Winchester, Salisbury & Stonehenge: One day full of history

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Today, we had a day full of history. First, we should visit Winchester, hereafter Salisbury and a final trip to Stonehenge. This day was a big highlight of our trip. First, Stonehenge, which I really wanted to visited when I was young. Second, Winchester. Who doesn't want to visit the city of King Arthur? So totally excited, we started our third day in England.

The day started after breakfast and we left our hotel in Reading. Winchester was once the capital city of England. When we arrived, we first want to visit the Cathedral of Winchester. However, it was Sunday and a ceremony held, so we couldn't enter. The oldest part of the Cathedral is from the 13th century. However, we took a small walk around the Cathedral. Then, we took a walk in the Centrum. Finally, we reached the old "King Arthur" grounds. First, the old city gate. This was really one of the ruins of ancient Winchester. Was this a ruin of the Castle of King Arthur? Then, we went to a building and we could enter. Here we saw the famous Round Table of King Arthur. It was hanging at the wall, without its legs. The legs were rotten. At the square before the castle there were some mosaics art. Also, there was an underground tunnel system. We couldn’t past it complete, only a small piece of the system.

We went to the park of Winchester were we a took small sit and walk behind the river. Hereafter, we decided to go to the Old Water Mill. This old water mill is around 100 years old, and continues in the running from 1750. In the mill flour were still be grounded. We entered the museum and we saw the mill working. The water of this river was flow very hard. The mill was big and it was working hard. It was quite nice to see, and especially the volunteers were very nice. Also, some otters were living in the mill and the volunteers told us they also had pups in the mill. However, we didn't saw the otters.

After our visit to Winchester, we went to Salisbury. First, we took a lunch. We choose a pasty. It's a savory bun with beef inside it. It was nice. As advised by the driver of the bus, we visited first the St. Thomas Church, because it was well known of this brutal art on the wall. Then, we visit the Salisbury cathedral, build from 1220. At its highest point the cathedral is 120 m high! Also, the longest point is 140meters. We saw some grave tombs and separate parts of the cathedral. There was a lot of (Christian) art in the cathedral and the cathedral was very beautiful build.

Hereafter, we went to visit Stonehenge, probably made in 2300 BC. The stones were brought by boats from Wales though this point. Still, scientists do now known what function Stonehenge had.
Also, we had nice weather, the sun came behind of the clouds for the first time today. You only could enter Stonehenge via a tunnel at the way, only when paid. It was very touristic and you cannot walk in between, but only around, not coming very close. Sadly, it was not as excited as I thought it was. It was just "standing stones". We walked around it, it was nice, but not very great as I had expected. Some parts where very busy and sometimes you could not walk as fast as you wanted. When we left, we saw a huge row between the cash. Luckily we arrived on time, because we didn’t have to wait very long between the cash.

After our visit in Stonehenge, we went to our new hotel in Swindon, called the Menzies Hotel Swindon. We got room 514. Again, this room was clean, well-cared. It was not as big as our previous room, but it was fine. Then, our 3-course menu came. I ordered some soup as starter. Then, as main I had potatoes (in its skin, which is so unusual in Netherlands). As desert I had a double cheese cake.

After diner we went to a pub, with two people of Maastricht (Netherlands) out our group. Here, I got addicted to the "Abbot Ale" beer. Again, there was so much unknown beer, and choosing for the Abbot Ale was not a bad idea. Hans took the Hobgoblin. We both tried both beers of around 5%! (MISSING)The Abbot Ale was light brown and a little bit fruity. The Hobgoblin was a dark beer, a little bit stronger and bitter as taste. I really like the way of tapping a beer. They pump the beer! After some drinks we went to sleep.

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Photos

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Old City Water Mill

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Salisbury Cathedral

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Stonehenge

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In the Salisbury Cathedral

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Round Table of King Arthur

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Winchester Park

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St. Thomas Church (Salisbury)

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Stonehenge