JANUARY 11, 2011
So it's 1/11/11 (or 11/1/11 in the British version of day/month/year, which I like better because now it's a palindrome) and there's nothing better than taking a train through across the vast English countryside on a rainy Tuesday morning. Where are we headed? To Salisbury, England, a cute little town about a 2-hour train ride southwest of London. And why are we going there? It's the first step towards getting to a bunch of big rocks in the middle of a field. Or 'Stonehenge' to the learn-ed youth/casual good-guesser!
First ride on the British National Rail train system! Not too bad. They leave EXACTLY on time, so you better be on it! It's pretty convenient that Waterloo Station is a 3 minute walk from my apartment. Stopped to pick up my tickets and a 16-25 Rail Card that gives me pretty good discounts on rail fares (which I could use, as I've just joined the KCL Football Club and I'll need to take the rail for a short ride down to Honor Park for training on Monday nights!). Anyway, here's the photo tour of my journey to the mysterious Stonehenge! Enjoy:
Waterloo Station!
Our train!
From the inside. The seats weren't too bad, the only thing was they didn't recline so it was like sitting straight up
Oh, hello passing train.
We passed some cute little towns and stuff.
There were so many trees every time I went to snap a picture.
The countryside..
A short nap later, we made it to Salisbury!
Walking down their main street
Clock tower
Cool church
I think this was the River Avon that went through it..?
Neat little pub
Where we stopped for some delicious hot chocolate and scones!
There was like a little market selling food and stuff in the center of town
Walking down one of the roads, trying to find the bus station
.. still looking ..
When we found it, we took a bus north for a short ride up to Amesbury for the next leg of the journey.
Hey, a football field!
More countryside pictures
A really cool, really old church and cemetery in Amesbury
From Amesbury, we decided to walk the last leg of the journey - about 2 miles to Stonehenge:
SHEEEEEEEEP.
A bridge from the 1700s over another river. Probably Avon, I think it flows south..
Hanna and Andrew leading the way
At least we're going the right way!
Some of the group heading up the road. We totally lucked out with the weather; thank god it didn't rain!
Alex and Barbara are falling behind!
Some farms
A little thatched-roof farming cottage. Very cool
Reminds me of North Dakota, but with more trees
There it is in the distance!!
Then we sprinted across a four-lane highway and almost died. What an end to the journey that would have been! A tiring Jenny at one point compared our trek to that in Lord of the Rings, and it was pretty epic at times! But we finally got there. And paid the £5 fee to see a bunch of rocks, those greedy ...
Found it!
See? I told you I was there.
I just took a bunch of pictures from different angles so here you go:
My "Oh man! I'm at Stonehenge!" moment
All smiles
More sheep, hanging out right next to Stonehenge
The surrounding countryside
Might be my favorite picture of it
Or this one..
But I do like the clouds in this one..
Then, after a quick look through the gift shop, we left! Looking back, it was pretty cool, and the free walking audio tour had some very in depth details about the history and the possible reasons that Stonehenge was built. In my opinion, it was totally the aliens. I'm jus' sayin'.
A couple people didn't feel like attempting the walk back, so we called a 7-seat cab to pick us up!
Barbara, Jenny, and Alice
Andrew, Hanna, and I. Alex took the front seat with our very friendly cab-driver.
We had the cab drop us off at Old Sarum, the remains of an old castle on the edge of Salisbury. It was closed, but we were allowed to walk around the outside. I think it's on the other side of this hill
Beautiful view of the town from one of the hills surrounding Old Sarum
Salisbury Cathedral in the distance
Another hill shot
Another town shot. Pretty with the sun and clouds
Oh, hello
The group
.. and again
Walking back towards town, this was a person's yard
An archway back in Salisbury
Then we decided to visit the Salisbury Cathedral because we heard it was awesome.
It was.
Apparently it's the tallest spire in Britain. Sweet!
One of the hundreds of statues around the outside of the cathedral
Inside, they were setting up for some art exhibit later this week..
Trees growing in the center of the inner courtyard
Down a passage towards the cathedral itself
Happy Christmas!
Woah. This place is MASSIVE.
Down the center of the cathedral, towards the altar
Possibly the oldest working mechanical clock in the world! It works by balancing weights and counting on gravity
Some old flags
An angel on the pillar
A cool fountain in the middle. The sides said something like "Whoever passes through the water shall be saved.", but I'm not sure if that's it exactly.. I just love how still the surface is
More Christmas stuff. Here, a nativity scene
Closer to the altar
A glass prism donated to the cathedral
A couple monuments and statues
One last look at the altar
It was a beautiful cathedral, and the other big thing they were keeping there was a fourth of the original Magna Carta! No idea how or why it was there, but we were just about to go see it.. and they closed it off! But they weren't allowing any pictures of it anyway, so you'll have to take my word for it. So we still had some time before the train home so we looked around for somewhere to eat.
The 'Old Ale House' pub looked really cool, but they had just stopped serving food..
So we found this little Fish and Chips place called 'Stoby's' I think. It was delicious. First great fish and chips since I came over.
And that was it! A fantastic day of great sights and adventure, capped off with a nap on the train ride home. Goodnight, English countryside!
Good music to ride through the English countryside to:
Mumford & Sons - "The Cave", off their debut album "Sigh No More"
An absolutely brilliant album from this new London-based indie/folk band.
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Still playing catch-up! But that took a good chunk out of my pictures.. Some more good stuff on the way, so stay posted!
Cheers!
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