Stonehenge

Our second day in Winchester we had the morning to lounge about, but we did not! We had a few things to buy, so we headed off to the High Street, and it took most of our morning to find an adapter plug so we could charge all of our devices. There was also a market in the middle of the street. (Evidently it is there 5 days a week.) I saw a merchant selling olives, and my mouth watered, so of course, I had to taste some, and buy a container. Pretty soon I had a loaf of fresh bread, two kinds of cheese, and some apples for a picnic. We were planning a road trip, and I knew we would get hungry...

In front of Salisbury Cathedral

Touring Stonehenge

We drove through the countryside, and saw several small villages. There were thatched roof cottages, and duck ponds, and amazing hedges. They seem to have more hedges than fences. We stopped to watch a man replacing the thatch on a roof.
When we arrived at Stonehenge, it was quite a different set-up than it was 40 years ago, the last time I saw it. The road does not go right by it, and you cannot walk up to it and touch the stones. They have built a visitor center, and charge a pretty penny to ride the tour cars up to the site. They also provide audio tours--a little recording device with different points of interest. But I do think it is very good that the masses of people cannot gradually destroy such an archeological site. They still open the mystical circle of stones to the people on the summer and winter solstice. The most important thing I learned was that it was not made by the Druids. It pre-dates the Druids by two thousand years.

Then off to Old Sarum, a fortress ruin on a hilltop near Salisbury, where we ate our picnic, enhanced by a bottle of mead that Tim bought at Stonehenge. Mead is the fortified wine made from honey, very tasty. Old Sarum has served as a fortress and religious site for more than 4,000 years.

We made our way to Salisbury Cathedral in time for Evensong. We sat in the Nave of the cathedral, and listened to the girls' choir sing the chants and psalms. The dozen girls sounded like angels, even after their summer off. This was their first week back to school and daily singing. Salisbury seems more grand than Winchester, though it is no bigger. But the cathedral spire is visible from many miles away across the Salisbury plain.

We ended the day with another fine pub meal at Three Cups Inn.