Exploring Bath, Lacock, & Stonehenge

Today we ventured from Bristol to Bath, and from Bath to Lacock and Stonehenge.

We started our day with coffee in the hotel room, and then loaded up into the car to head to nearby Bath. In Bath we explored the old Roman Baths first. This spot was really unique as it’s one of the best preserved Roman ruins you can visit, and we learned a ton about Roman bathhouse culture. We especially liked all of the museum exhibits they housed throughout the building.

After the bathhouse we headed to Bath Abbey, where we checked out the inside of the abbey and then joined a tour to go to the buildings rooftop and check out the bell tower. The tour was extremely informative, and we were rewarded with absolutely epic views of the city at the end from the bell tower.

Next we walked to the nearby Pulteney Bridge, which is a bridge lined with shops that runs over the nearby river. We walked the bridge and checked out the local fare, and then hopped into a nearby British restaurant for lunch.

After lunch we walked the streets of Bath, heading to the Royal Circus and Royal Crescent. The Royal Circus was a circular street lined with curved mansions, and the Royal Crescent was a curved street lined with a single massive crescent shaped building that housed townhomes for the Bath aristocracy historically.

Once we’d seen as much as we could in Bath we headed to nearby Lacock. Lacock is a small village where a number of shows and movies like Harry Potter and Downtown Abbey were shot, and we first headed to Lacock Abbey which is a building used in Harry Potter for Hogwarts scenes. The Abbey was majestic and interesting to tour; we actually learned that the owner was the inventor of photography, and the first photograph was taken there!

After the Abbey we explored the village, seeing a couple of additional iconic movie scenes(like Harry Potter’s house). We grabbed gelato and baked goods from a local baker, and then hit the road to Stonehenge.

Stonehenge was pretty far away, with an hour or so drive, but it was worth it! We parked outside the attraction and walked a mile and half to it, and were greeted with great views of the stones. The cool thing about this site was the history of it, with these stones being stood up thousands of years ago(Stonehenge is the third oldest known human structure still standing!).

After Stonehenge we stopped at a pub in a small town for dinner and had a fantastic meal(honestly one of our favorites of the trip!), and then we continued our drive home to end the night.Read more