UK 2000 Trip - Salisbury and Stonehenge


UK Trip 2000:	Salisbury and Stonehenge

Salisbury and Stonehenge

Tuesday March 28th was a VERY long day. We got up before the sun at about 6:00am, at the same time as Matt. Had coffee and got dressed then headed into Ipswich with Matt on the bus. Caught a train into London, then the tube to Waterloo Station. We were going on a London Walks Explorer Day to Salisbury and Stonehenge. The guide said to meet Richard at like 9:30 near the ticket office at the train station. He wears a "distinctive" red hat. Well what the guide should have said was "look for the bloody big crowd surrounding the guy in the red hat". Richard was a bit overwhelmed by the size of the crowd as well. There were about 60 people all thrusting money at him. He got it all sorted out like the pro that he is and then led us all over to our train. We filled our designated carriage and part of the next one. Kel and I got separated and had to use hand signals and rolley eyes to communicate.

The trip took about and hour and 15 minutes then we all tromped off the train and followed Richard to a grassy area nearby where he could talk and be heard. It was really pretty there with a meandering River Avon nearby and the Cathedral looming off in the distance. After giving us some history we moved out to the town, heading toward the Cathedral.

We walked through a small single lane gate (fighting for space with a line of cars) into the Cathedral Close. We paused in the middle of it so Richard could point out the various interesting buildings surrounding us and to give us more historical tidbits. This was where we were all to meet after lunch. From here we headed over to the Cathedral itself. It was very impressive. I took too many pictures of it. After exploring it inside and out, it was lunch time. We opted to eat in the cafe within the cathedral as we didn't want to get lost and stranded without seeing Stonehenge. This was still early in the trip so we weren't very bold yet:)

After lunch we all met Richard back in the close and he led us out to the Coach which would take us out to Stonehenge. 30 or so minutes later and there it was. Man it was cold! I was warned by others that you can't get very close to it but I got a lot closer than I expected, within about 15 feet. It was very cool. Originally Richard was going to split the group in 2 and let one of the official Stonehenge guides take half of us. Once we got there he saw that the only one available was someone with not a very loud voice, so he guided all of us afterall. One funny point. He warned us not to cross the rope next to the paths. The rangers were pretty strict on that, but he could do it so we could all see him better, because they all knew him. Not 30 seconds after crossing the line did one come up and make him get back on the path :).

After spending some time shivering up on the plain we descended back into the gift-shop and bought a bunch of postcards to make up for the lack of pictures I was able to take. It was WARM in there. Then back on the bus and the drive back to Salisbury. On the way we got to see actual barrows which is kinda cool if you've only read about them in Tolkien. We had some free time available to us back in town so Kel and I partook of a cream tea while waiting to take the train back to London.

We got back to London at about 6:30 (we got to sit together this time). Then tube to Liverpool Street Sta., and train to Ipswich, which pulled in about 7:30. The next bus to Shotley Gate was at 10:00! We had a bite to eat and couple of pints at the pub near the bus terminal which killed some time until our bus was ready for us. Got back to the flat at about 10:45 and into bed by midnight.

We opted to sleep in the next day :)

Text Last Modified Sat Mar 22 06:36:43 2003

Click on one of these 11 Fabulous Pics for more details and a bigger picture.

River Avon

Walking Around

Salisbury Cathedral 1

Salisbury Cathedral 2

Salisbury Cathedral 3

Salisbury Cathedral 4

Cathedral Close

Cathedral Close with Richard

Stained Glass

Stained Glass 2

Stonehenge

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Salisbury and Stonehenge

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