Above: the village of Lacock
Below: the village of Castle Combe
Right: the only road in Castle Combes
Left: ruins of the temple to Apollo that once was housed in the baths
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| Bath & Salisbury | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| somewhere in the middle | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| More old things... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| We continued our tour through historic Wiltshire, stopping in the town of Lacock for lunch at the historic George pub, in operation since 1200, gives you an idea of the history of the town. It�s very long, but the town has essentially stayed the same since the1500s and now belongs to the National Trust. Of course, that�s when it isn�t busy being run by Warner Brothers who are using the town as the set for Harry Potter, and you can be sure that I grabbed my camera and ogled for a long time at the spots that have become Hogwarts and the Potter�s home where old Voldemort killed the rents off� very fun. After about fifteen minutes, unfortunately, you�ve seen about all of Lacock, all four corners of it, and taken photos from every possible angle. Which is funny, considering all my photos only show one angle, and the town we visited next was even smaller. Castle Combe takes exactly 4.3 minutes to see. Takes a good, solid 15 to explore, providing you don�t mind looking at dead people or you�re like me and very much enjoy sitting where thousands of people throughout the ages trod, probably with boots that were mucked in Lord knows what � it�s history, people, history. No kings or castles or wars, just people selling and buying and meeting and doing what people do in market squares for 800 years straight. And with that, we climbed back on the bus and headed back to Bath, singing along with the Beatles and stopping to look at a few white horses etched into the hills. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Put the towns into perspective... I only have one, it seems. Above: the village of Lacock Below: the village of Castle Combe |
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| Above: tomb of a 13th century crusader inside the church in Castle Combes Right: the only road in Castle Combes |
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| Hygiene in it's ooze-like form | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| With a few hours of daylight left after our tour, we decided we had better stop at the Roman baths, seeing as how the town exists because of them. The Baths are marvellous, just completely blow the mind (and with the smell of stewing cabbage, they literally do). Basically these are giant pools filled with a hot, green, bubbly liquid that they won�t let you touch or play in. Not that you would want to, the water is kind of icky looking, like Jell-O that hasn�t set yet. The ruins, or what�s left of them, are great too. The Victorians kind of went crazy building around them, but it was theirs to play with first, so what can you do rather than glance here and there, smile and nod, grin and snicker at the animated naked men on the informational videos, and continue happily along your way. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Above: Fancy a plunge in the main bath? Left: ruins of the temple to Apollo that once was housed in the baths |
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| all photos by Lauren Quinsland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| England | |
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