A Crazy Start to the Weekend

I am now finally able to sit down and catch you all up on the weekend we had. It started Friday morning hitting the road for Stonehenge and then city of Bath. We were told to not make Stonehenge a trip in itself, but to stop there on the way to somewhere else. I mean really, all it is is a bunch a standing up rocks. How long would you need there?

Our plan was to leave the house around 9am to make it to Stonehenge around 11. We thought we would only be there for 30 to 45 minutes so we could make it to Bath around 1pm. It was all planned out very well, however, you shouldn't be surprised when I say, it didn't really work out that way, at all.

We ran into a ridiculous amount of traffic only 2 miles from Stonehenge. People walking on the side of the road were moving faster than us in the car. It took us at LEAST 45 minutes to make it through the 2 miles of traffic to get into Stonehenge. Once we arrived we were bombarded by thousands of tourists scrambling around trying to take pictures and get as close to these rocks as possible. We were given little portable headsets to listen to information about Stonehenge. I do have to admit, I learned nothing. Between the craziness of the billions of people everywhere and trying to navigate our way through them, it was nearly impossible to comprehend the nonsense being played.

In the end, we only did actually spend about 45 minutes there, but because of all the traffic that we ran into, we were unable to leave there until 2:45pm, an hour and 45 minutes after we wanted to be at Bath. We made a left turn out of Stonehenge happy and excited to be going the opposite direction of all the traffic. Our excitement was shot down instantly when our Navitron forced us to go around the next round-about putting us right back in the traffic we so desperately wanted to avoid. Stuck in the same line of cars that took us 45 minutes to go 2 miles, but this time, we were needing to go this direction for about 45 miles. It was looking in the up-in-up for us to make it to Bath before everything closed.

We finally got through the majority of the traffic and were on the road to speedy success to Bath. When we finally got to the city we realized we were about to enter one of the most beautiful cities around. It appeared to resemble a Roman or Greek city all built on a huge cliff on a mountain side. Our Natitron was set to bring us to a Park and Ride so we could take it into the city and then take a city bus tour. Once again, just as we think things our going our way, we hit more traffic. Wanting to turn right at one of the only traffic lights in all of England, it seemed as though the British folks were utterly confused, and didn't know when to go. We were at a complete stand still. After about 10 minutes of only managing to move 2 car lengths, Rachelle made the intelligent decision to go around the traffic and turn left rather than right. The Navitron rerouted us and managed to put us back on the right path.

I am unsure how exactly the next slue of events happened, but I sure wont forget how it ended. Somehow we ended up making a turn that forced us to go on a road that went vertically straight up. We couldn't make a u-turn as the roads were as wide as me with both my arms stretched out. In the mean time, Rachelle's 2 year old daughter is screaming in the back seat because she desperately needed a diaper change. Having told her for the past hour "We're almost there Haylee, just wait" we realized, that an hour sitting in a poopie diaper, might just be a little too long. Being forced up multiple frighteningly, narrow roads we finally ended up at an area large enough to pull over to change the girl, but more importantly, take a breather.

One successful diaper change later, we realized we were at the top of the city, meaning the top of this mountain. With luck in sight, a women was walking down the road and Rachelle again, made the intelligent decision to ask for directions. It just so happened that the Park and Ride was a mile down the road we were already heading. On the down side, this road was again, more narrow than one single car, mind you, it is in fact a 2-way street. The bushes were taller than most trees, so it was impossible to see around the corners for oncoming cars.

All worked out in our favor and we made it to the Park and Ride. By this time it was probably after 6pm (remember we wanted to be there by 1pm). We took the bus down into the city, I have no idea how he could drive this huge bus in this narrow town, but we all survived. We then got a quick bite to eat, after nearly dropping a meal in the shop, we made it to the bus stop for the City Bus Tour. Relaxation, finally.

A couple hours later we were back on our way to our first hotel stay. The Holiday Inn Express. Sleep, what a wonderful thing.

In the end, Bath is an incredibly, beautiful city and even though we got there terribly late, it was well worth going there. Here are some pictures of the city for you to enjoy.