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Published: June 27th 2022
Miguel has brought some treats with him from Argentina for us and so I'm super happy to try dulce de leche spread on my toast from breakfast. For anyone who has never tried this, it's like a milky caramel taste. We also have a box of Alfajores, which we look forward to eating later on in the week.
Our trip today is a short drive of some 20 to 25 mins down the A303, so we left the house a bit later and enjoyed a slight lay-in. Forgetting that it is Easter half term, we end up stuck in traffic on the A303 and a 25 min journey turned into a 1 hour trip. Today's itinerary is a trip to Stonehenge and then a visit to the nearby city of Salisbury. By the time we reach
Stonehenge, it is almost midday.
Being annual members of English Heritage, meant we get free entrance and luckily we had a ticket sent to us recently which allowed us to bring a friend for free, so this worked well in Miguel's favour. The entrance fee to
Stonehenge is rather extortionate, although it is definitely worth paying to see the big stones for a
first time visit. Although not one of the Seven Wonders of the World, it definitely has a world wonder feel; but when you've seen it many times before, I don't feel the entrance price is worth it.
Stonehenge is a pre-historical monument located on the
Salisbury Plains in Wiltshire. It took hundreds of years to build
Stonehenge. It is believed that work began around 3000 BC, in the late Neolithic age. It is believed that over the next thousand years people made many changes to the monument, with the last of the changes made in the early Bronze Age, around 1500 BC. No one knows exactly why
Stonehenge was built but it is believed people probably gathered there for religious ceremonies, as there are many burial sites nearby.
In recent years,
Stonehenge has expanded. You used to be able to park your car off from the A303 to see the big stones, but it is believed it caused too much traffic chaos, although even today you can still expect some traffic as drivers slow down to admire the stones. There is talk of building a tunnel so the stones are no longer visible from the main road. As
an alternative solution,
Stonehenge now has a main entrance and car park a little way off from the main A303 road with has a café and shop. There is also a museum and in more recent years an exhibition has opened up.
The big stones are a little way from the main entrance, so after exploring the museum and exhibition, Miguel and I take a small coach to the stones, whilst Fiona stays in the café and gives Jovie her milk bottle.
Miguel is pretty amazed by the big stones, as you would, given the history and mystery of how they moved these heavy rocks thousands of years ago. I hear that some believe the stones came as far as Wales, but no one really knows. As we enjoy a pleasant walk around the rocks taking selfies I noticed an unusual bird that I've not seen before, so I look up online and discover it is the Great Bustard, a bird that has been extinct in Great Britain since the last bird was shot in 1832, but over the last decade, attempts have been made to reintroduce them back in the UK on
Salisbury Plains.
Before we
leave, Miguel kindly buys a bottle of strawberry wine and a bottle of plum wine from the English Heritage shop for us to drink in the evening when we get home, so we look forward to this.
By the time we reach Salisbury, we have missed the opportunity to have brunch at this lovely little café that Fiona and I had discovered a couple of months prior with the children. We try to decide where else to eat and find ourselves at the French restaurant chain called
Café Rouge. We discover they do afternoon tea and so pick this for Miguel to sample and experience, as afternoon tea is very traditional and popular for us Brits.
After having afternoon tea, we head to
Salisbury Cathedral and discover that they are closing shortly, but they let us in free of charge, due to limited time we will be able to spend in the cathedral before it closes. This cathedral has recently been in the media a lot, as there was a recent poisoning of a Russian spy and his daughter at a restaurant nearby. Two Russian men who were suspected of carrying out the attack said they went all
the way from London to Salisbury via a train to see the cathedral but shortly left because it was too cold... you can't make this stuff up :D
Aside from the recent media attention,
Salisbury Cathedral is beautiful with gothic architecture, with the original foundations to this cathedral dating back to 1220. Its a beautiful cathedral and a visit to Salisbury is well worth it to see this medieval cathedral and city.
Given we are not far from home and our day in Salisbury has ended early, I suggest we go back home and Fiona agrees to cook a Shepperd's Pie for Miguel to sample. I think Shepperd's Pie is a British dish, so for those who may have not tried this, it is a lamb mince cooked with onion and gravy with baked mash potato on top (we add cheese on top of the mash before it goes in the over, but not everyone likes this) and it is quite common to have some garden peas or carrot to go along side the pie.
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ChrisValley
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Bhavik Patel Texas
Amazing Information. Thanks to share the Wonderful Information.