Freezing cold and dreary January with nothing to look forward to until like Easter or so. Iest decided he wanted to go take pictures of Stonehenge in the frost; as an NT member with free access I was of course in. Because Stonehenge is so touristy we wanted to get there as early as possible, and set our Sunday alarm for six o’clock. This allowed us to be impatiently waiting for the ticket box to open before half nine, and to be on the first shuttle over (the place has been redone since I last was there – parking and visitors’ centre is now removed from the site, and one has to take a shuttle bus to get there).
Thus we were literally the first visitors of the day, seeing Stonehenge in a glorious winter hazy sunrise and indeed the frost. It was quite atmospheric for a while there, keeping in mind that it’s still just a bunch of old rocks. Iest got all misty eyed over his heritage for a minute.
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
The longer we spent, the more people poured in, with their selfie sticks and duck faces, so eventually we decided we’ve had enough and took the shuttle back to Terrell. It was still before noon, that’s how much of early birds we were. Since it was nice and sunny (although not much warmer), we decided to continue our trip to have some lunch and see the great Salisbury cathedral with its copy of the Magna Carta.
Salisbury Cathedral
Magna Carta tent
Salisbury welcomed us with some nice zizzi-chain pizzas and a historical centre. The cathedral, one of the leading examples of early English architecture from the 13th century and boasting the tallest church spire in the UK (123m), is truly magnificent. We saw the Magna Carta, the nicest of the remaining originals, and had a good chat about it with one of its guardians. The nearby Mompesson house, a National Trust treasure, was closed for visitors, so we only got to see its pretty outsides. Instead, we drove over to Pepperbox Hill, topped by an early example of a brick folly, with far-reaching views and rich cultural heritage. Altogether a nice day out.
Peppebox \hill