You'll notice that it was sunny. This was the first time I'd seen the sun since I landed in the UK. The weather has been typically British (i.e., cloudy and rainy), so we got really lucky with the weather.
Stonehenge is about ten miles from Salisbury. The ride there was a fairly quick one, in which we passed by Old Sarum, the original location of the town and cathedral, and lots of pretty countryside, full of farms and trees changing colors. There were also cows and sheep grazing near Stonehenge.
You cannot get that close to Stonehenge; you walk in a circle around it. You get an audio tour with admission, but I never take advantage of such offers. I prefer to make my own judgments about things and listen to the people around. Although Salisbury is not close to London, the tourists at Stonehenge were surprisingly international, and I heard all sorts of languages and accents.
Stonehenge as I first saw it:
Stonehenge is impressive for its size, particularly when you consider how long ago it was constructed. By whom remains a mystery. Many people believe it was the Druids, but Stonehenge is far too old to have been built by them.
It was windy and generally a good day to watch the weather change. This made for a lot of fun taking photos.
It would have been nice to get closer, but I don't think my conclusions about Stonehenge would have been any different from other angles or additional proximity. Ultimately, Stonehenge is just a bunch of big rocks organized in an astronomically significant fashion. If you go with that expectation, you'll enjoy it. If you go expecting something more, prepare yourself for crushing disappointment.
We spent an hour at Stonehenge and then took the bus back to town. Our next destination was the cathedral. Some photos from the walk to the cathedral:
Salisbury cathedral is smaller than others I've visited here. It's no Westminster Abbey or York Minster, but it's still an impressive piece of architecture, and its surroundings are very pleasant.
The inside of the cathedral is typically gothic:
One of my favorite things inside the cathedral was a reflecting fountain located near the back of the cathedral. Looking into the fountain from different angles provided mirror-like reflections of the cathedral's various features. Very cool.
Various pieces of modern sculpture were on display inside, and for reasons that I cannot explain. They seemed entirely out of place in this medieval structure, but the juxtaposition of the art and architecture could make for some interesting photos.
This cathedral also had the coolest stained glass I've ever seen in the front, behind where priests would deliver sermons. I've never seen dark blue like this in stained glass.
One other interesting thing that this cathedral has is one of the four remaining original copies of the Magna Carta, produced in 1215. Pictures were not permitted, unfortunately. I would have liked to have gotten a close-up of that.
The weather had been pretty overcast when we went in, but the clouds broke right as we came out of the Magna Carta section. It made for great scenery in the courtyard and outside of the cathedral.
The cathedral was well worth visiting, and I'm glad I went.
We continued wandering around for town a bit. It has many interesting homes and businesses with character. I liked this house in particular:
More of the town:
By the time we were done with the cathedral, it was past 3pm, so we searched for a place to eat and settled on a pub. I don't think I'll ever be a huge fan of such places, but I certainly like them better here than in the US. People seem more casual here than in the US with drinking and pub/bar life, and it just seems like a regular part of life here, where everyone neighborhood has at least one small one. This one was older and had a lot of character, with its wood paneling and older furnishings. I had a lunch of cottage pie (ground beef, mashed potatoes and sauce) and cheese fries, and it was simple but good. We sat in there for two or three hours, my colleague with her beers and I with my "lemonades" (like Sprite). It's actually a decent way to spend an afternoon since people can't smoke inside.
It started raining right after we left, so we quickly walked through town, trying to find the train station. We got lost, but that meant that we ended up walking along a river we found, which was filled with more brightly colored ducks and beautiful white swans. No pictures to show you, though--it was too dark for photos. We eventually found the train station, and 20 minutes later we were on our way back to London.
It was a good Saturday.
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