Allie in Wales: 7/1/12

Today was beyond amazing. We went to Stonehenge and Bath. The history behind these two sites is amazing. We walked to the train station this morning and took a train to Salisbury. From there, we took a taxi to Stonehenge. Our taxi driver was awesome! He was an older man who thought white tube socks with converse was a good look. Anyway, the taxi had over 542,000 miles on it; it was one of those old taxis you see in the movies. Stonehenge was just breath-taking. The mystery and age of these structures is remarkable. They are 5,000 years old. No one knows exactly how the people got them there or what they were even used for, but they still stand in their original places. It's just amazing. We rode back to Salisbury by taxi and then visited the Salisbury Cathedral, where there is an original copy of the Magna Carta. This church was built in the 1200's and had 365 windows. Talk about gorgeous! All I kept thinking was "Oh my gosh, my mom would love this." We ate lunch at a pub that was built in the 1500's. It was funny because the taxi driver joked with us that this pub is older than our nation. I think that's why I love everything over here so much. It's all so much older than what we're used to in the states. If we see a house that's over 100 years old, we're amazed. Whereas here, there are buildings that are several hundred years old. After the pub, we went back to the train station and rode to Bath. Bath was a gorgeous city. The building were huge and all made from beautiful stone. It had a ton of small shops and cafes, and had a really small-town feel. We went to see the roman baths, which were thousands of years old. Only one of them still stands as a recognizable bath, but we could see the remnants of several others. It was really neat to envision these ancient Romans all bathing in the very same pool I got to walk by. The entire day was just remarkable. I felt so lucky to see two such amazing historical sites in one day. It definitely was the opportunity of a lifetime.