Stonehenge

Day 3 of our trip to England took us to that site of pilgrimage for many tourists: Stonehenge.

Yes, it was very windy on top of the hill! Theresa, me, and Judy.

To get there, we had to rent a car, of course. And before that, have breakfast. Our hotel, the Carlton Hotel at King's Cross, served a surpisingly good continental breakfast with delicious croissants, toast (that big English bread is so delicious!), hard-boiled eggs, cereal, oatmeal, juice, coffee, tea, and more. This hotel, I should add, wasn't fancy, so don't go thinking Ritz-Carlton! The room was fairly small and like most of England, there was no AC--it usually doesn't get hot enough to need it. The manager graciously provided a fan, thank goodness, since we were on the top floor and it was pretty hot. And the windows opened. My cousin John later told us that we'd stayed in the "red light district." Oh dear! But really, the area was fine, just very busy and did not seem seedy at all.

Finding the car rental agency proved to be an adventure itself. The information we had said it was at St. Pancras Station, but that was stretching it a bit--after asking three or four people who kept us going in the right direction (dragging suitcases behind us) we found the rental agency a few blocks away in the bottom of a parking garage! I guess that makes sense in a way, but certainly didn't make finding them very easy.

We got a neat little Fiat SUV, and Judy got behind the wheel. Imagine driving out into London traffic when you're on the wrong side of the car and the wrong side of the road. She did great, though, like a pro, and the GPS got us safely out of town and on the road to Stonehenge.

I was surprised to see that you can actually see the stones from the highway--they're right there in view, although a good distance away.

The view from the road.

You can also walk up to them for free on a public footpath, but can't get too close, and of course would be be able to see the museum and exhibits which alone are worth the price of admission. Stonehenge was crowded the day we visited but the staff were smiling and polite, amazing considering how many people they deal with every day. It's best to get tickets in advance, as only a limited number of people are allowed in each day. We got our tickets online on the way there, thank goodness. That wasn't something we'd considered beforehand.

One of the funniest moments of our trip happened at Stonehenge. We got separated at one point, and when I found Theresa again she said Judy had opted to walk up to the stones (about 1 1/4 miles) rather than take the shuttle. Theresa and I got on the shuttle, but realized that we had Judy's ticket and she would not be able to get passed the guards at the gate to the stones without it. What to do?

When we got to the stones we walked around a bit, then Theresa went down to the guards and explained the situation. She described Judy and told the guards her name and they promised to watch out for her. A bit later we saw Judy at the gate, and she had the most astonished look on her face.

"When I got there," she said, "I realized that I didn't have my ticket! I went over to guards and told them I didn't know what to do, my sister had my ticket and I wasn't sure where she was. The guard asked, "Are you Judy?"  I was so surprised! How did they know my name??"  We told her she was famous all over England, and everyone knew her name. I don't know when I've laughed so hard. Kudos to those guards for their politeness and attention. They made our day.

The stones: what a thing to see them in person! After seeing photos of this massive, mysterious structure all my life, seeing them in person was surreal. And as a summer solstice baby, I've always had a curiosity about Stonehenge. I could write a lot more about the history, research, discoveries, etc, about this place, but all of that has been covered in depth in books, documentaries, and online, so I'll leave that to the experts and just write about our experience.

I liked the lichens growing on the stones.

Even though there were many people there when we were, the stones were still mesmerizing. I cannot imagine how in the world those prehistoric people managed to drag them such long distances and erect them into what we see today. I should add that the circle has been restored--over the years stones have fallen over, etc, so what we see now is a reconstruction of how the restorers thought it looked. It may or may not be accurate, but they worked using the best knowledge and evidence they had.

Can you see the little knob on top of the thin stone to the left? That was chiseled and a correcsponding hole was carved into one of the horizontal stones to fit snugly over it to form the top of the circle. How long it must have taken to do that painstaking work.

It takes a while to walk all the way around them, and of course we stopped many times just to ponder their mystery and significance. Finally we got back on the shuttle, and went through the museum exhibits one more time. One part I like very much was a circular video that showed the stones over the years and through the seasons. It's really beautiful, and I took some very interesting photos in there.

A mushroom fairy ring in the grass outside the stones. Of course the fairies dance here!

Someone asked me if I felt anything mystical at the stones. Well, no. I wasn't looking for that and honestly with so many people around it would have been difficult to do. Perhaps being there very early in the day, or late in the evening or in bad weather when one could have more private time, one might feel something. What I felt was awe and wonder, and a sense of the smallness of man in the presence of these huge pillars.

Not so big really?

We finally left for our inn for the night--appropriately enough, the Stonehenge Inn.

That was our room over the front center door. Windows open! It was still quite warm, although it cooled off in the evenings.

We were delighted and amused to find this mini-Stonehenge on the Inn's grounds.

A good dinner and a meet-up with friends ended the day. More about that in my next post.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.