It's so rewarding when a guest takes the trouble to seek you out on Facebook and leave a lovely comment!

The Gainsborough Bath Spa held a fantastic evening on Monday 8th March to celebrate Chinese New Year. Guests were treated to storytelling about the legendary Monkey King and an impressive Chinese Lion Dance performance, followed by a drinks and canape reception. ​

Due to a high demand for tours around the UK in 2016, iToursInternational are looking for more people interested in tour-guiding. All training will be given for this demanding, yet fun and rewarding job (carried out as a cooperative of self-employed guides), the main proviso is a fluent foreign language.
We are currently looking for people to guide in GERMAN in South Wales.
Please click the picture below and use the form to get in touch (or PM mei catherall) and begin taking a new direction in 2016!

Samhain marks one of the two great doorways of the Celtic year, for the Celts divided the year into two seasons: the light and the dark, at Beltane on May 1st and Samhain on November 1st. Some believe that Samhain was the more important festival, marking the beginning of a whole new cycle, just as the Celtic day began at night. For it was understood that in dark silence comes whisperings of new beginnings, the stirring of the seed below the ground. Whereas Beltane welcomes in the summer with joyous celebrations at dawn, the most magically potent time of this festival is November Eve, the night of October 31st, known today of course, as Halloween. ​

More info HERE

http://blog.stonehenge-stone-circle.co.uk/2010/10/16/celtic-festivals-samhain-october-31st/

Evidence that Mesolithic hunter-gatherers were environmentally aware home builders has emerged a mile from Stonehenge – together with a stone age version of the storage heater.
Archaeologists have expressed astonishment at the 6,000-year-old discovery – the stone age equivalent of an eco home – in a heavily wooded spot 15 metres away from the busy A303 in Wiltshire.
The project’s director, David Jacques, said the discovery may mean we have to reassess what we know about Stonehenge and what the ritual landscape tells us. He also fears the evidence of “the sort of place the first Brits lived in” could be lost or damaged if the government presses ahead with plans to bury the A303 in a tunnel under the World Heritage Site.

Read the whole article  here: theguardian

You can follow us from the start onTwitter #iToursInt, here to give you a real taste of the country, it's customs, quirks, traditions and anomalies, with the necessary historical background and a lot of smiles on the way.

Rather a lovely way of presenting the wonderful richness that is language as it travelled the Globe.

The Old World Language Families infographic from Stand Still Stay Silent Comic shows the “roots” of our modern languages. Follow each language’s path from bush to roots and discover how closely languages are related to each other.
Language trees for the language lovers! I’ve gathered pretty much all the data for this from ethnologue.com, which is an awesome well of information about language families. And if anyone finds some important language missing let me know! (Naturally most tiny languages didn’t make it on the graph, aww. There’s literally hundreds of them in the Indo-European family alone and I could only fit so many on this page, so most sub-1 mil. speaker languages that don’t have official status somewhere got the cut.)
Fantastic illustration that visualizes the evolution of all the modern languages! It’s a complex design that is intended for readers to dive deep and explore.
Knowing that the image itself will be shared as a stand-alone content piece, the image should include credits and links to the original site.
Found on http://mentalfloss.com

​Stonehenge under the hammer: stones sold 100 years ago for £6,600
On 21 September 1915 a barrister – sent to auction by his wife to buy some chairs – bought one of the world’s most important historical sites

​http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/21/stonehenge-under-the-hammer-stones-sold-100-years-ago-for-6600

A flower festival commemorating 800 years since the Magna Carta was signed is being held at Salisbury Cathedral.
The Magna Flora display features more than 30,000 blooms prepared by about 500 flower arrangers, including many from the local diocese.
A tribute to the Queen's reign as longest serving monarch and a panel depicting the 25 barons of Runnymede are included in the floral showcase.
The festival is due to run at the cathedral from Tuesday until Sunday.
It has been masterminded by internationally-renowned floral judge and 2009 Chelsea Gold medallist Michael Bowyer, with Pam Lewis and Angela Turner.
​
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-34248625