At the moment I don’t have a great deal to say about Wiltshire except it's a county I drove through to get to a significant find. Follow along and you can read about my amazing discovery thanks to a tip from a friend and my membership in a site dedicated to historical sites in the United Kingdom.
As I recall, the county was sort of rolling, heavily wooded or farmland, quite nice actually and I enjoyed the drive as I proceeded to my destination. Not much traffic comparatively speaking on the weekend as this is when I traveled down to the site which made the trip that more enjoyable. I did stop for coffee along the way which has become a habit of mine. I will no doubt add more if I ever return to England but suffice it to say I did enjoy the drive through Wiltshire.
Stonehenge – There was quite a crowd the day I stopped. It's a must see. Yep, I went to Stonehenge and why not. It wasn’t that bad of a drive, the weather indicated a decent day and I had free time on a weekend. As I indicate, Stonehenge in in Wiltshire and up until I left, I didn’t know a thing about it and pretty much still don’t. I was sitting in my office telling the others of my latest trip and one of my co-workers spun around in his chair and asked me if I’d ever been. He told me there were many such sites but Stonehenge was the most well known and maintained and there apparently is also site called Woodhenge but I haven't tried to find it yet.
So, I’m on my way to Stonehenge, and it's out a bit basically in the countryside, a slight drive to the nearest town. I found a parking spot adjacent to the entry site and souvenir store, whipped out my membership for a nice discount and drove right in. The place is quite busy and there were several bus loads of tourists the day I arrived in addition to all the people in cars. I headed in the direction of the entryway, found my way in and walked straight in to the store. You actually have to pass directly by the store where you can purchase food and trinkets so it's a bit of a challenge to make it by without buying anything ... but I managed to do so.
You walk through a tunnel which passes under the road I drove up on and come up some stairs on the other side. The path that leads to the structure has ropes on both sides and the perimeter also has ropes indicating you can’t move closer. There are guards in the area to ensure nobody gets close and perhaps grab a bit of it. I walked the perimeter taking pictures of the stones, chatting a bit with the others and wondering what the ancients actually did here. Turns out this thing is made out of over 100 stones and took 1500 years to build. The stones are huge and it must've been a feat to position them. The people who live in England year round told me there is a pagan festival of some sort once a yer but I wasn’t able to gather any additional information.
It was a site I visited and can check off my list of things to do. Other than look at the stones and purchase souvenirs I’m not sure what else there is to do so I packed it up and left. An interesting place if for no reason than to see it and imagine what an engineering feat it must have been to bring those stones from afar and stack them and also to have them still standing after centuries. Amazing, and I’m glad I stopped by.
