Sunday 2nd August - Stonehenge

We got ourselves organised and caught the 8.42am Double Decker bus to Stonehenge. The theory was that because it was Sunday and hot it was going to be a day for half of Wiltshire was going to be there! Sat upstairs to get a view of the countryside and as far as you could see over the rolling hills were fields of wheat, some just harvested but most just ready to be. It looked lovely and golden in the sun.

We got to the Stonehenge information centre which is about 2 kms from the actual Stonehenge site and showed our English Heritage passes which saved us £17.50 each. The passes we purchased in New Zealand before we came away for £30 each as part of a special deal and means that we can go to any English Heritage site and not pay to get in. Great stuff. There were not too many in the queue and we were soon through and onto the bus that shuttles you up to the site of the stones.

We got off the bus with our audio phones ready and were pleased that we came early as there were only a couple of hundred people there. The stones and the commentary were wonderful. We proceeded to walk all the way round on the well laid pathway. Half way round we could see the road that we came past the site on our last trip and it was wall to wall cars. No stopping even for a moment to take a picture. We really thought that the site was a wonderful historic place and quite inspiring.

Stonehenge dates back over 5000 years and there are many myths and legends surrounding Stonehenge. Nobody really knows what it was originally built for or quite how the giant bluestone made the journey from the Welsh mountains to the site. We walked through the fields to the Barrows, ancient burial mounds, and there were lots of them. After we had walked and walked we caught the shuttle back to the information centre. We had a look at the reconstructed Neolithic houses in the outdoor gallery. These were thought to resemble the houses that all of the families working on the Stonehenge would have lived in. We also had a look at the exhibition depicting Stonehenge, the landscape, the people and the meaning. As it was 12.15pm we were able to catch the bus back.