Standing Stones - Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, England

Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, England

Stonehenge

Welcome back for part three of standing stones. This time we visit Stonehenge, the standing stones on the Salisbury Plains of England. These are probably to most known standing stones in the world. 

Again, I am not a historian and do not pretend to be so. I enjoyed traveling to all these sites to capture their images for my personal enjoyment. 

What I do know/understand is that this awesome site was built by the Druids at least 3000 years ago. The majority of the stones came from a quarry in Wales more than 200 miles away. Even today, to build a stone structure so far from the source stone would be a major undertaking. With no machines to cut the stone nor machines to transport the stone.....this was a fantastic feat!!! 

Stonehenge

Our visit was made possible by booking an unguided coach trip from London, I believe we found our tour operator Evan Evans Tours (Evan Evans Tours ), with the help of Tripadvisor (Tripadvisor & Evan Evans Tours ). We opted for a direct half-day trip to and from Stonehenge. We did not want a guide and we did not want to have any other stops on our adventure. 

Our adventure required a train ride in from Horley and then a walk to Evan Evans Tour office....easy to find from Victoria Station. Now this was promising to be an outstanding day, clear skies and temperatures forecast to be in the low 30's (+30 Celsius/+86 F), thus a nice warm day....one of the warmest day during our three weeks in the UK. So, a coach ride with a/c would not be a bad way to spend the warmest part of the day. Now, Evan Evans Tours are not big on customer comforts before the ride, nor on the ride for that matter. They do not have a washroom at their office that you may use nor do they have washrooms on the coach we rode on. Further, seating is very limited at their office. Just know this before showing up. One last point, due to the volume of vehicular traffic in London do not expect the coach to wait for you to arrive, they do try to depart right on time.

Stonehenge

Stonehenge

I was very happy to not be driving in the throng of London metro traffic. One reason for taking a coach tour was to avoid the stress of route-finding and general traffic issues. I wanted to enjoy my day. The trip to and from Stonehenge was uneventful. 

Now, upon arrival at Stonehenge it is a bit of a cluster.....we had ONLY 90 minutes to walk from the bus parking area, get on the shuttle bus for the trip to Stonehenge from the visitor's centre. Enjoy Stonehenge. Catch another shuttle back to the visitor's centre. Buy souvenirs at the gift shop. Visit the washroom. Walk back to the coach. Now, we did not drag our arses on this trip, and we barely returned in the 90 minute time limit. A more realistic window would have been two hours, from dropoff til departure. Three hours if you want to walk to Stonehenge from the visitor's centre. Like many of the sites we had the pleasure to visit during our trip, this site had huge crowds. So, maybe my next visit would employ a private guide to see this site before or after the huge crowds are here.

Standing Stone @ Stonehenge

Stonehenge

I worked very hard to get shots with as few people in them as possible. Of course, I had to take more than 300 shots to be able to show off a dozen. But, I have no regrets. It was awesome to be here. In fact, in the short time it took to orbit the Stonehenge the skies had changed from clear, blue with high white cloud to an almost threatening grey sky. Very magikal!!

Stonehenge

Stonehenge

Stonehenge

Stonehenge

There is more than luck and hardwork to this site. Stonehenge is a great work. I was amazed to find that the angles of the stones when seen against the stones on the far side of the circle actually lined up. The amount of skill to achieve that is hard to calculate. No lasers. No computers. No school of engineering. No trig. Maybe a plumb-bob. Maybe a straight edge. Probably chaulk to mark the cuts. A true sense of awe!!

Stonehenge

Enjoy, the remaining pictures. I really enjoyed taking them. It was worth the time to come visit.

Until next time....go see the World!! Bring your camera!!

Mountainman.

Part One: (Standing Stones of Stenness )

Part Two: (Ring of Brodgar )

More info: (www.english-heritage.org.uk/ )