Tuesday, December 4, 2018

OBU in London #23 - August 9 (Wells & Bath)

The Wookey Hole Hotel, aka
Hotel Transylvania
July 16 – August 14, 2018 – “The London 15” – OBU Student Abroad in London, England


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
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
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! 


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.

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
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. 
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!

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