Stonehenge

In ancient times,
Hundreds of years

Before the dawn of history
Lived a strange race of people,

The Druids.

No one knows who they were

Or what they were doing.
But their legacy remains
Hewn into the living rock,

Of Stonehenge.

- N. Tufnel & D. St. Hubbins


The planned event of the day was a trek out to the plains of Salisbury to take in one of the most famous structures in the world.  I speak, of course, of the M3.  Okay, maybe not.  But the traffic was pretty epic.  Once we got out into the countryside the going got much smoother and we got to see some of the beautiful greenery we'd observed from the window of our plane.  The English countryside is wonderful.  Few fences (what boundaries there are tend to be indicated with hedgerows and rock walls) or technological eyesores.  Things seem to generally flow with the land rather than trying to impose their will upon it.

The site itself took about two hours to reach by bus.  I was immediately struck by how remote it was with respect to the visitor's center.  This was a relatively recent change made to help preserve the site, as was a barricade surrounding the trilithons which prevented close access.

One of the outer boundary stones was close enough to touch.  Not permitted, of course, and to the credit of those present, no one did.

I like this one.  We need more of the two of us.

Back at the visitor's center there was a recreation of the builders' homes.

The plains themselves were really pretty, all farmland and grazing for livestock.