Stonehenge

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We woke up early today and hopped on the subway to get to the train station. We ended up spending an extra hour in the station because the auto ticket machine wouldn't accept our cards so we had to wait in line to buy tickets from a real person, causing us to miss our train by one minute.



When we finally got to Stonehenge, we were in awe. The stones are debated by archaeologists to date back to somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 BC. There was a 'sample' stone lying on some logs by the visitor's center and a sign that said it would take 99 people to pull it. We took dozens of pictures along the path that encircles the site. It was truly an amazing experience to view.



After we left Stonehenge, the tour bus took us to Salisbury. We went directly to the Salisbury Cathedral which is almost 800 years old and has the 2nd largest spire in Europe at 404 feet tall (second only to one in Germany). It also houses one of only four existing copies of the Magna Carta, the one in the best condition. We learned that it was penned on a single piece of parchment made from animal skin and many abbreviations were used in order to keep it as short as possible; that's why English translations look so much longer than the real thing. While we were allowed to photograph inside the cathedral, we were not allowed to do so in the Chapel where the Magna Carta was housed. We were lucky to have arrived within 5 minutes of the Chapel's closing so we got to see this great piece of world history in person.



Seeing one of the Wonders of the World and the first recorded piece of law, after which our own Declaration of Independence was modeled, brought us a once in a lifetime experience. This whole trip has shown me pieces of history we don't get in the States, and I've been very fortunate to see and experience so many of these wonderful things over the past few weeks.



Tomorrow, we're going to visit the area of London near Buckingham Palace and might even catch the Changing of the Guard.

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