Stonehenge! We weren't sure if we really wanted to go to Stonehenge. You can't walk actually among the stones. It's busy. You have to take a bus. But - how can we drive by the area and not go to Stonehenge? So we went.
First we had to pick up a rental car, where we enjoyed this fun sign. Matt did NOT enjoy driving - the cars drive on the left side of the street, the lanes are very narrow, sometimes far too narrow, and people park right in the middle of the street, making a barely two lane road into a one lane road.
Driving to Stonehenge was actually pretty easy - it's off a big road. You can see it from the road, but then you drive around to a big parking lot, go around and pay a bunch of $, and then you can see their museum, some nice huts they've recreated, and take a bus back to the henge. It was a little busy especially close to where the bus lets you off, but if you keep walking you can get away from all the people.
The countryside is very beautiful. You can barely see them, but there are a bunch of nice wooley sheep all around.
Mattie had thought it would be bigger. I guess it's hard to get a good idea of the scale, when you can't walk right up to the stones. They have it roped off, but they're not really that far. And - it's not huge, she's right.
The stones are pretty huge though, especially when you think that they were hauling them from a far away quarry. There are plenty of mysteries about Stonehenge, but they also do know some cool stuff: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/history-and-stories/history/
Ha ha ha ha.
I think this was the first day we saw any sun, and obviously I needed my sunglasses but hadn't found them yet.
Here we'd walked around the back, and I used a wide-angle lens, and it seems farther away. It is really isolated feeling (except the sheep), but there's also a road over the other side of the hill (but you don't necessarily see it from the henge).
My conclusion: go see Stonehenge! It was beautiful, it's mysterious, and the museum and displays are good. It's easy to get to. I really liked it. I would have liked to have seen Avebury as well, which is an even larger henge farther north, but driving and time were a problem.
Like I said, Matt drove, so I was the navigator. (Both jobs were tricky, but I really feel like navigating must have been the hardest part, right?) My navigating got a little tricky in the middle of the wilderness, and it's possible that we might not have taken the most direct route to Bath from Stonehenge. Which was a problem because those little country lanes were very nerve-wracking. But Matt survived it and we arrived later that afternoon at Bath, which is a gorgeous town.
We were a little late in the afternoon to go see the actual Roman Baths, so we went to the cathedral instead. It's huge and beautiful.
Not nearly as gilded as St. Paul's Cathedral, but I don't think we saw any other cathedrals that were that gilded. The ceilings were always really interesting though, and this one has some very nice stained glass.
We saw lots of these sorts of monuments on the floor in cathedrals and chapels. At first we thought that people might be buried right there under the marker, but even though some of the inscriptions say "here" I think that's figurative instead of literal.
Some restoration work - lots of the cathedrals we went in were having work done.
And a super huge organ. A couple of times we heard the organs being played in cathedrals - of course the acoustics are amazing, with all the stone and arches.
We ate at this beautiful restaurant called the Giggling Squid. (Who wouldn't want to eat at a restaurant named the Giggling Squid?)
The food was beautiful!
And the restaurant was decorated so beautifully! The whole meal was a treat.
The walk was also a treat - this is the River Avon. Beautiful!
Next door to our rather boring hotel was a really neat graveyard - St. James Cemetery.
This sign, found on the way in, is one of my favorite parts. Any time you can include "I'm sure you can appreciate" in your sign, you should do so. Also - no grass cutting has happened any time recently - maybe the grass cutters are just too disgusted.
There was a mysterious looking mausoleum, where evidently a homeless person might be living (not as mysterious as it first appeared - no doors were openable).
The graves were all pretty old - mostly the end of the 1800's or beginning of the 1900's. Old enough that it doesn't look like many people visit the cemetery anymore at all.
This is one of my favorite tombstones. Matt thinks his wife probably killed him and then protests too much with her inscription. Either way it's a very dramatic epitaph:
Harold B. Nelson, who at the age of nearly 36 years, was taken home on the 15th Feb 1901, to the inexpressible grief of his wife.
Hal now at home
Free from pain, and free from care,
God's angel came and took him there
For the wife left behind, patience, patience.
A little father on,
And then the things tha tpain,
The worries and the strai?
The griefs the woes all gone.
And she will never know their like again.
A little father on,
The toil, the strife all done.
After the long hard fight
God grant peace and rest at last
With Hal ? heavenly light.
It was a beautiful night! Very lovely in this peaceful quiet cemetery, with only the buzzing of the mosquitoes. A great way (if a little itchy) to wrap up day 4!
Mattie's fitbit logged 16,730 steps, which is quite a few considering there was quite a bit of drive time.
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