We woke up at 3:50 on March 31st so that we could drive to
Stonehenge. Harper and I managed to reserve spaces for us so that we could get
inner stone circle access before opening. After a pleasant drive through the
English countryside we arrived at Stonehenge. (Please note that the pleasant
ride applied to everyone but my mom, who was horrified of driving on the left
hand side, going sixty miles an hour on narrow windy roads lined with hedges
and seeing signs for tank crossing). We arrived just in time for our entry and
we were even delivered the guidebook we ordered upon our arrival at the site!
We walked through an
underpass and up to the ancient monument.
It was
incredible! We took hundreds of pictures and wandered through all the stones.
We were able to look at drawings of what the site looked like in its prime. We
could see where stones used to be and where wooden posts were. We were also
able to look all around the monument and see Barrows where people had been
buried long ago; I (Dakota) spotted at least twenty-eight from Stonehenge.
Although it was deathly cold out (compared to the 70 degree weather we had been
having) we enjoyed our visit and stayed there for our entire hour time
allotment. Even Jed enjoyed viewing the ancient monument; you would be
surprised how many facts he remembers about the site. He even read portions of
the guidebook and compared a map of the landscape long ago with what it looks
like today. The highlight, (at least for me) was finding my initials carved in
one of the Sarsen Stones by somebody hundreds of years ago!
The guard
who took us out to the stones told us some stories about the monument. He said
that some days when they take people out to the stones it smells inexplicably
of roses. It may have been the power of suggestion but shortly afterwards we
all thought we smelt roses! He also told us that there is supposed to be the
ghost of a monk near the site and different employees claim to have seen him
slowly walking towards Stonehenge and then disappearing as he gets close to the
stones... creepy! Although the site was spectacular we were quite relieved to get
back into the warm car!
From
Stonehenge we started driving towards the Avebury Stone Circle but realized
that Woodhenge and Durrington Walls (two other monuments) were right along the
way, so we did a quick turn-around and went up to walk into Woodhenge. As we
drove up the driveway to Woodhenge a car honked at us and we realized we were
driving on the right (wrong!) side of the road! None of us even noticed until
the other car honked at us. OOPS! We got out and looked at Woodhenge, which
isn't very impressive anymore, now they put in some short concrete columns
where wooden posts used to stand. We did see a Druid doing some sort of ritual
though, a man walked around the circle several times and then walked down the
aisle to the center and placed some sort of offering on the child's grave in
the center. Durrington Walls is just a big ditch now, but during the Neolithic
(Stonehenge times) it was a village.
Once again
we hopped in the car and headed for Avebury.
On the way we saw a few giant chalk horses that were cut into the
hillsides as markers in the Neolithic, some Iron Age hill forts and numerous
barrows, and finally we arrived at the giant stone causeway to Avebury. The
Avebury Stone Circle's size puts Stonehenge to shame, although it has no lintels
(stones across the top) it is several times the size and the boulders composing
it are much larger. Not to mention it is big enough that much of the town of
Avebury is located inside of it! We wandered amidst the stones for quite a
while, and then I found a coin inside a hole in a rock! So we all went in
search of coins and found several in different holes in the rocks. We concluded
our expedition by walking through an old estate with thatched roof barns and
then visiting the local church. By the end of the day we were quite exhausted
from getting up so early and then gallivanting about the countryside so we were
glad to be home where we could get some rest.
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