2nd day of 2005 - Wiltshire and Oxford

The second day of the new year. Today, well not really today, this happened about a week ago.. I am going to recount the story and if it happened today. Today was a perfect day, it was sunny for a change but normally, it is cold when it is cloudless. I used to wear sunglasses all the time in Australia but since I have been in England, I have never wore them even once. I am not even sure when I have put them.

Today, our journey takes us to one of England's most famous landmark, Stonehenge. Before Stonehenge though, we fist drive to the town of Avebury, which is another town where stones circle is found and it is more remarkable then stonehenge in that there are more stones, and the stones are so spread out that they built a town within the stone circle. They even have a motorway which goes thru the town and the stones.

I have never heard of Avebury until I stumbled across it while looking for places to visit in Wiltshire in the Lonely planet.

Having not heard of Avebury, I didn't have any expectation or pre-conception of the visit. It is sometime a good thing and we can be suprised. It is same with movies, sometime we go and watch a movie which we know nothing about and more than often, we are glad we watch it.

When we reached the public car park which is about 0.5km from the town centre which is in the middle of the stones. I was suprised that we have to pay £1 for parking. As usual we didn't have any loose change and thought that we will buy something in town and pay the £1 later when we return to our car, which we did, even though it was a Sunday and we didn't really think that there would be an inspector checking for parking ticket to be displayed on the dash.

Next to the car park is a soccer field and there were people arriving for a game there that morning. I was amazed. Imagine playing soccer next to the largest stone circle in Europe. Well from the playing field you can't see the stones because of the external bank but it is so near to ancient site.

From what I have read, you can't get near to the stones at Stonehenge but at Avebury, you can walk among them and touch them. It was incredible, all the stone standing there surrounded by a ditch and a bank. Naturally we took some photos and we also walked up to the bank. The stones at Avebury are said to be older than the stones at stonhenge. There are also less tourist too at Avebury. We found that out when we reached our second destination, Stonehenge.

We were driving along motorway A360 knowing that we were getting close to the famous stones. I then noticed a big parking lot coming up to our left and felt that that was it. Then out of nowhere, there it is, on the right futher down the road. We drove into the car park and park our car. The car park was quite full and there were a few tourist buses there too.

Stonehenge just stands there out in the middle of no where with two motorway nearby. Initially I thought we have to cross the motorway to get to the stone but soon realised that they are smart enough to build a tunnel for the tourist to get to the stone.

We then had to line up and pay £5.20 each to see the stone. It is not cheap especially if you convert it back to Aussie dollar. It was then i realised that we could join and be members of English Heritage for £58 for a couple per year and get free access to Stonehenge and other 400 historic sites all over the UK. I believe it is a good deal as most historic sites requires a fee. We will probably join it after we get our car.

Realisticlly, you don't have to buy a ticket to see Stonehenge. You could cross the road and see Stonehenge thru the barb wire fence. You are not much futher away than the people who paid. We thought we would pay and by paying you get access to the recording guide thingi and we get to walk around the stone.

I guess Stonehenge is more impressive as the stones are larger and some somes are stacked ontop of other stones. I think I enjoyed the two stones equally and recommend the two stones to people.

I am forever impressed with the English countryside. I still can't belive how green the grass is. I am constantly reminded of how old things are over here, how much culture there are in this place. It is still a mystery why the stones were erected. I hope that i don't start to take my surrounding for granted. It is easy to lose the feeling of being in awe.

From Stonehenge we made our way to Oxford. With more than half the day gone and with the sun setting at around 4pm, we know that we won't have time to really explore Oxford fully but still I wanted to get a glimpse/taste of Oxford.

Oxford is a little town, smaller than Bristol but the buildings are incredible, especially the colleges. We managed to find a parking in one of the many parking station/building around the city centre. We gave ourself only 1 hour and so we just walked along the mall and visit the Carfex Tower in town.

We had to pay a few pounds to enter and we had to climb little spireling stairs to get to the top. The view is great and it gives you an idea of where things are and what oxford looks like. You get about a 300 degree view of Oxford.

We will definately visit Oxford again some other time perhaps staying there overnight. I think it takes a whole day to fully appreciate Oxford. Oxford, Stonehenge, Bath and London seems to be the places most tourist visits when they visit England.

On the way back from Oxford, I was planning to drive thru the villages in an area know as the Cotswolds but I got lost on the road and we somehow ended up on the M40, the main highway between London and Birmingham.

In England, they have ring roads around most decent size city which is a good idea, as traffic can bypass the city and thus helps with congestion within the city. The bad thing was that the Signs are confusing. I can't wait for the M25, the largest ring road in UK which surrounds London.

I can't believe I was lost and ended up on the busy M40. It was frustrating. Unlike Australia where towns are far and few in between major cities, the reverse is true here. We were able to go on the smaller roads and was able to drive to the Cotswolds. I don't think one could really get lost in England, there is always another road somewhere.

The town of Burford is unforgettable, even when it was dark when we passed by. The houses on the main street is just charming. We will visit again one day. I also wanted to visit Burton-on-the-water and several other towns in the Cotswolds. The good thing is that they are only about 1hr away and when we get our car, we can go there for walks and picnic on the weekend.

That's the end of the day. We didn't visit all the towns as planned due to the longer than expected (but plesantly suprised) stay at Avebury and the wrong turn at Oxford's ring road, but I am happy with the quality of the sites. I just can't wait for summer when the days are much longer so we can fit in more quantity and quality sight seeing.