Fiona Needs Her Groove Back

This weekend I paid a long overdue visit to Stonehenge and Bath. It was a sunny, beautiful day, with a peace and calm that would have gone uninterrupted if it wasn't for our crazy anal tour guide, Fiona.

We barely made our 8:30 a.m. tour bus, and because there was one other girl who was running a bit late, we ended up leaving at 8:32. Upon setting off on our journey to Stonehenge, our first stop, Fiona gets on the bus microphone and whines a little about how late a start we got and how we need to make up for lost time (2 minutes! *eye roll*).

Stonehenge was smaller than I expected, but definitely a sight worth seeing. I had heard countless stories about how boring and pointless Stonehenge was from others who visited, so I was a little nervous about what we would do with an hour of free time. It was admittedly uneventful, but it was still really cool to see such a massive monument that is so shrouded in mystery. No one knows for sure how or why these huge stones were arranged as they are. Apparently, according to Fiona, the BBC attempted to recreate this monument using the tools that were available at the time it was established, and failed. So, they were pretty smart 4,000 years ago.

What was the highlight of seeing Stonehenge was perhaps the cute little sheep that were grazing all around the area. Apparently, these sheep are a big deal, because at the Stonehenge gift shop, the had these cute little stuffed animal versions of them.

After about an hour an a halt at Stonehenge, we headed off to Bath, where it's famous for the 18th century architecture and the Roman Baths. The Roman Bath Museum was very well constructed. They taught us about the historical context and the architectural background of the baths. After hearing all about the healing properties of the magical spring water, we got to have a taste of it...bad choice. It tasted super mineral-y, as if a bunch of quarters had been rusting in the water for a while. Hopefully, in exchange for drinking it, we were healed or beautified as the legend advertises...

After touring the Roman Baths, we attempted to catch Fiona's 18th century architecture walking tour, which was meeting at 2:20. We arrived at 2:25, and she was far gone. Apparently, some other girls who had arrived at 2:23 also missed it. We were clearly false for thinking there was at least a 5 minute grace period for people to get to the meeting point.

Instead of the walking tour, we wandered around Bath, walked along the riverside, and enjoyed the city. It was adorable, with different street performers taking turns in the town center every 20 minutes or so, musicians on all the street corners, and lots and lots of shopping. Supposedly, Bath is only next to London for shopping in England.

When we got back to the meeting point to catch our bus, we ran into Fiona again. Apparently, waiting five minutes was not an option because she needed to cover a certain amount of ground in a set amount of time (even though we knew she had time to wait five minutes). I guess it's our fault for being late, but it was just a little extreme how intense a stickler she was about time. If we had by chance not arrived at precisely 4:10 to catch our tour bus, they would have left without us and we'd have had to take the train back home.

Bath and Stonehenge were both very pleasant experiences that made for a wonderful Saturday. As for Fiona, I hope that she gets what she needs to relax a little, maybe the sunny weather helped her along that process.