The Travel Nutt: England - Salisbury, Stonehenge, Bath

This morning at breakfast we finally met our fellow travelers. Almost all are from countries other than the USA . . .besides the four of us, there is one other couple from Northern California, one couple from South Africa, 2 couples from New Zealand and the rest are from Australia. So this will be an interesting mix of people. Our tour guide, Steve, is very British, was a teacher in his “former life”, but has now been working for our tour company doing this and similar tours of the UK for the last 9 years.

After getting us all secured on the bus and our luggage safely stored underneath, we were off on our adventure. Our first “drive by” was in Runnymede (Runny– to negotiate, and Mede – meadow) where the original Magna Carta was signed on June 19, 1215. We could only get a glimpse of the actual site as we drove by, as there wasn’t any place to stop the coach. Oh well . . . A little later we got to see an original hand-written copy of the document and that was really cool.

Next “drive by” was Windsor Castle. I have to say I’m very disappointed that we only drove by, and at a great distance at that. It is the largest castle in the world and the only one that has been continually lived in the longest. Ruth, who has been there before, says it’s incredible! Luckily I was on the correct side of the coach and could snap a picture. Again, no parking area for the coach . . . I had really wanted to see the castle up close and personal, but again, oh well . . .

A peek at Windsor Castle

Our next stop, and this time we did get to stop, was at Salisbury Cathedral, which dates back to 1197AD. Pretty amazing to walk through, see and touch something that old. The architecture and stained glass defy description, and my pictures only capture small parts of the grandeur.

Ann's Gate - One of the Entrances to Salisbury Cathedral

As we walked towards the cathedral, we passed this building. Notice the window in the center that has been bricked up. At one time (and possibly still today, I don't know for sure), a "daylight tax" was levied on the people. What this means is that they were taxed based on the number of windows in their homes. So to avoid paying such high taxes, they bricked up many of their windows. We saw evidence of this all throughout the United Kingdom.

Bricked Up Window

Salisbury Cathedral

This is a dynamic working church and still holds daily and Sunday worship services – it is an Anglican Communion Church, part of the Church of England, and is the Mother Church of the Diocese of Salisbury. The spire is 404 ft. high and is the tallest in England.

Main Entrance to Cathedral

Cloisters

Inside the Cathedral - The Ceilings were amazing

Many important figures in British history are buried here, under the floor and in tombs along the walls.

Gorgeous stained glass windows and some of the tombs

The biggest pipe organ I've ever seen

Also inside the cathedral is the oldest working clock dating back to Medieval times, approx. 1386. It has no face and only strikes the hour on a bell that is now located in the Cathedral roof space.

Medieval Clock

Also inside the Cathedral is stored the best of the four surviving copies of the original Magna Carta. We were able to view it, but no photography was allowed. The words are all very neatly hand written in teeny tiny letters and all in another language, probably Latin. To me it was amazing to see something that old.

Our next stop of the day was at Stonehenge. Wow! I’ve seen pictures, but it was incredible to see it for real. For whatever reason, I thought it was a straight line, when in fact, it’s circular. Here’s what we learned about it . . .

“Henge” means excavation. The beginnings of Stonehenge date back to around 3000BC, about the time of the Pyramids, and no one knows what it originally was or why it was built. Archaeologists believe that it was very important to the people of that time, and it was very exactly and precisely planned. They have determined that first 56 holes were drilled, and inside the holes were buried ashes and bone fragments . . . Why? And whose? No one knows. Next, around 2200BC, smaller bluestones were brought in from the Preseli Hills in western Wales, some 150 miles away. Can you imagine the labor involved? What tools did they have and how did they move these huge rocks all that distance back in 2200BC?

Then around 1600BC the larger sarsen stones were brought from Marlborough Downs, which is located some 19 miles to the north of Stonehenge. These stones can weigh up to 50 tons each . . . so how did they move them? Just think about it. These larger stones form the outer circle and the inner horseshoe that you see today. The smaller stones were relocated amongst the larger stones. The labor involved in all of this had to be intense . . . we’ve seen movies about the building of the pyramids; this must have been done in some similar manner. And I just think it’s incredible that no one knows or understands why this was built. They do know that the stones are aligned with the rising and setting sun at the summer and winter solstices, so they think it had some sort of special or religious meaning. This theory is reinforced by the presence of 5 barrows or burial mounds in the grassy area across from Stonehenge. And to put the timeline of how long it took to build into something we can understand, it took the same amount of time to build Stonehenge as dating from the time of the Vikings till today. That's hundreds of years . . . just try to imagine that! Amazing!

Stonehenge

You can't actually get up close to Stonehenge. The people are separated from it by a fence . . . We were actually even further away, looking through another chain-link fence that surrounds the entire property. Our tour guide told us we could see it just as well through the chain link fence as the people that paid to go inside and get a little closer. So I just zoomed my camera in and got a better view . . . Click on the photos to see them bigger.

Stonehenge - zoomed in - notice the smaller stones in-amongst the larger ones

And from a little different angle

Three of five burrows or burial mounds in the field opposite Stonehenge

They know these are burial mounds because they did excavate one of them. But then they left the rest alone out of respect.

A closer look at the sarsen stone (left) and the bluestone that Stonehenge is made from - these were out where you could touch them. The sarsen stone is cool to the touch, the bluestone is much warmer

Our last stop of the day was at Bath, which has the reputation of being the prettiest town in England.

One of the streets in Bath showing it's Georgian Architecture

The River Avon (there are about seven rivers in the UK named "Avon")

Again, everything is very old, dating back to around 43AD when the Romans invaded England and stayed some 370 years. They built a very sophisticated bathing complex which they enjoyed until about 410AD when they left because the Roman Empire was crumbling. Other civilizations came and went – Sextons, Angles, and Vikings to name a few, but none of them cared about bathing (yuk!) and the bathes started to decay. Then in the 17th Century, Europeans wanted to improve their knowledge and lifestyle, found the Baths, and rebuilt them based on the Roman ruins. We didn’t get to actually go inside, : ( but I’m told they are incredible.

Entrance to the Roman Baths

Another View of the Buildings that hold the Baths

We did walk through Bath Abbey which is adjacent to the Baths, and it’s another amazing church, similar to the one at Salisbury with stained glass windows, a large pipe-organ, and tombs and burial places throughout.