Roman Baths, Tudor Houses and the River Cam

Hello, hello!



As my title indicates, I have traveled to Bath, Stratford and Cambridge since my last post. That means that there is a lot to cover, but it is going to have to be the shortened version because I don't have a lot of time.



So... Bath was wonderful. It was incredible to see first-hand the baths that the Romans built and used so long ago. The most incredible part was the fact that the Roman plumbing is still working!



While in Bath, some of the girls and I treated ourselves to high tea in the pump room at the Roman baths. It was my first high tea since I have been in England, and it was well worth it. The atmosphere was lovely- the pump room felt a bit like a ballroom due to the chandeliers and live piano music!



While in Bath, our cultural fund paid for a side trip to Stonehenge and and a little country village as well. We got to Stonehenge rather early in the morning so we were some of the only ones there and the weather was gorgeous! It is kind of hard to take in so many sights with the full appreciation of how old they are and their significance in history, but I have been trying to reflect on the importance of everything I am seeing as much as possible.

We had some of our nicest weather of the whole trip in Stratford. After visiting all of the important sites such as
Shakespeare's house and grave, we mostly spent time reading in the sun. We also went to see "A Midsummers Night Dream" as part of our Shakespeare class so that was pretty fun. It was a great production, but I am still partial to the performance of the play that I saw in Ashland over spring break.

And finally... Cambridge has been nice as well, although we have had a lot of studying to do, so I have probably seen the inside of more coffee shops in Cambridge than I have the actual sights. We did rent bikes for the week, though, so it has been great to bike around instead of walking everywhere. One of the days, my friend Elyse and I biked to the orchard (a tea garden) to read and have tea. The orchard was very peaceful, but my favorite part of the adventure was the beautiful scenery that we saw on the way there on a bike path that cuts through fields and farmland.

Those are really all of my updates for now. Katherine, Kelsey and I are leaving for Rome at 3am tomorrow morning. It will be a long day, but we are really excited! We will spend 4 nights in Rome, take one day trip to Florence, and then meet up with the group in Oxford for finals week. I can't believe that my trip is so close to its end, but I am definitely getting excited to come home and graduate.

Best wishes to all!

Pics of Cambridge: