Avesbury, Stonehenge, and Glastonbury Abby

I finally did get through a successful road trip. This time I used the TomTom (GPS) in a different way. Instead of programming in the whole trip I just programmed each stop as we went. I am probably missing out on some of the convenience but now I know it will take me where I expect to go. That said it was a really interesting trip, and I assume that it is the first of many. I will try to go somewhere every weekend I am in Portsmouth. Of course I am sure when people come and visit I will most likely need to go back to some of them. This trip I went with a coworker of mine (BMc) that will be splitting his time between the UK, Germany, and New York, like myself - but on a different schedule. He will still be based in New York. Most of the trip was actually his idea. I would have tried to stretch it out more and put more miles on. But I actually think we did it right the first time so it was a good plan after all.

We started early to beat traffic. No one in Britain leaves their house before 8 am so we were off at 7:30. In no time we were ahead of schedule and had time to stop for breakfast. We went to a neat little tea room in a town called Marlboro, like the cigarettes but I think with no relation, called Polly’s Tea room. Which we later found out was a local favorite. We walked around the deserted town square, saw a garden, ate breakfast, took some photos, and took off again. The first major stop of the day was Avesbury stone circles. A place where 4000 years ago people stood huge 2+ meter stones upright in several circle formations. The area was huge. There are probably hundreds of stones standing on end. The funny thing is people built farms in and about these rings. So as you go around you are constantly coming in and out of fields. In one field you have to watch your feet because there are sheep grazing. No one knows why people built these structures or how, but they are something to see.

After Avesbury we went to Stonehenge. A place I was surprised to find out my wife had never heard of. I thought everyone knew about it. So to briefly describe it, it is a formation in a ring of stones that weigh in the 10s of tons. There are several stood on end with other set on the top. Original these stones on top formed a ring, but many have fallen. Here you do not have as much freedom to walk around they are working to preserve the site so you can not get close to the stones. But they have a nice audio tour and you can still see everything. I actually remember going there as a kid, around 5, and I think at that time you could still walk into the structure. The place is a bit eerie I think. It is on top of a hill and all the country side is cleared for miles around. The current plan is to actually move the highway underground to restore the site to a more original setting. That would make it even stranger. The sheep are in the same fields here as well but they are kept back by electric fencing. I dared to BMc to touch it, but he chicken’d out.

These stops took up most of the morning. The final location to visit was a place called Glastonbury Abby. This was the site of the first Christian location in the UK. It is said that Jesus himself may have visited it as an adolescent. Originally it was a temple, then a small church, then a chapel, then for centuries it grew into a massive compound. Finally when King Henry the eighth was trying to consolidate his power it was shut down and fell into disrepair. Today there are only a few massive walls and archways of the main cathedral and a few other buildings. Interestingly enough at one time it was announced that the grave of King Arthur and his queen were found on the location and they were exhumed and moved into the cathedral under the supervision of the king at that time. The maintain a plaque still at the site. A couple of miles walk and a couple of thousand feet up there is also a tor, or tower over looking the town and country side.

We made the walk up this hill with some effort. It was cold and at a couple points snowed while we hiked, but the view was amazing. The tower has been a place of pilgrimage for years and the town now is over run by hippies. With new age book stores and healers surrounding the Abby. By the time we got down the hill we were both quite hungry and went to the first dive we could find. The joke was on us however, the place we found was called the ‘Who’d a Thought’ café or restaurant. The food was amazing. BMc had duck and I had a great lamb dinner with greens. BMc said he thought we chose the right driver (me) because it snowed, heavily at times, on our drive both in the morning and at night. Apparently because I am from Minnesota it is better if I drive in the snow. I didn’t argue though. BMc is from Jamaica and in this case he was probably right that I was the better driver! Besides the weather thought it was a pretty perfect road trip. I hope I can do a repeat performance in the future.