hey everybody,

So here I go, bringing everyone up to date.

I'll start by saying two congratulations. First to Heather and Kait on getting into their Italy abroad programs. That's going to be awesome and I hope you guys decide to set up blogs, because let me tell you they are fun stuff. My second congratulations is to the writers of LOST because they are just blowing me away this season. Keep up the good work guys (they are frequent readers of the blog).

Anyway, this passed Saturday I visited two of the oldest sites I've seen in my life: Stonehenge and the Roman Baths at Bath. Stonehenge was really awesome, its so cool to see these famous sites in person. You always see those postcard images of the thing, but to see it in reality is something. Stonehenge is pretty interesting because it hasn't become tourist-ized. There is a small gift shop and a small food stand and a ticket booth. You just walk around the site and take pictures. There are no monorails or guided tours or overpriced arcades. It was kind of refreshing to be at such a touristy spot without any signs of tourism. Both Stonehenge and Bath are further away, about a two hour drive and it was really great to see the English countryside. Everything was so beautiful, the grassy hills began to move into more mountainous areas, it was a great scenic drive.

Bath was a city I really had no expectations for because I hadn't really heard of it before, but it ended up being the most beautiful city I've seen so far. That's right, it beat out London, Amsterdam, Oxford, Brighton and Kingston. The place is just gorgeous. Its much quieter than the bigger cities, very clean, set into a valley and all the buildings are these great limestone color and built in a Roman style architecture. It definitely looked like an Italy countryside town. There was just so much great architecture and parks. Really fantastic. We got a tour through the Roman Baths that are built on these natural hot springs. The Romans built them centuries again and had all these complex drainage systems with the water that are still intact and working today. It was really cool, a good history lesson.

We drove back to Kingston and I was throughly impressed and also exhausted. I got some much needed sleep and that was that.

I've put up a new poll and I'll be expecting four food parachutes this week.

Thanks for reading,
Roy