Day 4

Today we got up really early and got ready, then headed to the tube for Victoria Station to catch the coach for a tour of Stonehenge, Salisbury and Bath. We couldn't find the place at first, and I didn't even think of mentioning to Patrick the coach station, but we found it and caught the coach for our tour. Our tour guide was a woman named Jessica who was very funny and also pretty interesting.

Our first stop was Stonehenge. It was pretty amazing, to say the least. In the middle of all of these green fields there are a few stones which the ancients, from about 6,000 years ago (about the same time that the pyramids in Egypt and Mexico were being built,) yet there was no communication between any of them. Audio tours are big here, I think because there are so many tourists from so many countries that it's cheaper for the sites to have one source that they can give to all to choose their own language from. We walked around the stones and learned their significance, and the fact that the larger stones were brought from 19 miles away - they aren't sure if it was from logs that were rolled and placed in front of one another as they moved or possibly sleds. What I found to be amazing was that the smaller stones, called Bluestones, were brought from the Preseli Mountains in Wales, which are about 240 miles away! AMAZING! The smaller stones weren't small, just "smaller" than the large ones. They also used wood working skills to build this particular henge, as there were earlier henges built of wood. The stones that are upright in the ground go about 1/3 of their length down, and then have a point carved into them on which the stone that overlayed them had depressions carved into them so they would fit and not moved. Kind of like a shoulder socket and arm.

After Stonehenge we went to Salisbury and to the Salisbury Cathedral. It is one of the oldest Catholic Cathedral's in England, it was consecrated 751 years ago. It is a gorgeous building that is the burial site of many a person, and many a famous person in England who was Catholic. It is also the home of one of four existing copies of the Magna Carta that was made in 1215 at the time of the signing. On the ride from Stonehenge to Salisbury, our tour guide filled us in on the history of Richard the Lion Hearted and also King John. I think most people are like me, my understanding of the two Kings pretty much comes from the Disney cartoon Robin Hood, and I recall learning about the Magna Carta in high school. That's about it. Basically, Richard was a thug-type who enjoyed fighting and proving his manlihood, so he joined the Crusades to have an honest way of harming others. King John was a momma's boy who trusted no one but his mother, and taxed the people of England mercilessly to pay for wars and things that he wanted. The Barons and others (who were the basis of what today's Parliment is) didn't like this and forced him to sign the Magna Carta, which started the idea of "Fair Trial," and promoted the idea of the separation of Church and State. Back when the Cathedral was being built, only those who were in the clergy were educated. One went into that business to be educated and then they worked as advisors for various kings and queens, etc. pushing the ideas that the church promoted at that time. The serfs and others who were underneath them in the feudal system just went along with it because they didn't know any better. It wasn't until the printing press was invented in Germany that brought the bible and other ideas to the people in their own languages (prior to this everything was in Latin and only the educated read Latin, and the educated were those who were wealthy or in the Clergy) that the idea that the Church and State should be really separated (hence the Reformation, Protestants and King Henry VIII - that's another story.) Cameron told me a really facinating story about King George (whose statue was next to that of St. Patrick's on the outside of the church) which I'll have him retell at a later time.

After Salisbury we headed to Bath. I slept the whole bus ride, but Cameron heard the whole story. He's asleep right now, so I'll have him tell me tomorrow and I'll transcribe what he knows. We'll post more tomorrow, I'm tired as it's been a long day.