stones, baths, smells

Yesterday, Rob, Sam and I took a train to Salisbury, Stonehenge, and Bath...in Wessex...an area in southwest England. Beautiful country, terrible weather.

We saw the highest cathedral spire in England...the Salisbury Cathedral. Now this is Gothic! A righteous helping of stone and tradition, built in the perpetually green dale through which the River Avon flows. The towering ceilings of the interior are enough to stir religion within any being.

But, even so, i was far more moved by Stonehenge, which is only 15 or so miles outside of Salisbury. How mystic...stunning and simple - I cannot believe the years of effort these peoples went through to create this pagan stone temple. And we basically have no idea about any of these people. The alignment of the heel-stone with the summer solstice was especially interesting to see...i can only imagine seeing the sun's shadow actually falling upon the middle of Stonehenge in late June on the solstice. An eerie respect was paid by us three, despite the drizzle and whipping winds of the plane. Unfortuantely, there were a fair amount of tourists there along with us, which at first irked me. But, then, i realized that they have just as much right to be there as me.

And Bath - oh, that was my favorite! This ancient Roman city, built over a fault on the Earth's crust, features a spring that constantly brings forth water at around 100 degrees F. So, what did the Romans do? Built a giant hot tub on top of it! Perfect! The ancient bath's feature the sacred spring chamber (whose goddess was Sulis-Minerva, a combination of the Celtic goddess, and the Roman), and the very large main bath area. Here you can walk about and see the steam rising from the sumptuous bubbling of the gaseous waters. There were also private bathing chambers, a frigidarium, a tepidarium, sauna-like rooms, and altars of sacrifice.

So, in Bath i got a lot of great pictures, but it really got me thinking how much i wish i could preserve smells of different places...they have such an effect on people! and are so closely related to memories...much moreso than visual imagery. I want to be able to capture odours in a bottle and keep them forever, always being able to take whifs and remember travels. The baths smelled like minerals, limestone maybe? moist, and thick; like old stone-lined closets, and kind of like the smell of the well-water at my house when it would come out bubbley and hazy after it hit a phosphorous deposit. ..."old" mostly, and with a little bit of that dewey vegetation smell you find in caves. Must capture smells! Maybe one day our Flat screen High Definition Smell-o-visions will solve the problem for me...

I leave Thursday for a four day trip around The Lake District, maybe Yorkshire? with Dad...i hope he can adjust to British roads and shifting with his left hand.