and for my personal documentation) but I’m not sure I’d “recommend” going out of your way to see them 😬. Both places also hold some form of “meaning” to pagan worshippers and that’s just not my bag.

The Magna Carta and “The Miracle Seed”

In between our rocks we stopped in Salisbury and visited the Salisbury cathedral and museum. The museum houses an original piece of the Magna Carta from 1215. It is written in shorthand and tiny writing and scribed onto animal skin parchment. There are 4 copies or pieces left in different museums thoughout Britain, but they’re all different because they were scribed by different individuals. One of the irritating things about all my traveling is when I can’t take pictures of things – and this was one of them 😔.

The inside of the Salisbury cathedral was beautiful, as well, but I didn’t take many pictures because they had a parochial school ceremony going on. Normally we would walk right by quietly (as quietly as my children can 😳), but this was so interesting. One of the church volunteers invited us to stay and watch and we did for a little bit. It was an end-of-the-year ceremony for 6th year students. It reminded me a little of my kids’ school in Florida but at the same time it was so, so different. If you’ve ever seen the movie Millions (which I highly recommend), it gave me a similar vibe to one of their school programs – the headset microphone, the music that played while they were talking, the type of music (kind of electronic, upbeat), the message. It was energetic and engaging and peppy without being super cheesy. The theme was the “miracle seed” – how the children’s roots have been planted and grown and how they are continue to sprout and will soon bear fruit.

I’m super glad we stumbled into their program and hope my kids will remember that part!

Bicycling the River Avon

Day 2 we only had plans to head to Bath (say what? Justin allowed us to only plan ONE thing?). We took our time and headed out slowly. Driving there, we passed through Bradford-upon-Avon where we opted to stop for a quick bike ride up the river. With the exception of the complaining coming out of my own mouth (man, it was so freaking hot), it was a great way to burn some kid energy. They even ventured down a trail and ended up rope-swinging out over the river, while I kept a watchful eye on the bikes (in the shade…alone 😍).

Bath and our inevitable misadventures

Next on the docket was Bath. Bath is home to natural hot springs and the well-preserved Roman baths that rest on these hot springs. The Roman Bath website says they were constructed around 70 AD and are “one of the best-preserved Roman remains in the world. ” You would think that I would remember that since I had an audio guide, but I remember virtually nothing after our “incident”.

The baths are awesome. You can see the springs still bubbling and the museum takes you through all the different areas – above the baths (looking down and seeing the spring bubble), the onto the actual bathing level which included rooms off to each side, and even some below to see where the overflow is pumped, etc.

The kids had a kid-friendly audioguide and scavenger hunt-type book to complete, which is usually kind of exciting for us because they actually like to do those. They were running around filling in the blanks while we were casually looking around. They went back to the big bath to find the last one on their list while we kept looking inside. A few minutes later, I see them all running to us with two workers following them 😳😳😳. And then 😳😳😳😳. You see, “your daughter touched the water and then put her fingers in her mouth”. OH MY GOODNESS! What??? My goody-two-shoes TEN YEAR OLD Natalie touched the water??? That gross green water?

They were medics. They gave us this:

She *may* get violently ill or she may be just fine. She may get a brain-eating amoeba or she may not.

WHAT??? To be fair to Natalie, the booklet said go to the fountain at the end – “are you brave enough to taste the water?” Well, she was. It was just the wrong fountain (and it actually said “fountain” where she touched). It is crazy (maybe this is my American sensibility or something) that there are no signs anywhere that said not to touch the water. I know it said it in the guide but I’m sure if she had seen even one small sign she wouldn’t have touched it – she’s a super nervous Natalie.

Even though I was a mess of nerves following the incident, we still had an awesome dinner of traditional fish and chips at a farm restaurant where the Kids got to free roam and play on cool tractor playgrounds. And beer always helps.

Thankfully we are more than a month out from the incident and she seems to be doing fine 😉 and she has learned to never touch green water or put it in her mouth.

Welcome to Downton! I mean, Newbury!

On the way home, I won out again and got my choice – Highclere Castle from Downton Abbey. I looked up their hours a few days beforehand and found that the day we would be there was the day they opened for the summer, but was bummed to find out all the tickets were sold out. But, I read that they occasionally have tickets if you just show up, so we pressed our luck and tried. Success! Easy drive, very little wait to get in, beautiful castle and gardens. I loved it! It’s another one of those castles though that doesn’t allow photography inside (ugh! Seriously like the bane of my existence).

And to finish it all off, a peaceful train ride back across the Chunnel for a total of 5.5 hours of driving/chunneling even with a delay- which FAR surpasses our 10+ hour trip to London via ferry in my first “London for a weekend…”.

England for an extended weekend: success.