Stonehenge, and a chilly day

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Stonehenge. Was. So. COOL!

Cold, actually. It turns out the Salisbury Plain is rather blustery - freezing, in fact. We took a double-decker bus (yes, very happy about it, the both of us) which featured an audio tour of stonehenge and the surrounding area - Old Salisbury, Old Sarum, and then Stonehenge. The bus dropped us off at stonehenge, and we got to stay as long as we liked, but with the chill, we didn't stay too long. Again, technical difficulties with the photos. I will soon, I promise. I took a million billion photos, and we went to the gift shop (they are everywhere!) - someone tell Christine she has a keychain now.

After stonehenge, we hopped back onto the bus, and it took us to the remains of Old Sarum, a disused ruin of a castle which was populated during the 1300s. Sometime in the 1500s, King Henry VIII (he does everything here, I swear) told the community to dismantle it for stone and used it to build other things (Alex disagrees - he says that King Henry VIII gave it to some John guy (King John...maybe?) and then this John fellow dismantled it)...I still think I'm right.

It was pretty neat - there were little sign posts all over the place with interesting info, and I bought a BOW AND ARROW except I have no idea how I'm going to get it home in one piece. I might mail it home - if it shows up, it is NOT for Nicholas. It's mine. And it's loads of fun! While we were there, we met a man from Brazil, and a medieval history teacher from Australia, and after the tour was over, we went to the Salisbury Cathedral with them. We never did catch their names, but we should, we're going to Avebury tomorrow with the aussie. 😊

Alex would like you to know that we went to the tallest cathedral in England today...and it was tall. Very tall. (but not the largest...Canterbury holds that title). And the only reason Salisbury wasn't bombed during the blitzkrieg in WWII was because German bombers used the Salisbury Cathedral as a marker beacon, so they would know where in England they were once they crossed the Channel.

We had a free tour at the cathedral, which bored me to tears, but Alex really enjoyed it. I thought we moved too slow. However, in the Chapter House (I'm still not really sure what that is) they have an original copy of the Magna Carta - which we weren't allowed to take photos of - and that was kinda neat. The Magna Carta of 1215 was the very first something that resembled a constitution, and it gave the british peoples basic human rights (ex: one measure of alcohol, grain, etc - a widow may chose to not marry anyone, etc)

And then we had terrible fish n chips. I refuse british food from now on. The end.

Tomorrow - Avebury, West Kennet Longbarrow (fingers crossed), and then onto...BRISTOL!

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