Baths, Stonehenge and Salisbury

For some reason, I have always wanted to see Stonehenge. Don’t ask me why, but we decided to take a tour that would travel down to the city of Baths then on to Stonehenge and finally Salisbury. I didn’t know what to expect in Baths, but we toured the Roman Baths, which were amazing. It was crazy to see the architecture and engineering that they had back then and how they built around hot water springs for a spectacular communal bathing area. Next we went to Stonehenge, which did not disappoint. It was hard to believe how people could have moved stones that were that big and set them up to deal with so many scientific things, like the moon cycles and the winter and summer solstice. It was really cold there, so we got our pictures and headed back to the bus where we would journey to our last stop, Salisbury to see the cathedral. By this point it was rainy and cold, like it is so much of the time here. Really, I couldn’t live in this gray weather all the time and the sky looking like it is going to rain all the time. The cathedral was magnificent with its souring buttresses and stained glass. Arriving back into the city we had about a half hour to jump on the Tube and head to the West End to catch Dirty Dancing The Musical. I knew I wanted to see this show because I had grown up loving the movie, but I wasn’t sure what to expect on stage. Surprisingly most of the show was great. The water lift scene was a little bizarre with a screen that showed water and them dancing behind it, but all in all it was fun. What was even more enjoyable was the audience. I have never been to a show where people got that into it. They knew all the songs, singing with the show and clapping along. What was really different from Broadway in NYC is that they were so strict in the theaters and would yell at people and call them down in a heartbeat. One girl stood up and was clapping and got in trouble and they threatened to throw her out! Also not like NYC, the cast didn’t sign autographs at the stage door. They also don’t have playbill, but their merchandise is really cheap compared to Broadways. All the shows get out at the same time, so the Tube was very busy. We decided to be adventurous and take the stairs. Bad decisions. Three stories worth of stairs later, we made it down. No wonder everyone was taking the elevator. This was another long day and it was nice when we finally got back to the hotel.
On another side note, the fashion here is interesting to say the least. Some of the people are the trendiest, stylish people you will ever see and some have Mohawks and black shoes with Piglet socks (and you know it’s true because you can’t make something like that up!