Friday November 8, 2002
Today was an early morning rise since when we returned from hanging out with Kris last night at the movies, the Concierge was already gone for the day. We had to get up bright and early so we could place a call to Astral Travels to book our “Stones and Bones” Tour. Because it was very last minute, the company was unable to arrange to pick us up. We had to get down to the London Underground and ride the Tube out to Gloucester Station to meet up with the bus.
Off we went, and we arrived at Gloucester with no problems. We waited about 30 minutes in the area for our coach to arrive. Our 16-passenger coach was quite manageable and it reminded us of our Tahiti Island Tour with Luc from two years prior. Heading out of London I was reminded of my 1996 trip and how long it took to get out of the city centre. It took us about an hour to get to Avebury no thanks to rough London traffic. Cool stat from our driver was that in the 1800s horse traffic averaged 8mi/hr and in 2000, automobile traffic in London averaged 6 mi/hr.
Other London tidbits were passed along to us by our driver Alan included the fact that London was originally two settlements: London and Westminster. London was the original Roman settlement and Westminster was added later on as the site of the Church of England. Today was similar to our other coach tour day – light rain and chilly! If the pattern holds we will have decent weather for the Lord Mayor’s fireworks and then Monday for Disneyland Paris. One more note of historical interest regarding Westminster: The tomb for Mary, Queen of Scots is more elaborate than Queen Elizabeth I because Mary’s son was the next King and he was peeved that his mother lost her life to the chop.
Along the way to Avebury, Alan provided some more great English notes of interest. Hungerford is the antique capital of Great Britain and if you want an authentic thatch roof, it will cost you about 25,000-30,000 GBP to have it installed. Also did you know that there are not many ancient forests left in Great Britain? They have tried to preserve the few that are left. One more great note: Marlborough is the alleged home of Merlin.
Arriving in Avebury, we all disembarked the bus and proceeded to explore the stone circle. I have to admit, I didn’t know what to expect from the site, but I was impressed. Alan proceeded to give us a brief history of the area pointing out that in the 1320’s, the stones were all buried because the church wanted to get rid of a site that was so pagan. When they resurrected in the 1930’s, they found the skeleton of the barber under one of the stones and thus gave it the name the Barber stone. Leading theories suggest that the locals used antlers and sheep shoulder blades to help build the whole thing and it took about 200 years to get the whole thing put together. We posed for photos in the area and then set off again this time towards Stonehenge.
Along the way, we passed the outline of a horse on the side of a hill. It turns out people over thousands of years have exposed the chalky soil in the shapes of horses. Not sure why, but it seems like a better idea then placing a letter on a hillside for a city name. Never one to give a dull tour, Alan then proceeded to give us the history of the term “pot luck”. In olden days, your luck depended on what you get. When houses had thatched roofs, there was nothing between the roof and the floor. So if birds or other critters got into the roofing, they would drop their feces down below, usually into the day’s pot of boiling stew. So if you had pot luck, it meant that there were no droppings in your food.
Our visit to Stonehenge was pretty exciting, except I didn’t remember when I visited the last time that we had to walk so far away from the site. Apparently there is one side that is close to the monument and the other goes way around to help preserve the grass. Not sure about it, but always nice to visit the area and you forget that the motorway is right next to it. I sure hope they go through with the plan to remove the motorway and restore the valley to a more natural state. After the Megalithic Monument, we headed out to Amesbury for lunch at a small pub. It was really quite nice to get out of the cold and into a warm pub for some bits to eat. As we were chowing down on some fish and chips, Alan piped in that when you see “bury” in a name, it means the town was a Saxon town.
After lunch, it was time to for Old Sarum and Salisbury. Old Sarum is where Salisbury used to be before someone decided in 1220 to move down the hill into the Salisbury plain and build a brand new cathedral. The old town of Salisbury in Old Sarum is now the parking lot for the ruins of the Cathedral and a fortress. We noodled around the ruins for quite a bit and took some excellent Gorn photos as well as photos with the new cathedral in the background.
We headed to the new cathedral in Salisbury and it was just as impressive as the previous visit. Fortunately, on this trip we had Alan – ever the source of tidbits of knowledge that helped explain the cathedral and the sites inside. I totally never remembered that Salisbury cathedral had one of the best 4 copies of the Magna Charta, as well as the oldest working clock in Europe. Alan also mentioned that they used some of the stones from Old Sarum in the new place, and that the spire is now 29″ out of alignment just from the sheer weight of the thing! Thank goodness for flying buttresses to keep the thing from toppling over. He also pointed out where there was a pagan body buried under the cathedral (apparently missed in the site clearing) as well as the spot where the poor choir boys are bumped three times once they are signed off.
After our whirlwind tour, it was time for nap time as we headed back to London. I must say I really enjoyed our trip today and it was well worth the money. I highly recommend Astral over the bigger companies if you are looking for some tours of the UK.
Once we arrived back in London, we crashed and cleaned up for a bit and then headed out to sample the local nightlife. We had a pretty good time, but we didn’t stay out that much later since we were both zonked.
