There and back again…

Stonehenge and Salisbury            -Part 1-

Today is the day we escape the pollution of London for a taste of something authentically English. I’ve been told that no one from London is actually from London. Today we went out into the English countryside for something a little more authentic.

Our blue badge guide was a woman named Victoria. She met us in front of our flat and we boarded the bus bound for west of London. If there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that cities are all fundamentally the same. Finally, a chance to see something that I won’t find anywhere else!

So we boarded the bus for our 1.5 hour bus ride. On our way out we saw a gigantic “rugby football” arena. Victoria told us that it seated something like 100,000. Huge! We drove over a bridge and saw a hill of luxury houses in the distance, among them, Mick Jagger’s home. We drove past the Fuller’s Brewery (must get back for a tour!) The brewery was flanked by two pubs that get its beer pumped in directly from the brewery. Victoria shared with us a story about the brewery using river water in the days when fresh water was less available. I’m not certain of the truth of this story, but apparently the brewery would send messengers out to the villages upstream telling them not to dump their sewage into the river. Now breweries use pumped in fresh water and some beer still tastes like piss water; go figure.

So Fuller’s, Mick Jagger’s House, the stadium, all around us the landscape became progressively less urban. I was surprised by how long it took us to escape the boundaries of the city of London. This is quite an expansive city for sure. Did I say expansive? I meant expensive… Well, it’s definitely both.

After a bit of driving we arrived at the monument. Our professor and the giude went ahead to pay the entrance fee. (You have to pay to enter otherwise you’re forced to take distant pictures through a chain link fence.)  We passed a cheesy little souvenir shop selling everything from miniature models of the stones to glossy photos that were as good as any I could have taken myself. There was also a cafe that served overpriced sodas and snacks, as well as something shamelessly named “rock cakes”. I tasted one that someone in my party purchased. It was just as its name suggested.

Finally I ascended the ramp and came face to face with one of the most mysterious things I have ever seen. There were 30 or 40 off blue grey stones that hinted at their original configuration. Most were fallen or missing, but the ones that remained had held their places for well before Jesus’ birth. I cannot even begin to imagine this longevity. These lichen covered stones predate everything that is familiar to me. The greatest part of this world famous monument is that no one really knows how it got there. These rocks are the barest, whitest thing for acres and are made of a type of stone that doesn’t occur geologically for at least 20 miles. It is known that druids (celtic clerics) used this site for God knows what, but as our guide informed us, they were not responsible for its construction. It stood long before the druids even got there.

A very cool phenomenon surrounding the site are the barrows. I thought back to my Tolkien and remembered that these were mass graves, large burial mounds. All around the green, sheep dotted fields I could see these “pimples” on the horizon. Stonehenge was mysterious and majestic. I took pictures from every possible angle like a true tourist and all teh while couldn’t keep scenes from Spinal Tap out of my head. Alas, there were no dancing dwarves.

To be continued…