I am back from my 10-day vacation in the U.K and I have to say I enjoyed myself very much. Despite the small and few lows, the many highs made up for it.
One of the highlights of this trip includes visiting the magnificent Stonehenge!
The Stone Circle is made of stones brought from the Preseli mountains in Wales some 4500 years ago and one of the questions we continue to wonder is just how did people back then manage to transport such heavy stones across 240 miles with an infant transport system. Amazing, isn't it?
We visited Stonehenge on a Monday but it was, no surprise here, extremely crowded. Thousands of people were streaming in and out after either catching a glimpse of the significant sight or spending a few meaningful moments soaking up in the spirituality of it.
Our journey began with booking our tour tickets via The Stonehenge Tour. From the three available tour tickets, we chose the one including everything else but the cathedral visit and paid £27 per person, which is quite reasonable in my opinion.
Having settled our tour tickets, we booked our train tickets (via National Rail) from Cardiff Central to Salisbury, where we would catch the coach. The train ride lasted two hours and cost us £14 per person.
The coach from Salisbury Station runs every half an hour and we wanted to catch the one at 11 but we were told, by the bus conductor, that we need to present a physical copy of our Stonehenge tickets to be allowed on board because the bus driver will later issue us a formal ticket in exchange for the copy we printed.
So, because the sotong of my mother forgot to print our tickets, we had to walk in to the city centre to a shop called Reds where the guy kindly printed our tickets for us. (I later found out that Salisbury Reds organises The Stonehenge Tour.)
Luckily for us, there was a bus stop just opposite Reds where we could catch the coach from.
We didn't wait very long for the coach so before we knew it, we were well on our way!
Just so you know, the coach stops at several stops so people can board from whichever is most convenient for them.
The coach dropped us off at the Stonehenge Visitor Centre and we could choose to either walk 2km to where the Stone Circle is or catch yet another coach service that ferries people to and fro the Stone Circle. The latter was our option because the old people a.k.a my mom and Aunty Su weren't up for a 2km walk.
The weather was perfect that day so no filter needed to emphasise further on just how unparalleled the Stone Circle's beauty is.
Every one seems to be less fascinated with the Heel Stone but I kind of really liked it.
The Heel Stone stands Northeast of the Stone Circle and the midsummer solstice sun rises over it so it's actually a really grand sight. Besides, it's quite picturesque on its own too!
After Stonehenge, we casually walked into the Salisbury Cathedral and we realised that there was no entry fee but you are encouraged to make a donation because maintenance of the cathedral depends heavily on donations. We paid £5 per person to enter.
But we all agreed the cathedral seemed more like a cemetery instead because a lot of people are buried in the grounds. I didn't take many photos inside because it gave me the creeps. I literally felt like I was stepping on tombstones. There were also entombed figures, which I suspect is to preserve the bodies of some very important people but it didn't float my boat so I leave you with more images of the infrastructure instead. That, at least, was pretty impressive!
We were really lucky that we got to witness the Magna Carta that, to me, is the beginning of most of our human rights right now.
It's got such a long history so I'll try my best to summarise and hopefully not pass the wrong message.
What I saw was a parchment paper fully filled with heavily abbreviated Latin so I, for one, could not understand a single word and neither could I see very clearly because it was very tiny. According to my aunt, who is a history junkie by the way, the people who came up with the Magna Carta were running short on time and paper was very scarce as well so they had to full maximise the use of it, which explains the abbreviations.
It states some of our current human rights but is also the foundation of English governance back then when King John of England made peace with a group of rebel barons in 1215.
So you can image just how far we have come since then.
One of the highlights of this trip includes visiting the magnificent Stonehenge!
The Stone Circle is made of stones brought from the Preseli mountains in Wales some 4500 years ago and one of the questions we continue to wonder is just how did people back then manage to transport such heavy stones across 240 miles with an infant transport system. Amazing, isn't it?
We visited Stonehenge on a Monday but it was, no surprise here, extremely crowded. Thousands of people were streaming in and out after either catching a glimpse of the significant sight or spending a few meaningful moments soaking up in the spirituality of it.
Our journey began with booking our tour tickets via The Stonehenge Tour. From the three available tour tickets, we chose the one including everything else but the cathedral visit and paid £27 per person, which is quite reasonable in my opinion.
Having settled our tour tickets, we booked our train tickets (via National Rail) from Cardiff Central to Salisbury, where we would catch the coach. The train ride lasted two hours and cost us £14 per person.
The coach from Salisbury Station runs every half an hour and we wanted to catch the one at 11 but we were told, by the bus conductor, that we need to present a physical copy of our Stonehenge tickets to be allowed on board because the bus driver will later issue us a formal ticket in exchange for the copy we printed.
So, because the sotong of my mother forgot to print our tickets, we had to walk in to the city centre to a shop called Reds where the guy kindly printed our tickets for us. (I later found out that Salisbury Reds organises The Stonehenge Tour.)
Luckily for us, there was a bus stop just opposite Reds where we could catch the coach from.
Salisbury City Centre
We didn't wait very long for the coach so before we knew it, we were well on our way!
Just so you know, the coach stops at several stops so people can board from whichever is most convenient for them.
The coach dropped us off at the Stonehenge Visitor Centre and we could choose to either walk 2km to where the Stone Circle is or catch yet another coach service that ferries people to and fro the Stone Circle. The latter was our option because the old people a.k.a my mom and Aunty Su weren't up for a 2km walk.
The Stone Circle in all its glory
The weather was perfect that day so no filter needed to emphasise further on just how unparalleled the Stone Circle's beauty is.
The Heel Stone
Every one seems to be less fascinated with the Heel Stone but I kind of really liked it.
The Heel Stone stands Northeast of the Stone Circle and the midsummer solstice sun rises over it so it's actually a really grand sight. Besides, it's quite picturesque on its own too!
After Stonehenge, we casually walked into the Salisbury Cathedral and we realised that there was no entry fee but you are encouraged to make a donation because maintenance of the cathedral depends heavily on donations. We paid £5 per person to enter.
Salisbury Cathedral
But we all agreed the cathedral seemed more like a cemetery instead because a lot of people are buried in the grounds. I didn't take many photos inside because it gave me the creeps. I literally felt like I was stepping on tombstones. There were also entombed figures, which I suspect is to preserve the bodies of some very important people but it didn't float my boat so I leave you with more images of the infrastructure instead. That, at least, was pretty impressive!
It's got such a long history so I'll try my best to summarise and hopefully not pass the wrong message.
What I saw was a parchment paper fully filled with heavily abbreviated Latin so I, for one, could not understand a single word and neither could I see very clearly because it was very tiny. According to my aunt, who is a history junkie by the way, the people who came up with the Magna Carta were running short on time and paper was very scarce as well so they had to full maximise the use of it, which explains the abbreviations.
It states some of our current human rights but is also the foundation of English governance back then when King John of England made peace with a group of rebel barons in 1215.
So you can image just how far we have come since then.
~~~~~~~~~~
Comments