27. Stonehenge

Where: Wiltshire, England

When: February 18, 2012

With who: Dave, Tim and Kelly

Dave's friends from Michigan came to visit us for a week. Being that it was their first trip to England, we wanted to make sure they got the full British experience. So we planned a nice, full weekend in the British countryside to kick off their trip. 

First stop was Stonehenge. Now, I have sort of been to Stonehenge once before. Nine years ago, I took a day trip from London to visit the site on what happened to be the summer solstice. This was a giant mistake. Unbeknownst to me, Stonehenge holds...magical powers...on the first day of summer - apparently the sun shines directly through a particular arch of stones and shines onto what is believed to be the altar. As a result of this event, every single hippie on the island of Britain migrates to this spot on the first day of summer to worship its powers. Therefore, on my first trip to Stonehenge, the site had been shut down due to the overwhelming number of pagan worshippers. My "visit" consisted of a drive-by photoshoot on the bus as we whizzed past the site from the highway. 

Needless to say, I was happy to return on a day with not-as-favorable solar alignment. 

We all took the train from London to Salisbury, the closest town to the site. An incredibly lovely and nice cab driver offered to take us all to Stonehenge, let us wander for an hour, then come back and pick us up. We didn't know if we'd have enough to do for an entire hour, but we weren't about to turn our lovely cab driver down on his offer.

So at first, I was kind of surprised by how large the stones are. Plus, I've heard a lot people say that you can't get that close, and yes, while it is true you can't weave yourself in and out of the circle, but you get closer than I expected. 

Even though a lot of the stones have fallen off, it is INCREDIBLY impressive this thing has been here for about 4,000-5,000 years. All things considered, I think they're doing pretty well.

 Nyaw, hippies.

Our lovely, free audioguides informed us that it isn't exactly understood why this place was built. It could have been a burial ground or a sacrificial prayer spot. It may have even served as a giant calendar - apparently during each month of the year, the sun shines directly through a different pair of the stones. 

The stones on top have been able to fair really well over the years because each of the pillars has a point on top like the one in the photo on the right. A matching impression was made on the top stone, so they fit together like a puzzle piece. Also, the stones are like glaciers: their bases were buried deep underground to help steady them in their places. 

 

And now let's have some fun with perspective. And let's see how long we can make Dave stand there thinking he looks like he's holding up a rock. 

 Dave thought I did a terrible job with his pictures (I think he was just mad I made him stand there really long). He tried to show me that in one shot, he could take a better picture of me "holding a rock". Not sure I agree. 

It was a beautiful day, but the wind on the open meadows was starting to pick up. Therefore, our slow meander around the circle picked up some speed and we started trucking it around to the faster. 

 I was surprised how much I liked it here. Maybe it was my inner hippie or maybe the open meadows, but we definitely used up our entire hour wandering around the site. Luckily, our very friendly cab driver was waiting to take us back to Salisbury at the end our time.