Anyway, I managed to change at the right station and get off at the right stop (Waterloo - makes me think of Abba everytime!) and everything! And found her without too many hassles too :) Got some brekkie and the much needed coffee and our tickets ready to see Stongehenge! We'd both heard not fabulous things about Stongehenge eg don't waste your time, but we both felt it really is one of those things you have to see. So we got on the train and prepared for the ride. It was about this time my body decided to react from all the travel/lack of sleep/rest and come down with a cold/flu so I was feeling a bit crap.
Nonetheless we pushed on and after going past all the gorgeous English countryside we got to Salisbury (nothing at all like the Adelaide suburb haha!) where we caught the Stongehenge tour bus. After a small detour through some of the small towns on the way (they were all so cute!) we
arrived at Stongehenge. Gotta say first impressions were not all that impressive. The stones didn't look that big and it was situated right next to the main road. Suzie and I agreed that it would've been much more impressive if you couldn't see it from the road, but had to walk through forest or something in order to reach it - and at the last moment it looms up in front of you, appearing out the mist... well, after listening to the audio guide (man did that thing dribble on about stuff I didn't really care about!! some interesting things - 'henge' apparently means 'hanging of' - but a lot of stuff I wasn't fussed with. And some interesting (read: strange) sound effects!) it sounded like that's how it was back in the day, before someone put the road there & started charging admission!
And admitedly after listening to the audio guide and finding out that 1/3 of the stones are actually under the ground, and how heavy all the stones are, it is a bit more impressive they managed to erect them all there when they did, without help from machinery etc. And clever how you can use it as a clock, and calendar, and the symmetry of it. Suzie & I went crazy with the camera, I think we got a photo from every single possible angle! Oh dear...Once we'd finished circling Stonehenge & bought up on souvenirs (I got a pen that says "Stonehenge rocks!" - hilarious, I know!) we boarded the tour bus bound for Old Sarum, ruins of an old castle and town that used to stand just out of Salisbury. On the way though we got distracted by a pub on the side of the road, advertising cheap food. Mm, lunchtime! It was gorgeously sunny as well so we soaked it up while eating - almost fell asleep too. Dragged ourselves up and over to Old Sarum eventually. At the gift shop I got talked into joining English He
ritage - I got an annual pass that lets me into all sorts of castles, old houses & abbeys for free... now just to get to them all! Also bought a fantastic quill feather pen - a real one and everything so now I have to buy some ink, and then I can learn calligraphy - I decided that can be (one of) my London pastime - learn to write old school. :)Looked around the ruins for a bit, marvelled at how they used to live, and the shitty jobs some of them had (literally - urgh). Pity none of it was left standing, it would've been a sight in the day! Unfortunately due to my lovely cold/flu thing I didn't really take a whole lot of the info in so can't tell you too much more about the place. But it was impressive & had an amazing view.
Caught a bus back to Salisbury and proceeded to walk around the town, marvelling at the beautiful old buildings (still can't get over that, and how they are now used for everyday mundane things like clothes shops and pharmacies...) and eventually making our way to Salisbury Cathedral - the cathedral with the highest spire in the UK. It really was massive - unfortunately, like a
lot of the old buildings over here, they were doing some reconstruction so there was a lot of scaffolding in the way of the beautiful old detailing.We made our way inside and what do you know - there was a service about to start. We sure know how to time it! So we couldn't look around a whole lot, and parts were blocked off, but on the upside we got to hear all the little choirboys sing! Yes that's right Mum & Dad - jealous? Haha. It was really beautiful - the acoustics in there were brilliant.
Kept going after a bit, walked outside in this little courtyard area and man it was gorgeous! I think the way the sun was when we first walked out, combined with the greenery and the architecture - it just hit me - it felt like I was in some other time and I'd stumbled on some long lost ruins from eons ago...After we'd soaked in the awesomeness of the place for a bit longer, we took our leave and walked back to the train station via more amazingly old and gorgeous streets. We even saw a pigeon lady - like in Mary Poppins, she was under this old structure (no steps unfortunatley) and she was feeding what seemed like multitudes of pigeons! She may have just been from the local bakery, getting rid of the day's leftovers, but I like to think of her as the pigeon lady nonetheless.
Perfect timing with our train back - was at the platform waiting for us when we got there, and left 1 minute after we'd got on - and headed back to town. I stopped in at a pharmacy in the train station when we got back - a guy who worked there asked if he could help me with anything, so I said I was looking for cold & flu tablets, and he proceeded to grill me about my symptoms, at which time I got scared he thought I had swine flu & he would report me & then the govt would deport me so I downplayed it all a bit... walked away triumphant with my tablets in the end though. :)
Suzie & I decided to go to the oldest pub in London, Ye Olde Cock Tavern, that she'd heard about on her bus tour of London so we found it ok down Flint St I think it was, and ordered a sausage platter & 2 beers - mm, healthy! Was a heaps cute quaint little place - the stairs down to the toilets were so narrow! Definitely still in original condition. Left not too late to stumble home on the tube. Day 1 done.
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