I found it to be absolutely stunning! Before my visit I had people telling me "it's not that exciting", "it's just a bunch of rocks"and "you can't even get that close"....but from the time I arrived I was in awe. Maybe it is the part of me that gets excited to be in the presence of so much history but I just stood and stared for some time before I remembered the audio guide we had been handed and started to listen. It was very informative and I was fascinated by everything the tour voice had to tell us from theories of how and why the stones were moved there to funny myths that have circulated about Stonehenge. Each stone weighs TONS (literally) and they were somehow moved from over 200 miles away?! How does that even happen?! And what really blows my mind is how they were able to get the stones that lay flat across the vertical ones up on top. It is SO HIGH! There are huge festivals that celebrate the summer solstice and I think it would be so cool to go. As you watch the sun rise it comes right between the center and rises through the rocks. Incredible right?! Without any type of modern technology, people thousands and thousands of years ago were able to create a type of calendar based on the sun using HUMONGO stones. Seriously, I'm still in awe. Anne and I ended up spending over an hour walking around in a circle around Stonehenge. It doesn't seem possible but let me tell you....each side and angle is complete different! Maybe we were lucky because it was such a sunny day but it was really cool to watch the shadows move around the circle as well. You are able to use the sun to determine which month it is by counting from the center stone and going around. We were skeptical but did it and sure enough, the sun we peeking through the "September" space.
As if Stonehenge wasn't enough to excite me for one day, we were then taken by bus to Old Sarum Castle. I should have taken notes or something so I could remember what King lived in the castle but when he moved out (to be near where the new Cathedral was being built) no one else moved in. Years later it was deemed uninhabitable and the next King ordered the castle to be torn down and the stone used for other buildings around the city. When an excavation team came in around 1912 they began to discover that the foundation of the castle is still there! Somehow they claim to know where everything was likely to have been located from the dungeons to the toilets haha but it was really cool to imagine how intimidating this castle must have been back in the day. There is even a large ditch (really it looks like an empty moat, very deep and probably impossible to climb out of) going around the entire perimeter. Here where I'm standing there was no sign so we weren't sure what this room was haha It went waaaaay down so I of course had to run and take a picture.
The final thing we saw in Salisbury was the Cathedral. It is absolutely stunning. The architecture....the stained glass windows....this history!! There are Bishops and important people from the early 1000's buried in there. We were also able to see the Magna Carta! We arrived at the Cathedral around 425 and the room that holds this important document closes at 430! We literally sprinted through the Cathedral (we apologized to the church later haha) and to the back courtyard of the church. The man was just about to lock the doors and we put on our saddest puppy dog faces and he let us in for 2 minutes to take a look at it. I am SO GLAD because it would have been unfortunate to go all the way there and miss it. Again, something else that would probably just seem like a silly piece of paper but I think is SO COOL because it is so old and there is just so much history behind that. It is by far one of my favorite things about being in London so far....all the history that is EVERYWHERE I go.It was a very long, very exhausting day of walking and exploring this cute little town of Salisbury but I am so happy I was able to go on such a beautiful day. I wish I could bring you all with me to see this. It is funny how going to see the sights has made me miss home more than going about my daily routines here. It is really nice not to feel completely like a tourist in a city that seems to be mainly tourists (that was a funny sentence) but when I go out exploring it makes me wish I had you guys with me to be excited with!
I finally have induction on Thursday afternoon so I am excited to find out what my course schedule will be like and to start studying! YAY!
Love from London
Kristin
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