After the trip to Stratford, we made it back in time to see Egypt, one of our favorite shows here on the BBC that's a combo of historical drama and documentary of both exploration and discovery of ancient Egypt as well as the culture and history of Ancient Egypt itself. I don't know if it's ever coming to the US, but if it does, it's fabulous!
That week began my first week on my own (as in NOT training anymore). The job got sooo much better and is going v. well. That Thursday we went out after work and I got made fun of for leaving early to go buy Harry Potter tickets for the next night. I met Trace and we headed to the nearest relatively-affordable cinema and he continued to try to talk me into the midnight show. However, since Kate and I actually had to work the next day, we resisted . . . until we learned that we had the choice of a midnight show that night or an 11pm show the following night. Since we both agreed that we'd rather be dead tired at work than tired touring Bath and Stonehenge, we did indeed go the minight showing. We got to the theatre a bit early and started calling people that we thought would appreciate it. The movie was amazing and we're trying to figure out when to go again!
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Ok, no longer in Oxford, but it's been just that long since I've been able to get to internet to post anything. We've been in the midst of this huge struggle to get it at our flat. We now have internet there, but no way to access it since we don't have the modem or router yet. Sigh.
Anyway, the next morning we were up early to go on the BUNAC trip to Bath and Stonehenge. We piled on the bus, which left a half hour late, and headed to Stonehenge. Kate and I survived the obnoxious people behind us and got very hungry looking at the sheep as we drove past (sick, I know, but we were hungry...). Once arriving at Stonehenge, we were herded through into the site and given audio tour wands that we could listen to as we walked around The Henge (apparently an old word meaning something that I forgot... I think it was for circle or something, but there were actually previous henges on the site, including a wood henge and another stone henge. I'll have to get out my brochures now...). It was cool, but we also felt that you could easily have said that you've seen it as you drove past on the highway right next to it. (photo: Stonehenge)
Afterwards, we got back on the bus, and again left late, to go to Bath. The part of England we drove through was v. foggy that day and we took even longer getting to Bath. Once in town, our bus driver lost the other bus he was following and we drove around Bath for another half hour lost (noticing a theme here?). We finally got out and were able to go find some food and tour the city at our leisure. Feeling strapped for time since at least an hour of our time in Bath was stolen from us, Kate and I grabbed a sandwich at the grocery store and headed to the Roman Baths.
The baths were cool and we got another audio tour thing there to listen to as we wandered around. We walked through parts of the old temple and such before getting to the baths themselves. I really enjoyed the artifacts and thought the curses and prayers were really neat. As I waited for Kate to finish at the Baths, I wandered around the bookstore and was severely tempted to buy the Latin verison of a certain book now called "Harrius Potter" for my sister who's taking Latin, though it was a hardcover and a bit pricey.
Next we realized we only had an hour left so walked through town again towards the Great Circus and the Royal Crescent (really neat architecture pretty unique to Bath), but stopped at the Circus before I dragged Kate to the Jane Austen Centre with me. It was only ok and didn't really have much new information, at least anything you couldn't get out of a Jane Austen biography. They still had pictures of various incarnations of Mr. Darcy's everywhere (though heavily predominated by Colin Firth, of course). We rushed through that, and via a bit of a detour, got back to the coach. (photos: Roman Baths; Street in Bath that Jane Austen lived on for a while that's also v. typical of the architecture of the city; and the Jane Austen Centre, apparently of which Colin Firth is an essential part.)
The bus ride home of course was not so wonderful. We had two girls from (groan) Ohio State that flaunted their over-zealous school pride everywhere, especially since it was also the day of the UofM-OSU football game. They then convinced the bus driver to let them off early to go to the pub that they had convinced to play the game via dish. They also told about how obsesed they and everyone in Ohio were/are about the rivalry, as well as how they'd thought about the game every day that week and how, if they lost, they'd somehow manage to get up the next morning. A few of us bonded in annoyance.
Once back in London, we headed to Trace and Andy's flat for a night of cards and Italian food, though I did have to then call home for a game update. That Sunday, we went to Primrose Hill just north of Regent's Park for a fabulous view of the city and fall colors. We then walked through Regent's Park, down to Baker Street, and to Marble Arch before heading to the Science Museum. (photos: View from Primrose Hill, including (if you look really closely) the dome of St. Pauls on the left and the Eye and Parliament on the right; and a skating rink in South Kensington)
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