Portsmouth, Salisbury & Stonehenge

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Geo: 51.855, -2.55054

We left the farm and headed north towards the Cotswolds to the home of Charles and Helen, our next Airbnb stay.

First we headed a little south to Portsmouth, home of the British Navy. They've restored the old Dockyards and have several old ships there. The first one we saw was The Warrior the first iron-clad steam powered and sailing ship. Also there was Admiral Nelson's ship, the HMS Victory. We didn't have time to see Henry VIII's ship, the Mary Rose. The lines were too long into the building where it's kept. It sunk in 1545 and brought up in 1982, so is kept protected.

We did go into a naval history museum at the Dockyards but, again, wished we'd had more time to fully explore the whole area.


Then, back on the Motorway, this time headed up through Salisbury and beyond to catch a glimpse of Stonehenge. We stopped in Salisbury to take a quick look at the Salisbury Cathedral which has the tallest spires in Britain.

We ate in a nice pub overlooking the pretty river Avon. Then headed towards the Salisbury plain and Stonehenge. We'd read in several places that Stonehenge was pretty underwhelming, that you couldn't get very close and that it was much more interesting to visit Avebury. Avebury has upright stones scattered throughout the town as well as a giant stone circle 16 times as big as Stonehenge. We're hoping to make a detour there on our way to London Saturday morning.

So we planned to drive by and takes pictures from the side of the road that runs close to it. Unfortunately, they've closed the road (lots of people had complained about having a road run so close to a World Heritage site). So we parked and took pictures from a distance. Not very good pictures either.

Back on the Motorway again, up to Glouchester and west to the Forest of Dean (no, Theresa, we did not pick the Forest of Dean on purpose). This is a beautiful location, very close to Wales. We stopped for a quick dinner and by then it was dark. With the narrow windy roads we had a hard time finding it. I'm so glad we got that cheap cell phone and could call our hosts or we'd never have found it.

This is our best Airbnb place so far. A large old medieval cottage with a very nice and thoroughly English couple. We'll be here for 3 nights – so nice to be in one place for a few days.

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Photos

Poor picture of Stonehenge
Too cheap to pay the admission