Italian Adventure Sep 2023

We left our Airbnb to drive back to Godalming via a few significant locations - Stonehenge and the town of Salisbury.
We first had breakfast in Bath, and a last walk through the amazing old town, before piling back into Jo and Asher’s diesel Puegot that has carried us faithfully through southwestern England.
We arrived at Stonehenge in late morning on a beautiful sunny warm Autumn day. We paid for our tickets and then went through the information centre before catching the shuttle bus to the stones.
I was unprepared for the extent of the site. I thought it was just a few stones but it is a complex of ancient monuments which cover kilometres of ground.
There are burial mounds and structures that we really don’t understand.
Stonehenge itself is about 5000 years old, built at about the same time as the pyramids of Giza and about 1000 years before Moses.
The stones were central in the religious and cultural lives of those who lived here. The stone circles were oriented towards the rising and setting sun on the solstices, and possibly at other times too. It was like a huge sundial as well as fulfilling other purposes. And there was a huge processional way leading up to the henge.
Many of the stones were brought from Wales, hundreds of kilometres away.
It was amazing to stand in this place and see for myself what I had only ever seen in photos. It would be great to see the sunset on the summer or winter solstice.
Amazing archaeological site that requires hours to explore.Read more

I slept in Jo and Asher’s lounge room in their little flat in Godalming overnight. In the morning we went for breakfast at
Gail’s, a favourite haunt of Jo and Asher in this beautiful little Surry township. Steve and Fiona were keen to experience this cafe in which Asher had worked as a barista when he first arrived in the UK over a year ago.
After breakfast, we drove north towards London to visit Hampton Court Palace, the famous palace of Henry VIII and his six wives. It also was
A favourite palace of the Tudors, Stuart’s, Honoverians and Georgian families of royalty.
At least half of the palace of Henry and the Tudors is still intact and can be viewed
as it would have been. But half of Henry’s palace was rebuilt by subsequent kings and Queens who needed things to be grander to compete with other European palaces like Versailles. The result is at least three distinct parts and a huge palace complex that gives insight into the lives of English monarchs and their families over 500 years.
The gardens are huge and the oldest tennis court in the world is still in operation and there is a club and there were members playing on the court, which is tennis with a smattering of squash in the rules.
The vegetable garden, the maze and the various themed gardens, fountains and water canals make the grounds well worth visiting.
We spent most of the day in the palace and its grounds in the beautiful sunny Autumn weather.
We drove back to Guildford to look at the caste and have Thai for dinner for the second time. Then back to Godalming for sleep.Read more