On Wednesday, Jonny and I ate breakfast together at our hotel in Amesbury. While in Amesbury (within 8 miles of Salisbury) we stayed at the Holiday Inn Stonehenge. They had the same breakfast every morning. There was the usual items that one would expect: scrambled eggs (no salsa - ugh!), sausage/bacon, toast and jam, orange and grapefruit juice. Then there was tomato juice, pork and beans, stewed prunes, pickled herring and a variety of cheeses. We ate there once for dinner as well. I ordered a bread pudding which I thought would be cinnamon, raisins, bread and eggs etc. but it came looking like a crusty pie full of zucchini, musrooms, tomatoes, spinach, cheese, and eggs. More like a ratatouille quiche. Let's just say it was a small, tasty work of art.
After Jonny left for work, I checked with the concierge about the best way to go about visiting the local sites especially Stonehenge. She mentioned that somebody had just called a cab and it was the only one in the area so I might have to wait an hour or more. She also mentioned a tour bus that made the round trip between all of the local sites. The 'somebody' overheard and offered to share that cab and take a short detour to drop me where I wanted to go. Nice chap! It was a very moist, overcast day; the first since I'd been in England which is apparently very strange. Apparently it's rainy most of the time. They commented on the murkiness and I told them that I came from Yuma, Arizona in the United States where it only rains about 7 days out of the entire year so to me it was wonderful! They dropped me off at Stonehenge. The concierge had told me earlier that morning that as a girl, her school used to take field trips to Stonehenge and sit right upon the rocks eating their marmite sandwiches. It has only been in the last couple decades that they have decided to focus on preserving it.
When Jonny was driving to work upon first arriving, he had not yet visited it and happened to drive right past it. It shocked him. He recognized it right away and thought to himself in an under-whelming sort of way, "So that's stonehenge...hmm...there it is." Stonehenge is currently positioned right off the highway although plans are underway to remove that section of highway probably to prevent such underwhelming feelings. From the vantage point of the highway it does seem somewhat small but as you walk right up to it and gauge its size then it really does appear quite massive and impressive.
Nobody entirely knows why it was built. They have explored the countryside and determined that the rock was hauled across some absurd distance over 100 miles away which would have been quite a feat with only man and horse power instead of railroad or machinery. It most likely has pagan origins. There is an altar. Different seasons of the year will cause the sun to shine through the keystone set back aways and fall upon different stone faces. There is also reference to several barrows that were found around Stonehenge which are burial mounds. It seems to be a place of mass burial as well. When they point out certain barrows (or burial mounds), you realize that it looks just like a grass-covered hill that is there for no geographical reason. Such grassy knolls are everywhere. It makes you wonder how much is hidden from our eyes that only the Lord knows about.
It seemed only fitting to buy an enormous umbrella from the Stonehenge gift shop which doubled as a great walking stick. I found a few other fun souvenirs. I learned at Stonehenge that I should have taken the bus from Amesbury to Salisbury to start my tour at the bus station. They offer a package round trip deal. As it were, I would have to spend the same amount for the entire roundtrip from Salisbury to Stonehenge to Old Sarum then back to Salisbury even if I only wanted one leg of that trip. It wasn't the best use of my cash but it was the only option at that point. The bus driver offered me a free trip to Old Sarum which was on the way to Salisbury. It wasn't until I was already seated on the bus that he mentioned that in the unlikely event that any officials got on the bus to check tickets, I should give some story that he recommended. This, of course, made me nervous since I am not a good fibber. Upon arriving at Old Sarum with a guilty conscience battling my gratitude for a free trip, I determined that I would pay for the next ticket.
Old Sarum is the site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury, in England. The site contains evidence of human habitation as early as 3000 BC. Old Sarum is mentioned in some of the earliest records in the country. It is located on a hill about two miles north of modern Salisbury.
Old Sarum was originally an Iron age hill fort strategically placed on the conjunction of two trade routes and the River Avon. The site was used by the Romans, becoming the town of Sorviodunum. The Saxons used the site as a stronghold against marauding Vikings, and the Normans built a stone curtain wall around the Iron age perimeter and a centrally placed castle on a motte protected by a deep dry moat. A royal palace was built within the castle for King Henry I and subsequently used by Plantagenet monarchs. A Norman cathedral and bishop's residence were built at the western end of the town. In 1219, the cathedral was demolished in favour of the new one built near the river and the townspeople moved down to the new city, then called New Salisbury or New Sarum. The castle fell out of use because the water supply dried up making it for practical purposes uninhabitable and was dismantled and sold for materials by King Henry VIII.
As the daughter of an architect, who as a child loved to draw furniture and decorate the discarded floor plans given to me by my Dad, it was still enjoyable to walk through Old Sarum as if it were one giant floor plan. I could never imagine the full height of the former castle but the footings of most of the walls were still in place. There were also plaques spread throughout the area with descriptions of how that particular area of the building was used. The royal privy plaque was particularly entertaining as it showed an illustration of a king sitting on his outhouse commode. The pit was probably 20 feet deep. Some poor lout had the job of digging out the contents every great now and then.
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| The entrance to Old Sarum...just picture a moat with a drawbridge and the white plastered walls of a very large castle. |
From Old Sarum, you could look down into the valley of Salisbury and see the Salisbury Cathedral. It's spire is the largest in England, remember. It was so large that it made the cathedral seem so close. I decided to start walking to Salisbury and if I got too tired then I would stop at a bus stop and pay the exorbitant fair for the whole round trip. I walked and walked and walked thinking I was almost there. It was a beautiful walk. I took pictures of moss growing over everything making brick walls and trunks of trees appear green. I remember thinking that I was almost there many times because I could see the large spire but then I would walk for another 20 minutes. I think I walked about 4 miles in an hour. I was impressed but I think it's a pretty common feat in England. They are quite a bit healthier than us Americans. I passed by a lot of kids getting out of school. They were all dressed up in white shirts and ties like missionaries. I saw a few capes that reminded me of Harry Potter. I even walked through a tunnel underpass below the road that reminded me of that scene where Harry and his cousin Dudley were set upon by Dementors. Chill!
Finally, I arrived at Salisbury cathedral. I had already visited it the day before but wanted to arrive in time to hear a choir sing. I never did hear that choir sing. I forget why. Jonny arrived shortly after I did and we opted to get dinner instead since the sun was setting already. We at at the "Lazy Cow". I finally ordered Fish 'n Chips. I tried to always find something on the menu that was traditional to England. The fish was so enormous that I couldn't finish it, not even with Jonny's help. Pretty much every day that we were there in England, we only ate breakfast and dinner. I kept busy enough every day to forget about lunch and felt it gave me good reason to eat those extra calories for dinner.
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