The next day, we went to Salisbury, in the south-west of England, with the aim of visiting Stonehenge. Our hotel dated from 1226, as you can see above. The oldest of its buildings were erected to house the stonemasons who were building Salisbury Cathedral.
You can see the red lion behind Mr L.
This is a very elderly fireplace, with The Last Supper carved on to it. Later we had dinner in this room but I'm happy to say that it wasn't our last supper.
You can see that the hotel has been put together in a fairly ad hoc way over the centuries.
The following day, we went to Stonehenge, which was duly astonishing. It was put up about 5000 years ago, with some stones brought from as far away as Wales and northern Scotland. The big stones weigh around 3 tons. It's all very amazing. There are theories about how it was done, and also why - but no one really knows. Some stones have fallen and some are missing, but there's enough there to provoke quite a bit of gasping. I didn't know that the crossbar stones have hollows carved in them, and the upright stones have corresponding knobs that fit into these. Just in case, for example, they were blown off by a breeze?
Anyway, that's one thing crossed off the bucket list. There's a good museum there too, and a nice cafe. Essential!
A museum and nice cafe are indeed essential. Three trips to England and I have yet to make it to Stonehenge. All our modern conveniences and ancient peoples can build structures like these around the world? Incredible.
ReplyDeleteI remember going to Stonehenge as a small girl and walking between the stones and touching them.
ReplyDeleteOne can't do that now! But it's still very interesting.
DeleteI visited Stonehenge in the mid 80's and no one was there, and we walked right among them. I took my daughter in 2013 and it was a completely different scene. They are still awe inspiring even from a distance.
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