Day Seven July 2, 1998 Winchester Cathedral & Stonehendge Thursday We got a decent start, knowing that we would have a drive in front of us. To backtrack from Chichester to Winchester (and eventually Stonehendge) would require 40 or so miles (over the road we drove last night) and at least one hour of driving. We got ourselves up early (8am!) and hit the car quickly. We let Jesse curl up in back and snooze the hour away. We stopped at a McDonalds just a mile from the Marriott, and got both ‘morning coffee’ (always terrible tasting) and some breakfast food, too. We ate in the car as we drove back on the same road we had used last night. Since we were doing a ‘circle tour’ today, we were doomed to pass on this same road the other way a third time tonight to return to Chichester, and actually use some of these same roads when leaving town the following morning, too. I belive we had made the transition from ‘tourist’ to ‘local commuter’ at this point. We arrived at Winchester Cathedral around 10am, after everybody was forced to listen to me sing on endlessly the nerve-wracking pointless song of the same name. We arrived with no place to park, and circled the city until we all felt car sick. Out of the blue, we turned down an unmarked sidestreet and found one on-street parallel parking spot. The ‘parking angels’ were looking out for us that day. We toured the Cathedral, an immense structre crawling with tourists like ourselves. It was overrun with dozens of schoolchildren, busloads of seniors, also local people sitting on the park benches and enjoying a snack and mothers sitting and watching their kids play on the grassy areas surrounding the massive structure. We quickly made the donation for the self-guided walking tour (a euphanism for ‘walk around and look’). The inside of the Catherdral was amazing, considering it was several hundred years old, and many free standing structures (like, for instance, the pulpit) were so large that they would not have even fit in most buildings that I see in my daily life. The alter rails, the choir area, the side aisles all held immense objects and fine carvings and decorations. The side aisles were plastered with stone and bronze plaques for various patrons dating back centuries. But the part that I was looking for, and eventually found, were the earthly remains of England’s very first Saxon kings. Athelrod, Alfred and others were Saxons living centuries before William the Conqueror and the Normans appeared on the scene. They descended from the mix of native Celts (pronounced ‘Kelts’) and the visiting Danes (read that ‘Vikings’). As England evolved from 6 distinct tribal areas to 3, then to 1, Winchester became its first capital and these guys were it's very first kings. To my surprise, their remains (if you believe the signs) are stored in free standing highly-decorated boxes. I could best describe these boxes, both in color and shape, as what is depicted for ‘pirate’s treasure chests’ in movies and cartoons. Further more, these adorned ‘chests’ were perched precariously high up, 10 feet above our heads, on top of the ledge of a decorative partial wall. Imagine a 12 foot tall room divider standing in a 150 foot tall chamber. Imagine decorataed chests balancing on top of these dividers. I found the whole thing a little wierd, and was concerned that I might bump into the ‘wall’ and knock poor Axelrod down in a dusty heap. I guessed that somebody had probably already done that, centuries ago, and that the boxes now contain otherwise material, but I’m certainly not qualified to make any acusations in this matter. So we spent a lot of time walking around the cathedral and took a lot of pictures, but for once not ‘too much’ of either. We visited the gift shop for ice cream cones and more historical books and literature and picture postcards. Then we walked around the outer ground for another half-hour and shot additional pictures, proving that we can never leave well enough alone. We were off to Stonehendge, but first toured the city of Winchester. We had a snapshot in a tourbook of the Cathedral, taken from an overlooking hill, that was covered with ruins from the age of Axelrod. We tried to calibrate where that hill would be, and drove around aimlessly, up and down dead end streets and finally gave it up. We did pass the statue of Alfred (the great) and got a nice picture of it for the scrapbook. Finally, it was out of town and on to Stonehendge. We arrived at Stonehendge, considering it to be the high-point of the entire 16 day trip. Everybody should make this pilgrimage once in their lives, and if you have never been there, it will be hard to comprehend the picture. Everybody knows what the stone circle looks like (only a zillion pictures have been taken and publshed) but you cannot imagine first how HUGE the stones are and second how they are out in the middle of NOWHERE. We drove thru the little hamlet of Amesbury, then followed the signs out of town. Over a couple of knolls and then, shazam, you could see the familiar and famous stones standing in a field off in the distance. We parked in the lot, paid our admission, then followed the signs back under the street and over to the stones. I guess they have finally started to protect the stones from people, as the very act of agressively enjoying them has been slowly destrying them. You are no longer allowed to touch the stones, or go near them. I heard stories that you used to be able to walk right around them, even climb up on top of the lower ones. But nowadays there is a nice sidwalk, and staked off ropes in the grass to keep folks back a safe distance (safe for the stones, not the people). We sat on nice park bench and, really, you need to be a good distance away to take in the picture anyway. We shot dozens of pictures, trying to capture the essence of the structure, but the day was so overcast and threatening that the pictures turned out rather pale to the actual structure. Jesse left us sitting and circled around to the far side from us and had me take his picture ‘thru’ the stones. These tuned out nicely and will be a nice life-long memory for him. We spent an hour proposing theories to their purpose, and talked about them for the rest of the trip. Even today, we still reminise and smile when talking about our day at Stonehendge. For the record, none of us believed in the ‘anceint astronauts’ theory. I likened it to a simple seasonal calendar, and Jesse and Lyn are convinced it had religious implications somehow. We read and learned that scientists had analyzed the stones and that they match quarries in Wales, well over a hundred miles away. Also many of the missing stones had been broken up by short-sighted local farmers, centuries ago, and appear in stone hedgrows and house footings and walls (sheesh!). Also, the huge stones in the middle were originally surrounded by a seconday circle of smaller stones now entirely missing. Finally, plans are in place to reroute the road that passes so closely by the structure (currently splitting the structure from the parking lot and service area). Plans call for that road to be closed and rerouted elsewhere, to minimize car traffic by providing shuttle busses, and to return the stone structure to its rightful place in the middle of a large unhindered grassy plane. I hope they can pull together the financing and property rights required to make that happen as the ‘artists rendition’ of that future layout was obviously spectacular compared to todays cramped, garish, and tourist-oriented presentation. By the way, government officials open up the structure for religious observation on the solstice and equinox, after several years of shutdown due to uncooperative participants. We just missed June 21st and there was a lot of local chatter about how everybody was trying to find a nice compromise that will allow access without damage. After Stonehendge, we drove down the street to Avebury, a little city with the 2nd most famous stone circle in England. Avebury is a little farming hamlet that happens to have a giant stone circle surrounding it. These stones are not stacked in arches or bridges, but rather were just placed (like giant headstones) in a giant circle pattern millenia before the Roman legions. Sadly, centuries ago, the town was built around, in, and thru the circle with various stones removed and houses or other structures standing in places that stones obviously once stood. There was a nice diarama, and we bought several picture postcards with aerial photos of the area. All-in-all, very good ‘real world’ pre-history lesson for Jesse (and his mom and dad too). This, again, is the kind of stuff that you can’t learn from a book. As we turned south to begin our return journey to Chichester, common sense prevailed and we actually stopped for dinner before anybody became carsick. Actually, we were finally becoming adjusted to it feeling like mid-afternoon during the dinner hour (with 5 more hours of daylight) and the swiss-precision timing of closing pub kitchens. We tooled about Marlborough, and stopped for a light supper. Fish-and-chips, bangers and mash, and meat pies all washed down with pints of Coke and the delectible Fizzy Orange. Fed and watered, we headed south toward Salisbury and eventually Chichester, it was just after 7pm. As dusk settled, we arrived just outside the town of Salisbury. According to tourist literature, it has the ‘tallest steeple’ in England (an odd claim), plus we had read a lot about it. When we arrived, we learned that it, too, possessed an earthen fort like the one down the street beneath the "chalk horse". Lyn stayed with the car and Jesse and I once again hoofed it up the hill. This one was also surrounded by an earthen berm, obviously designed as an ancient defense. The center circular plane was large enough for a hundred or so ancient peoples to live in pitched tents. The raised plateau was surrounded by a dry-moat (if you will) that was further surrounded by a very steep very tall earthen berm. Attackers would be forced to scale the outer berm (under attack from above) then go down into the inner moat and scale a second hill (under attack from above). It was quieting to think that these berms were built thousands of years ago, long before iron for shovels was even smelted. Early after the Norman invasion of England, the local baron built the first town of Salisbury on this very spot, utilizing its ancient defenses. The current town of Salisbury, 5 or so miles away, replaced this original encampment only recently (like 500 years ago). By the way, the Salisbury Catherdral was rather ordinary by British standards, but had a huge, almost bizarre looking, steeple crowned upon it's tall center tower. The tall steeple looked to me to be architectually discordant, like it had been placed there to gain entry into an ancient Guiness book of world records. It was strange to see how each little city in the southeast of England had phenominal cathedral structures from the 1400’s. After awhile, we took them all for granted, slowing down while driving by in the car. The obvious exceptions were the ones in London, Winchester, Canterbury, and Lincoln. All the cathedrals were magnificent, but these were even more so. Our time was up and we barely drove through Salisbury as the streetlights came on. It was time to head for home. From Salisbury, we drove the 50 miles back home to Chichester (in the dark), and again bickered incessantly or slept. It is obvious now, and we suspected back then, that we were cramming too much into our days and suffering the natural tension that arises from exhaustion. Do I wish we did less? Will I ‘slow down’ on my next trip? NO WAY! We eventually figured it out and simply agreed to ‘say nice things’ late in the day when we were all most vulnerable to being over-tired. A simple solution to a simple problem, and a way-cool vacation in the meantime. Tomorrow was doomed to be another long day. We were to start in Chichester, and finish 30 miles away in London, at the Heathrow Airport Marriott. Unfortunately, we are to visit Hastings and the famous Battle Abbey and drive to and from Dover and the Dover Castle and Chunnel entrance enroute. I had hoped to visit the Cathedral in Caterbury, too, but you will see that we just plain old ran out of time. Time for bed after 1am, and we wanted to be out early again with our drive to Hastings scheduled to start directly from the hotel in the morning.
	Copyright, 1999, all rights reserved
	Originally Written November 1999 Original Upload January 2000 Last Update: July 22, 2001