28th August 2023 - A Week Away
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Today is the August bank holiday Monday for Wales, England and
possibly Northern Ireland. Scotland has a bank holiday earlier in the
month due to schools starting earlier in the year. This is why I think
Northern Ireland might do the same as Scotland as their schools have
similar term times. It is often a recipe for disaster thanks to
rubbish weather and SO MUCH TRAFFIC. However, I decided to brave it
this time and had the past week off work too.
The first part involved being in Plymouth to see my parents and rest
of the family. My parents were holding a party to celebrate their 40th
Wedding Anniversary. That was fun in many a strange way and I did
spend most of the night in the garage with the drinks. It was cooler
and had fewer people hanging around. Always makes for a better time.
Then it was my neice's first birthday. She passed the 'not a hulk'
test by not smashing her cake. Instead, she daubed herself in the
cream and licked away. There was a bit of a face smashing into the
cake but I think she just toppled over while trying to lick in
fairness.
After a Plymouth madness, I was back in Birmingham for a night and
then went on the next adventure. I have had a passing interest in
neolithic stones and find them a mad thing as a whole. They are fine
examples of humans being daft buggers who find the hard way to do
things. I have had fun finding long lines of stones on Dartmoor,
visting lots of different sites around Brittainy and so on. There is a
general mystery of why about it all. Anyhow, I found out about Avebury
in Wiltshire some years ago and it has remained in the back of my mind
as somewhere to visit when passing. I have not really passed close
enough to drop in so finally decided to go. Avebury is a large set of
stone circles where a village has appeared in the middle of it. It
forms part of a UNESCO world heritage site along with Stone Henge and
many other places in the area.
I ended up camping in a place by Marlborough, a market town with a
public school. The site was a forestry commission place and fairly
free and easy with pitches. The only pitches left were the no electric
ones. Surprise surprise. Not that I need power other than from a power
bank. It was clean and tidy but lacked showers. I did not realise this
at the time of booking. Baby wipe washing it was then.
Saturday was spent in Avebury and then a market town called Devizes.
Avebury was magnificant and underwhelming. It is a henge with stone
circles within. A henge is a circular bank of earth with a ditch on
the inside. This one is around 350m in diameter. There are then 3
stone circles. One around the edge of the ditch and then 2 concentric
circles in the middle. Many of the stones were destroyed for building
material. I had a lovely walk around the henge. The stones are huge
and are easily 2 to 3 stugs high. Admittedly, the stug is a short unit
of measurement at 1.65m but serves a purpose. The underwhelming side
was with the museum. That was a single room and pretty awful. There
was a free exhibition of drawing made by William Stukeley in the
1700s. He was the first person to record the stones as far as we know.
There is more than just the henge with Avebury though. There is a row
of stones from the henge heading south to West Kennet which has a huge
long barrow and another henge called the Sanctuary. I was considering
a walk down to see both but the rain appeared and scuppered my plans.
Lunch was had at the pub in the middle of the henge. Not often you can
say that one. As I drove out of the village, I passed Silbury Hill, a
man made hill which is about 40m high. A strange sight!
The afternoon was mostly spent in Devizes learning not to drink 2 pots
of tea. I found a lovely tea place which had a fabulous loose leaf tea
selection. I could not pick between second flush Darjeeling and a Ti
Kuan Ying oolong. Certainly felt odd waddling out of there. After
that, I did a fair bit of driving around looking at chalk horses. As
the hills are mostly chalk, people cut turf and make huge pictures.
I was slightly at a loss for what to do with Sunday but ended up
returning to Stone Henge. I had not been since I was 11 or so and felt
it worth a visit. Well it certainly had changed. Not the stones. Just
the experience. There is a visitor centre about 1.5 miles (2.5-3 or so
km) away from the stones. This was pretty much pish. There were some
nice graphicy bits which mostly went "who knows what these are about".
It felt pretty rubbish and it was stupidly busy inside too. I felt I
learnt little and yet could tell you lots of things which were left
out about Stone Henge. Mostly things which happened after it was
abandoned but still. There was a funky exhibition about the Jomon
period in Japan. There are interesting parallels with it all but
really, humans love a good circle it seems! Outside were some huts
which felt slightly naff. Mud walls, thatch roof sort of thing. To get
to the actual Stone Henge, there were 2 options. Wait in line for the
bus or walk it. I walked it. It was a pleasant walk with dramatic
clouds and the ever present threat of rain. After 20 or so minutes, I
reached the massive crowd around Stone Henge and realised something.
You only need to pay to get on the closer path. This is the English
Heritige owned bit and costs some �25 to get within 5m of the stones.
Alternatively, you can walk on National Trust land around the outside
and get within 10m of the stones. There is a lane you can park along
with ease too. Sigh. It was weird how everyone massed around the first
edge and yet there was loads of space around the otherside. Stone
Henge is just a pile of stones. However, it is a strange pile of
stones where some travelled silly distances to be there for some
reason. It is also arranged for the solstice light to shine through
perfectly. It is a marvel, just a strange one. The crowds were a vast
mix of nationalities and pretty big. I went at half 10 and when I left
at 12, the queues were to the car park and seemed to be 150m long.
Avebury was much better in comparison. Calmer, quieter and you can
touch the stones. However, the pasties in the Stone Henge cafe are
pretty damn good.
Sunday afternoon was spent in Salisbury. Another town but this one has
a cathedral. Of course I went to the cathedral. It is a medieval built
place and pretty impressive. However, something I had not realised was
that Salisbury received a copy of the Magna Carta and displays it. So
I got a surprise viewing of the Magna Carta. Very neat and small
hand writing is my impression. Mostly as my latin is pretty poor and
it was hard to read the hand writing. One of those odd things of
seeing a bit of paper written on some 800 years ago. Salisbury is a
nice place and another which was on my list of places to visit if near
by. I heartily recommend it. There are all sorts of random bits of
medieval or tudor buildings interspersed amongst the 60s/70s horrors.
It makes for a fun afternoon of exploring.
Sunday dinner was in a curry house in Marlborough. I do not recommend
doing that. I had dal makhani, a rather rich and creamy lentil dish in
a spiced tomato sauce. Well, that is how it should be. I ended up with
some not very well cooked lentils in cream of tomato soup. It was
sweet and bleurgh. When the waiter came along to ask how my food was,
I was offended enough to say it was pretty poor and not what I was
expecting. He said it was made sweet like a korma to appeal to local
tastes. Bleurgh! The locals of Marlborough need to try some flavour in
their food. No wonder the UK has a reputation for arse food.
Today was spent packing and then driving back. Traffic was arse as
expected but nothing too terrible. I am currently knackered and
craving some sleep. Not a bad response to a weekend away really. All
in all, a fun excursion and one to repeat at some point.
