Pastoral, for those of you don't care about literary tropes from hundreds of years ago, is the idea that things like sheep and cows, as well as people who spend their time with them, live in some sort of idealized edenic state. Of course, the entire idea was invented by people who have only ever seen a sheep from far away, as sheep are quite dirty and disgusting close up, according to Darcy who has extensive experience with them at The Huble Farm. This has been the quintessential pastoral experience. In other words sheep, pasture and rolling hills out the wazoo.
Anyways we started the day in a big field that had some rocks arranged in a circle, with some rocks stacked on top of other rocks. A lot of people seemed to like it, including some organization called UNESCO, who designated it as a world heritage site. Anyways, it seems pretty clear that it was built as a landing pad for aliens.
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| From August 7 South England |
It was, as I mentioned very very busy. So it was difficult to get pictures/stand around, but it was very cool, and very picturesque. It is very neat being around something that was built thousands and thousands of years ago. Some of the rocks used to build it were hauled hundreds of miles from Wales, which is something I personally wouldn't want to do.
Many people have said that Stonehenge wasn't worth it, since you can't actually get close to it, but I have to say (and Darcy agrees) that it was pretty excellent. Not sure we'd go back, but worth seeing.
After visiting those rocks, we drove across the countryside to Bath, which according to our tour guide was famous because some Romans built some Baths there, or because there is a bunch of really nice buildings, but I wanted to go to because Jane Austen lived there, and also set two of her books there. (on a side note however she apparently hated it.) I, on the other hand, thought it was lovely.
You can go look at the ruins of the Roman baths, but you have to pay money and stand in line, and as long time readers of the blog (since yesterday) know we don't really do that. Instead, we wandered around the shopping district, which was about the most adorable shopping area I have ever personally been in.(Darcy: "I thinks its pretty notable as well in that this is one of the only times I've gone shopping with Dan where he hasn't seemed completely exasperated by the whole experience, which was nice")
Bath is an absolutely gorgeous town. Everything there is made out of this stuff called Cotswold Limestone, which is sort of yellowy brown. The Limestone is actually why there is a Bath there. The water has, over thousands of years, seeped into the limestone,then heated under pressure and finally pushed back to the surface. You would think that it would be caused by volcanic activity, but it is instead caused by pressure, which is super awesome.
They have some pretty sweet buildings, and most impressive of all was the Abbey, which was actually the coolest abbey we have seen so far, and you might recall we went on a tour of London yesterday.
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| From August 7 South England |
After our Bath, we went through a part of the country called The Cotswolds, which is an Area of Great Natural Beauty(capitals required). There were all the rolling hills, sheep and cows you could ever want, except that you can never have enough rolling hills with sheep on them. In fact, many famous rich English people are so in love with stone walls and pastures that they have their estates there, including Prince Charles, whose estate we drove past.
After being overloaded on the picturesque, we arrived in Stratford. Once there, we drove around the city and looked at all the old Elizabethan houses (which only slightly resembled my attempt at a set for As You Like It). We stopped, and went into Shakespeare's birthplace, where we ate some scones and sipped Champagne (I had orange juice) while some actors performed a bit from As You Like It (the scene where Rosalind and Celia decide to run away)
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| From August 7 South England |
I have to say that I vastly preferred Ashley and Eve's rendition of the scene. First of all, Celia did not have red hair, so it's obviously worse, and secondly, although they were enunciating very well, I'm not entirely convinced they knew what they were saying. I know the audience certainly didn't. (also the costumes were not nearly as excellent as ours)
Also one of them did All The World's a Stage, which of course Simran did far better, largely because she actually managed to make it interesting. The only part I did like was a recital of "under the greenwood tree," which Carli did much better, but this girl had a mandolin, which was neat. Also she did Jacques' satirical verse, which was weird.
Anyways, Shakespeare's house was pretty neat, but I was underwhelmed with the staff, who seemed knowledgeable when asked, but didn't volunteer information. Also there was one in every room, instead of taking us on tours, or something. Clearly they need take lessons from a certain historical site in the Fraser Fort George Regional District (Barkerville - take THAT Huble). The best person there was a volunteer, who was also an ardent defender of the idea that Shakespeare wrote his plays, despite the fact that no one challenged it.
So our day tour was a success. As for our fellow tourists, they were OK, except for the two ladies who were late to return to the bus twice (out of three stops for an estimated total of thirty minutes of wasted time) and a slighty rude mother son American duo who I am mentioning in this post out of spite (though honestly, they could have been ruder it didn't exaxtly ruin the day).
After Stratford, we jumped back on the bus, and I started writing this blog post, which takes us up to the present, as I wrote it entirely on the bus.
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