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(Lori) Today was a break of pace - an excursion back through time to Lacock Village,Bath & Stonehenge. We had booked a tour with a group for this one & so glad we did. Our guide was very entertaining - knowledgeable as well as witty so we were able to stay focused through his 30 min rundown on the history of the monarchy.
The small village of Lacock, established in the 13th century, has remained unmodernized so still resembles a middle ages village. In fact, due to its authentic appeal, many movies over the years have been filmed here. Our affable guide pointed out the location of a recent harry Potter movie, but I was much more excited to recognize the little country alley way that sister Philips had scurried down in Pride & Prejudice (the best version!) This village was absolutely charming; the grounds of Lacock Abbey itself were not accessible to us as it still functions as an Abbey, and as our guide pointed out, minimally we would need to men to get inside!
From here we moved on to Bath - an absolutely stunning town as it also is a world heritage site & as such must remain as it was constructed in the Regency period. One of the most fascinating aspects of our time here was a tour of the Roman baths. The bath was constructed over a hot spring - during which remnants of the original roman bath were discovered and partially unearthed. The Romans were truly masters of construction & ingenuity to be able to construct a massive public bath, with conduits channelling the warmed water into very large pools for bathing. I have read about & studied the achievements of ancient Rome over the years, but to see it in actuality was most impressive.
Our last stop of the day was Stonehenge - a private viewing after the crowds had died away. How thrilling to stand in the midst of structures that date back to the Bronze Age - a mere 5,000 years (no discussion on carbon dating here... ) Standing in the inner circle does raise questions of how did those people back then manage to construct this and what were they doing it for? And just because we have not discovered any record of written language doesn't necessarily mean these people didn't have one nor that they lacked intelligence. Hmmm, and what if despite our best attempts to develop a theory on what the existence of these rocks indicates, we got all the pieces put together incorrectly and the function of Stonehenge was for nothing like we imagined! One day, perhaps in heaven, we'll get to know.
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