Stonehenge has fascinated us since childhood and we were not disappointed today. While it is difficult to get inside the ring of stones these days (although we had a tour company offer us a 07h00 visit for £420!), one gets quite a good view. It is truly a fantastic site to see this sort of logistics and engineering from 5 millennia ago. All this without the wheel. We spent an hour going around slowly, taking in the different perspectives. The oddest site was a dozen Buddhist monks with iPhones whom we last saw climbing the Celtic burial mounds.
Then 10 miles south to Wilton House, seat of the Earl of Pembroke (apologies for crooked photo) Gorgeous state rooms - the Single and Double Cube rooms - in the baroque style filled with Van Dyck, Lailley (the best two), Rembrandt, van de Velde and Reynolds works. It was here that Churchill and Eisenhower plotted the Normandy invasion. An interesting aside: if the present earl who is 34 yrs old and married does not produce a male heir, the 600 year old earldom will revert to those folks over at Highclere - the Carnavons who are distant relatives.
Then over to Salisbury Cathedral, 13th c. It has the highest church spire in England, it is glorious gothic. The charter house even has a copy of the original Magna Charta on display. It was a nice complement to the last gothic church built here in Bath which is more advanced and has more windows to give it better light.
We are happily ensconced in a small hotel - a house that apparently was built in 1830 for the Duke of Wellington who needed a local home for his mistress. Tomorrow, we head to the tomb of the baby eating bishop of Bath & Wells.
Location:Stonehenge, Wilton House & Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire
No comments:
Post a Comment