Finding Myself, January 2, 2011 (Day Eight)

Sunday, January 2, 2011

10:22pm

Near London Gatwick Airport, England

Today we visited Stonehenge in Amesbury. I’ve been there once before, the last time I was in the UK with my family, but I don’t think I really appreciated it as much… Like most things from my childhood. After a stroll around the mysterious Stonehenge (by the way, ‘henge’ is the old English word for “hanging”), we drove about 45 minutes to Avebury, another henge site with even more stones.

The stones around Avebury are actually in a much larger formation, with the whole town being encompassed within the largest ring of stones. There are tentacle-like pathways going outwards away from the circle, with ancient burial mounds all around in the surrounding countryside. We walked a good way through one of these pathways, up a large hill spotted with free-roaming sheep, and towards the huge burial mound on the other side. We then took a very, very muddy walk along what used to be a river back towards the town. I have literally never had so much mud on my shoes before. Ever. But it was a lovely day – the sun actually came out for us for the first time since we’ve been here.

We grabbed lunch in the local pub / restaurant in town, then hit the road again and drove about two hours to where we are now. We’re over nighting in the ibis Gatwick hotel before we fly out to The Isle of Man tomorrow morning. Got to get some shut-eye. Don’t know if I’ll have Internet out there, so this may all hit you in one huge burst of posts.

Phillipa