So I realized in my last post I was dating everything as February- whoops!

MARCH 8, 2009

We all went out to Jamie's Italian (its owned by Jamie Oliver!) for dinner- not as good as we were all expecting, but definitely not a bad meal. We met up with DuPuy after to go to the Eagle and the Child: a bar Tolkein and C.S. Lewis used to meet at all the time (!) to have a drink. We went back semi early- leaving for Bath tomorrow morning!

3/9/10

Made a pit-stop at the Ashmolean Museum before leaving Oxford. Definitely a good call- not only was the addition to the museum amazing architecture, the exhibits were excellent! I wish we would have had a bit more time there but we had places to go! On the way to Bath we stopped at two random smaller towns that DuPuy thought we would find interesting: Bibury and another one I can't remember at the moment...they were both in the Cotswolds though which is quite amazing scenery- most of England is though. We made it to Bath and wow is the topography dramatic! I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this! It is all pretty monotonous and autocratic facades too, but I (surprisingly) love it! DuPuy took us the the College pub for dinner and a drink then back to the hostel. The hostel is...interesting. You drive up this ridiculous hill to a Palladian-looking building only out find out that your room is out back in some rando building. Definitely not my favorite one. Excited to wander around Bath tomorrow!

3/10/10

Drove down to the city center and started following DuPuy. The streets here are great- good feeling, right building heights, very pedestrian friendly. We trekked up to see the circus (very impressive) and the royal crescent (still not sure if I like it or not). Next we went into the Roman Baths- they were great but I can't believe they charge so much to go in them! We drank some of the water- it was warm! So weird, I couldn't drink all of mine. We were allowed to wander then we all met up for dinner at a pub (the Beau Nash, haha) to watch the Man U. game- they won 4-0. Back to the hostel and bed late. I have to present on Wells tomorrow, need to research!!

3/11/10

Drove to Stourhead first. Probably my favorite garden we visited thus far. It was extremely well maintained and it was an manageable size to walk around. There were these ducks that kept following us- mainly because the boys were feeding them though. AFter a coffee break we drove to Wells where I presented on the city. I was very impressed by the interior of the cathedral- the outside was a bit off- the scale was wrong for how detailed the sculpture was and the h/w proportion didn't feel right. It was recently cleaned and it was beautiful! Plus, there was a window of Jesse- so naturally I liked it :) The chapel house was very impressive though- 36 ribs springing from a single column to support the roof! We drove to the Cheddar gorge next- so cool, it was like a mini grand canyon! We were climbing around- a goat kind of started following me and I freaked out a bit. No cheese though, everything was closed by the time we got there! Went out for Indian with DuPuy in Bath and went back to the hostel early- a few of us are feeling a little under the weather (!) we need to clear it up before Spring Break. Laundry + free day tomorrow!!