Stonehenge

Today's adventure was a trip to Stonehenge. Its just under two hours away in Wiltshire; on the Salisbury plains.

When James awoke I sat him down and hold him that for today we're visiting Stonehenge. "Yeah - we're going by train", said James. "No - today we'll be driving". "Can we sit on it?", he asked. "No - its ancient so we will be able to look at it but can't touch." I explained a little about the history. James - although he can't really comprehend - certainly takes it all in. When we called Papa and Granny before leaving he told them he was visiting Stonehenge and that it is made of old rocks.

Again for this trip we traveled with UD and his family. So we set of about 9:30am and headed south to Ascot and then on to pick up the M3 for our travel west towards Andover. We anticipated a lot of return traffic in the afternoon (being the end of a long weekend) so wanted to get an early start. The weather forecast suggest a relatively fine morning/early afternoon with some showers moving in later in the day.

The trip was easy enough. Not too much traffic and the motorway cuts through some lovely countryside. A feature are the lush fields and hedgerows.

Traveling west along the A303 we topped a crest and virtually fell across Stonehenge. Its located on the ridge of a hill and only a few hundred metres from the road. I have to say it made me catch my breath. Its one of those iconic sites you read about as a kid. Needless to say I was looking forward to seeing it.

We parked the cars and headed for the visitor's centre. I thought the entrance fee was reasonable and James was free. Included in the admission are audio handsets that provide a guided audio tour. It turned out James was fascinated by the buttons (not the commentary!) so we spent most of the time sharing. But I did think it added to the experience.

Making our way under the road and up to Stonehenge we emerged in a queue snaking its way around the circumference of the henge. The first thing to hit me - It was cold! Ambient was probably about 14 degrees but there was a pretty fierce wind that really bit into you. I couldn't believe I was rugged up and we are almost in Summer!

Walking around Stonehenge we were able to get good views of the sarsen stones. These are arranged as the familiar uprights and lintels reaching to about 33 metres. The lintels are attached by mortise and tenon. There's a single upright that clearly shows a tenon.

Moving around to the south we passed one of the station stones. This one marks the winter solstice. Whilst researching Stonehenge last night I noted that the summer solstice (21st June) sees a special managed tour at the site.

From the henge we walked to some nearby burrows. These are ancient burial mounds that are clearly visible rising from the fields. I understand that the burrows pre-date the henge and may in fact relate to the significance of the site in general.

We finished our visit about 12:30pm and drove to nearby Andover for lunch. There's not too much there but we stopped in a cafe. Merrilyn thought a pub would be better and in hindsight she was right. The food was pretty ordinary - mostly fried and frozen. Still can't really complain. Most meals we've had to date have been reasonable.

We arrived back home about 4pm and were relieved that there was not too much traffic. To stretch from the drive we headed off for a walk to the Castle. As we arrived James was thrilled to see that the main gates were open at the top of Castle Hill. He watched the boom gates going up and down and the bollards too! He's into the boom gates at the moment. We often catch him pretending to be a boom gate. His little arms going up and down!

You can see our photos here.