this year.

I landed in London early Monday morning, made my way to the hotel then spent the rest of the day touring around London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Tower of London and the Tate modern. A nice day but old hat for me. Tuesday was when the real fun would begin. I elected to go on a tour of Salisbury and Stonehenge through a wonderful company called London Walks. They employ excellent guides and their policy is ‘just show up’. No pre-booking required.

Salisbury is a quaint town about a 1h train west of London. I learned many interesting things about this town that day, but have currently glossed over all the facts in my mind. One thing I do recall is that at 404ft Salisbury Cathedral has the tallest spire in all of Europe (Salisbury Cathedral at Wikipedia). It’s quite a lovely church. Having seen a small slice of varying church architecture in my travels I can say that I still enjoy the gothic design. I could spend hours (hour?) in them taking pictures if more of them allowed it. The artistry to build structures with such tall single span walls, held up by ornate arches and flying buttresses fascinates and perhaps even inspires me. The weather cleared revaling blue skys. A great morning.

The next stop was Stonehenge a pre-historic stone monument dated to a construction period of 2500-1500BC. A rock configuration that could be 4500 years old. An arangement of fairly large rocks that were probably quaried and transported some 385 km to the location where they were erected. That the sun seems to align with these stones, and that it was probably created some 4500 years ago; to me that is the awe of Stonehenge. In reality it’s a ‘smaller than you think partially remaining probably circular design’ located at the fork of A303 and A344. When we arrived the skies were starting to darken. It only seems proper to view Stonehenge in grey skies with rain and snow. That is what we got. A truly errie scene is set. In this low tourist season a few good photos were captured. Stonehenge is truly a unique World Heritage Site.