Journal 12 Friday: Today was Stonehenge. Justin and I made sure to get up early to meet down at the Dilke House. We ended up getting there sooo early though. There was time to go downstairs and check email for about 10 minutes before we left. We all got on the bus and as it turned out, had Bob Craig as our tour guide again. The guy knows his stuff, he's just a little monotone is the thing. So we had Bob up front talking about all the stuff we were driving past on the way up. After he was done we were left to talk to ourselves and do our own thing. I talked with Shereen and April about mutual friends that we all had; it turns out we know a decent amount of each others friends. We drove for close to an hour and a half I believe before seeing any signs for Stonehenge. I was watching out the front since Ian (our homestay dad) was telling me to watch as you come over the hill and you'll see it. So that's just what I did, and watched as it appeared at the bottom of the hill. Once we got there we all got off the bus to go on our little tour around Stonehenge. As we walked up I asked who was going to run up and touch Stonehenge so I could record it. I probably should have just asked someone to hold my camera since no one was really anxious to try and run up and touch Stonehenge. Martin said he'd run up and do it , WOO HOO a volunteer! So we were standing at the closest part of the walkway and getting ready to film him running. Martin glanced over his shoulder to see two security guards that were standing there listening to our whole conversation. We slowly walked away... they of course, followed us for a few minutes. We were going to be forced to use the other side of the monument; the side that it's about 100 yard run to Stonehenge. We slowly made our way around as a group before Martin and I held back to let everyone else get ahead of us. So we got ready, and Martin was ready to sprint to the rocks. He had to run through a ditch that's about 3 feet deep, and thousands of years old, then the 100 yards to the stones themselves. He made it, and I got the whole thing on tape. Some other guy standing next to me recorded it too, laughing. Shortly after we all returned to the bus, after buying souvenir postcards, no one believed Martin actually ran until they saw the tape. After Stonehenge we went to Salisbury, to see the Cathedral and one of the three copies of the Manga Carta. The Spire of the Cathedral is 400ft high. During the Wars Germany used this Spire as a landmark; once you saw it you could turn right to fly to and bomb London, or you could turn left to fly to and bomb Wales. So this meant that Salisbury, of course, was never bombed because it was too important. We ate lunch at a bakery they had in town, it was damn good and totally worth the three pounds or something that I paid for lunch. The Cathedral was beautiful, the stained glass was amazing. They had a statue of a guy bending over and touching his toes. I needed to find someone to do something to the statue so I could get a picture... Misty agreed and I got a picture of her spanking the statue. After we walked away Bob Craig walked up and said "I SAW YOU. You're going to HELL!". And he was completely serious too. Misty just looked at him and said "Well, you have to believe in Hell to go there, and I don't so I'm fine." and she walked away. We also learned that the Spire was an addition to the Cathedral, it weighs 6,000 tons... so... a hell of a lot. The pillars that hold up the roof bowed and shifted 24inches under all the stress. After the Cathedral was the long drive home. It must have taken two hours to get back. We got stuck in traffic, so they turned off the highway and took a longer route. And we passed the airport Bob pointed a great area to sit with a rocket launcher and take out planes as an act of terrorism.... I know, we were shocked too. We didn't really do anything that night. I think I went grocery shopping or something. hahaha
|