Thursday, June 25 Brighton to Plymouth

　


Salisbury Cathedral

Stonehenge

Anne at Stonehenge

Anne at Brighton Pier


Day 3
Thursday, June 25

Another sunny and warm day and after breakfast at 7 we are off to Salisbury, Stonehenge, Widecombe-in-the-Moor across Dartmoor and stopping 2 nights in Plymouth at the Holiday Inn. All of the roads are in good condition with many “round abouts”. The speed limit is 60mph on the major roadways which vary from 2 to 4 lanes. Distances and speeds are given in miles, mph, and most drivers keep to the speed limit. They have cameras and road markers to check your speed at various intervals so you often will not know that you have a ticket until you receive it in the mail.

We head first to Salisbury where we visit the famous cathedral (apparently the ultimate in English gothic architecture). Started in 1220ad the cathedral added (1310ad) what is now the tallest spire in Britain at 404ft. In the cathedral is William Pye’s water sculpture and the oldest working medieval clock in Europe dating to 1386. The most famous item, however, is the best preserved of only 4 surviving original Magna Carta sealed by King John in 1215 and written in latin on vellum or calfskin. Very small and perfectly written lines close together and almost too small to read (even if you could read latin).

From here it was on to Stonehenge with its various mysteries. Along the way we passed the land with the most UFO sightings and crop circles in Britain..no sightings by us. Stonehenge is located in a very large open expanse of land and very much what we would have expected. It is actually only one of many such structures across Britain. It is estimated that it was begun in 3050bc with a ditch and bank (or henge) with the stone monument constructed, arranged and re-arranged over almost 1,000 years. It is primarily considered to be a sort of calendar but it is also linked through various measurements to other monuments in the country. We missed the equinox (June 21) by only a few days. On this day it is open to the current “druids” who flock there to see the rays of the sun passing through one of the openings to strike a specific spot in the centre..alas it was cloudy as usual on that day. Most days you are able to circle the structure, separated by about 20 metres (or 20ish yards American). Again the use of audiophones was very helpful.

Continuing across the moors we stopped briefly in the small village of Widecombe-in-the moor before heading off to Plymouth. Here is where Sir Francis Drake fought the Armada and where the pilgrims set off on the Mayflower.

The Holiday Inn is an older hotel but near the Ocean with the restaurant on the top floor. We are on the first floor with a view of rooftops and again internet is costly at 10pd for 24 hours. After a good meal and a couple of hours trying to figure out how to put the pictures on the blog where I want them we crash for the night.