Chris & Kelly's Travel Adventures
Day 3: Sunday, Aug. 13
Stonehenge and Salisbury
The story of our Sunday morning was mostly about getting to Stonehenge.
But then all the delays and glitches melted to insignificance....
Words Really Are Insufficient
There are plenty of other neolithic (recent Stone Age) stone circles in the UK, but none so large, so well-preserved, and so beloved. This ring of giant slabs is still more impressive than any description you've ever read. And to this day, all who see it—from tourists and pilgrims to the most learned archeologists—still wonder how and why Stonehenge was constructed, likely more than 5,000 years ago (and there's actually evidence of other ritual building in the area dating back nearly 10,000 years).
The engineering alone must have been a work for the ages. Mineral analysis suggests that many of the larger stones were quarried far away in Wales; just gathering the pieces to build the ring was an enormous feat. Then try to imagine what it took to tilt and set the pillar stones into place. And then how did they get those huge capstones—apparently sculpted to fit closely and rest securely—up on top of them?
And... what was it all for? It may have been for some spiritual or seasonal rituals—surely as a calendar (certain stones align with the sun's rays at the solstices). There's pretty good evidence of ritual burials there, too. And maybe it was also used as a gathering place for other meetings and events.
Maybe all this—and more. No one knows for sure.
A Full English Day
Our ship had docked overnight at the Isle of Portland, the disembarking port for touring the southern English countryside. It was a quiet Sunday morning as our bus left the port area and turned north toward the plains of Salisbury.
Our guide was Nick, who did his level best to offer commentary on the route and some basic background to Stonehenge. Unfortunately, he combined really cheesy melodrama with a plodding, repetitive delivery. Dad said it best: Nick was a cure for insomnia. (And Dad would know: He was going on four straight nights of no sleep; zombie stage was setting in for him.)
It was supposed to be a two-hour ride to Stonehenge, but our driver got lost, turning onto an incorrect but lovely side road.
So we got to see some more beautiful countryside, but it added an extra hour to the start of our day (and an extra hour of hearing Nick repeat himself).
The parking area and visitors' center for Stonehenge is not located near the stones, and there was a huge line waiting for a set of small shuttle buses to take us out to the actual monument site.
We asked Nick The Boring how long the walk was to the site, and he said about a mile. The weather was nice enough, so we decided to skip the lines and bus crowds and just walk.
It was more like 2 miles (which no doubt added to our exhaustion by day's end), but we made it and were glad to see the marvel for ourselves.
We did wait for the bus shuttle to take us back to the visitor's center, needless to say! There, we relaxed and ate the lunches we had brought. Then we briefly browsed the gift shop. Sandy and I found a few tree ornaments, but there weren't many good choices for transporting home; most were glass balls. (I think Sandy settled for a key chain :)
Our afternoon adventures would all be in the town of Salisbury, which was about a half-hour's ride aboard our big bus....
Salisbury: The Town, its Cathedral, and the Magna Carta
One common saying about architecture is that it's like "frozen music." That's a pretty good description, especially for a cathedral. And as it happened there was music, both frozen and otherwise, at the Salisbury Cathedral today. There was actually a live musical concert going on when we arrived on the grounds (taking place just around the right end of the building in the above photo).
And of course, for all the "indoor-concert" days (Sundays and otherwise), the cathedral has an amazing legacy of choral and instrumental music, including an awesome pipe organ that can fill up all that soaring space.
The cathedral offered up visual beauty everywhere, too—in its arches and stained glass, of course, but also in other unexpected forms. We especially loved the mirror-level fountain, pouring water into the floor from all four corners.
There seemed a certain modest grace to it all—a bit smaller and "homier," really—using more wood and less stone than the bigger gothic cathedrals elsewhere. It felt just right for the quiet of this English town and countryside.
Capping our visit to the cathedral was a tour of its chapter house, home to one of the few original copies of the Magna Carta!
Dating to 1215, the "Grand Charter" was originally written as a royal guarantee of rights for nobles—to help the unpopular King John of England make nice with some rebellious barons.
But as time went on, the document's expression of basic rights was borrowed and adapted as foundation for more general justice systems, including English Common Law and the U.S. Constitution.
We had quite a stroll through the town of Salisbury to get to and from our bus park. Along the way, we passed a lot of small shops, including a few that actually straddled a brook and its historic millrace.
We also encountered this classic old
British phone booth.
And on the way back to the bus was
this "mandatory" stop—for gelato!
So much walking today! We were all very glad to sit and relax over dinner back onboard the ship.
On tonight's menu:
...Lobster in puff pastry
bruscetta...
...veal scallopini...
...and cheesecake
for dessert.
Looking Back on this Long Day
The tour of Stonehenge and Salisbury was supposed to last about 10 hours, but due to the unintended detour and other delays, our tour went nearly 12 hours, actually. By the time we got back to the ship, we were all pretty well done. Poor Dad's foot was bleeding, probably rubbed raw from so much walking.
Also, unlike shore excursions on, say, the Carribean islands, here you spend a lot more time on buses simply to get to your destination. These are the full-sized "rabbit ear" coaches (so named for their big outside rear-view mirrors), but the seats can be quite small and cramped—probably so they can squeeze more people in, like the airlines do. A multi-hour ride just isn't all that comfortable.
So... we learn, we adapt, we roll with the punches. This was what we had to keep reminding each other. I realized how I had put so much pressure on myself, especially planning our group excursions together, trying to ensure that everyone had a good time. But even so, things beyond my control had played serious havoc with my plans on this particular day. I loved every minute we all spent together, but still it was hard to see things go awry in ways I couldn't fix, especially after the headaches of the plane trip.