Stonehenge

No visit to this adorable little island would be complete without a trip to Stonehenge. I signed up for a minibus tour for a day trip to Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge, and Avebury.

I was very excited to have a comfy seat on the bus.

Even though the pickup time was before 730AM.

It was about two hours to the Salisbury Cathedral, which has not only the highest spire in the UK (3rd highest in Europe), but also the oldest copy of the Magna Carta.

For scale, those white flags in the lower right-hand side are about eight feet tall. This cathedral is massive, and the spire can be seen for miles. The cathedral has all the arches and molding you would expect.

Salisbury itself is a small town dominated by this impressive building. Grade school boys were jogging laps around it as I was taking pictures.

The cathedral has an ante room dedicated to the display of the Magna Carta. There are several copies of the Magna Carta around, but this copy is labeled as the oldest, if not the original. This document was the first of its kind in that it limited the power of the king and held even him accountable to the law. It was signed by King John (Richard the Lionhearts’s brother) while Robin Hood was off somewhere creating his own set of rules. The document itself was large and written in such a neat hand that it looked fake. Oh, and it was in Latin.

Then we went to Stonehenge. A freeway runs very close next to it–so weird to see this ancient circle of stones from 60mph.

Apparently the freeway used to be much closer to the circle! Hard to imagine that being the case. The circle is roped off so the tourists can’t get very close. You can walk all the way around it, though.

One of the stones was leaning so much that it had to be cemented in place. Other than that, the stones are left to their own devices, safe from the selfie sticks and screaming children.

The wind carried the ripe smell of the next door sheep farm. Life goes on as the cars pass on the freeway and the sheep pull up the grass. Stonehenge was exactly like the pictures I’ve seen but completely different than I expected. I don’t know how to explain it.

Our last stop was Avebury, a small town encircled by monoliths you can actually touch. (Note: it’s pronounced Ave (rhymes with knave) – Bree (like the cheese), not “Ave-bur-y” like it’s spelled).

There was a group of worshipers between two particularly large stones. They held hands in a circle and listened to drums. Nearby, a lady leaned her whole body against a stone for a long hug. I had my lunch leaning up against an unused rock. The fields here are open to the public. You just have to figure out how the gate unlocks.

There are two types of rocks at Stonehenge; one type is the type you see here at Avebury, which leads people to believe that this is where those rocks came from, but the other kind came from really far away. Part of the mystery is how those huge, extremely heavy rocks were transported before Amazon two-day shipping.

This day trip was especially fun because a) all the other passengers were old people b) the bus held only 16 people so it wasn’t overwhelming and c) I got to see one of the seven wonders of the world. I recommend a day trip like this, including Avebury, if you plan on visiting Stonehenge.

I am reading Stars Above by Marissa Meyer and The Night Manager by le Carré.