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The Wookey Hole Hotel, aka
Hotel Transylvania |
July 16 – August
14, 2018 – “The London 15” – OBU Student Abroad in London, England
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| Wells Cathedral |
This summer, I had the privilege of spending a month
in England with a group of 15 students from Oklahoma Baptist University. Dr. Lindsey Panxhi (an English faculty colleague)
and myself, along with our respective spouses, conducted a faculty-led Study
Abroad that spent four weeks
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| Close Up ... |
on the ground in London teaching OBU courses to
OBU students while being immersed in the culture and history of Great Britain. These are our stories!
Thursday, August
9 – Wells Cathedral & Bath
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| Far away ... |
I overdid the food last night at the Bell Inn. After finishing my burger, I helped two of
our girls polish off their Camembert cheese, and then had my sticky toffee
pudding. Too much fat – I woke up in the
middle of the night with a nasty stomach ache.
Lesson learned – again. I wish I
could remember that lesson permanently!
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| Wells Cathedral interior - gorgeous! |
We let the team sleep in a bit this morning, and left
at 9 to go down into Wells. They had 2
hours to explore and get food before we met and headed to Bath. I went, of course, to beautiful Wells
Cathedral, which has a magnificent scissors arch inside that supports the
spire. Met Vanessa and her crew in the
Cathedral (they had found better parking), and we went next door to the
Bishop’s Palace Café for brunch. I had a
traditional large English breakfast (although I couldn’t bring myself to eat
the black pudding, which is made with pig’s blood), while Vanessa had an
excellent stack of pancakes with fruit, bacon, and marscapone cheese. I would have liked to spend more time in
Wells, but we had to rush on to Bath for our booked group time at the Roman
Baths.
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| Wells winding stairase |
So Bath is situated on an old vent into the earth’s
core; the vent heats underground water, which then bubbles up in a natural hot
spring. When the Romans conquered
Britain, they built a fairly extensive series of Roman Baths – hot baths,
saunas, and cold plunges – all oriented around the
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| Wells Cathedral Pipe Organ |
natural spring, which was
held to be sacred. The baths were
well-maintained and used until the fall of the Roman Empire, when they fell
into disrepair and were eventually forgotten.
They were uncovered by archaeological digs in the 1700s, and eventually
restored and opened to the public. It’s
a pretty fascinating site, and their audio tour info is very well put together. I’m
not 100% sure that the baths were worth the 21.50GBP entrance cost, but they
were certainly fascinating.
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| Entrance to Roman Baths |
After the tour, students had free time to wander the
tourist shops in Bath. Everything was a
bit pricey, so Vanessa and I didn’t buy anything. At 4PM, our groups met up and headed off for
the 3-hour drive back to London, which went remarkably smoothly. I’m thankful that 3 of us managed 3 full days
of driving in England with not even a scratch on any of the vehicles!
Quick Chinese take-out supper when we got back – it
was 8PM by the time we started eating.
Unpacked, FaceTimed the kids, and off to bed. We were very
weary after a long three days, two rough nights, and lots of driving!
After the tour, students had free time to wander the
tourist shops in Bath. Everything was a
bit pricey, so Vanessa and I didn’t buy anything. At 4PM, our groups met up and headed off for
the 3-hour drive back to London, which went remarkably smoothly. I’m thankful that 3 of us managed 3 full days
of driving in England with not even a scratch on any of the vehicles! 
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