Day 8 - STONEHENGE !

This was an amazing day. I have ALWAYS had a facination for Stonehenge and today we finally got there in person. The throngs of people and the audio tape tour do take something away from the spiritual/other worldly atmospheer of the place but all in all it is quite an experience.
Ger and I had breakfast at the B&B and walked into town to get our tickets for the off and on bus tour. First stop, Stonehenge. The bus came up over a hill and there it was in the distance, just standing in the center of the open plain. At first you don't even realize what you are looking at and then you see that those are the monilithic stones arranged in that circle that you have seen a hundred times in photos. The bus dropped us off along with the hundred or so other tourists to get our hand held audio tour. At first it felt like just another stupid tour of following the fellow in front of you and pushing the on/off button of the tape player to go from station to station. I had always envisioned standing alone on the plain, walking amoung the huge stones, listening for the ghosts of who ever built this circle. But surprisingly once we got listening to the naration and walking around the circle, ( no one is permitted within the circle of stones. It is considered sacred ground and only on rare occasions are people allowed inside the stones.) we were transported in time and it was a fantastic experience. I can now cross this off my bucket list!
Jumping back on the next tour bus that came along we continued the journey through the country side to OLD SARUM. What a great surprise this turned out to be. Listed in the tour guide as where the original city of Salisbury was located it didn't give us a clue to what we would find. The tour bus dropped us off on the side of the road and the driver pointed over her shoulder with instructions to walk that way and return here for the next bus into town. Get off we did, crossed the road and walked about 100 yards to a dirt path that went off into the trees. There was a small sign pointing to OLD SARUM and a gate that said, "sheep grazing, keep dogs on their lead." We unlatched the gate and in we went along the dirt path, past the horse and sheep dog sleeping in the meadow and on up the hill to another gate leading us out of the pasture. WE were now at the bottom of a hill that turned out to be the old castle battlement on the far side of a HUGE, DEEP (but dry) moat. Long, long ago the area was settled and a castle was built on the top of this hill. There was a cathedral built next to it and the area was all protected by the hill and the moat and the battlements. Today there are some remains of the walls that you can wander through with markers and drawings showing you what they think it looked like all those hundreds of years past. IT WAS WONDERFUL ! We must have spent 2 hours wandering around. It was cold and very windy up on the hill with an over cast sky that just added to the mood. (We took tons of pictures which I promise to share a few of as soon as we get back to Windsor tomorrow.)
When we returned to the present we wandered back through the sheep meadow to catch the tour bus back into Salisbury where, after a stop at a sidewalk cafe for a soda and piece of cake, we continued to our last stop on the tour, THE SALISBURY CATHEDRAL. We caught up with a walking tour of the cathedral and wandered through with our mouthes hanging open looking at the amazing stained glass windows and HUGE beautiful ceilings. In the cathdral they have one of 5 remaining, ORIGINAL copies of the MAGNA CARTA. Now I don't know much about this document other than what our guide told us but considering it was written in the 1200's and is the basis for all the laws of the country, it was a pretty amazing thing to see.
So much for history and culture. Our adventure ended with a pint at one pub then a walk to another pub that served dinner. Lamb and a second pint and a walk home brought us back to the B&B by 6:30PM. We are done for the night and will probably be asleep by 8 tonight. I bet I dream some interesting dreams tonight. My head is spinning and it is't from the pints of ale.