Day 8 - Stonehenge & Salisbury

Today was the last day of our extra-London component of the trip. What better way to do that than to go back to the Neolithic and Celtic era with a visit to Stonehenge and Old Sarum. Check out and an hour and a half drive on a Saturday saw us arrive in Salisbury. We decided the best way was to do a guided tour with entry included. About 29 pounds a person. The bus trip was informative and enabled us to jump the queue.

They may look like a pile of old stones, and that may well be right, but if the archeologists are to be believed the stones themselves came from a good way away. An incredible feat in an era without cranes, hydraulics, freighters and the like. The stones themselves have been placed, replaced, moved, and removed over centuries. Looking at them you can't help but wonder. Now I know some among you will say they look no better than the latest portrait from an abstract painter, but then again you also probably believe we descended from apes.

After lunch back in Salisbury we headed to Old Sarum for a look. Not a lot to see remaining of the construction(s) and you have to use your imagination, but again much seemed to be accomplished using primitive tools and materials. The buildings there were built and rebuilt over many centuries and it hard to imagine where earlier eras begin and end and assimilate with the more modern (1000s and 1200s). At least someone still remember how to make concrete mortar from Roman times - at this point in time at least. Somehow the technology was lost until closer to the 1900 century. The size and scale of the former buildings is amazing and the earthworks undertaken to move mountains, create them and build moats is astonishing.

In the afternoon we bid farewell to Stonehenge, Old Sarum and Salisbury to drive to our London accommodation for the week. It seemed as if the whole of England (and half of Tokyo) decided to have a day out on the UK motorways and A roads. It was traffic chaos, espectially as we got closer to London. Arrive we did with a vow to use the car as little as possible this week and take public transport as much as possible. Time for a change of pace.

And that brings we to an assessment of English housing. That which we have experienced. I could go on about little things like the way showers are turned on and off and operate. Some strange systems that must be logical to someone. The past three nights we have stayed in modern houses, constructed within the last five years. It reminded me of Tiny Houses. At one point I thought there must be a BBC film crew around because these houses were perfect examples of how much you could pack into a small space and miniaturize rooms. It was cramped and hardy any room to swing a cat. Our stays have been much mire comfortable in older style houses, tastefully decorated and modernized where possible. I am a tiny house devotee but when you have absolutely nowhere to open a suitcase to live, there is something wrong. Give me character homes or spacious modern homes any day.

A few photos to upload but I will try and pick the best of the bunch without overdoing it.Read more