Saturday 2 January 2010

Stonehenge and Old Sarum

Today we have had a lovely trip out and put a little culture into our Christmas Holiday break before the children go back to school next week.

Our eldest has never been to Stonehenge which is less than an hours drive from us, as she has had mention of it in books she has read we though this would be a good start.


We decided on a no games in the car day (electronic stuff), as we knew we would be doing some driving through beautiful countryside.  So listening along to I am Jem Cooke we made our way just beyond Salisbury.

It was busy but no queuing to park or get in.  To my surprise the two smallest (8 & 10 yrs), did not want audio guides, so I managed not to moan at them and just made sure I had one that I was willing to give up!

I used the opportunity (my second visit) to look more closely at the stones, take some photos and just enjoy being there.




Before being1/2 way round I found I was correct to have been willing to give my audio guide away as my 'fact gannet' son took full advantage of it in the end.  Even the youngest pinched her dads before the end of thevisit (after hearing one of the older ones mentioning it was talking about Merlin).





















After a quick warm up and lunch in the car (me using my new flask that I had for Christmas!), we drove back towards Salisbury to visit Old Sarum.

There were no audio guides here (being a much smaller and lesser visited site I suppose).  However the signs were great and after reading a few aloud to the children they ran off to do some discovering of their own.



The ground might have been frozen but it was nice to feel that our brains and bodies had walked where others in generations before us for 5000 years had done before us.






To finish our day out as we were leaving we watched a magnificent hot air balloon float by, what a way to see these sights.

2 comments:

  1. Lovely photos, Jane! When we traveled to England after I graduated from university in 1988, we made it down to Kent twice from London then went north, so we missed Salisbury and Stonehenge, but we did make it up to the Lakes! What lovely weather you had, although I'm sure it was colder than it looks. :)

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  2. Yes Susanne it was very chilly indeed! We will have to take you there one day ;o)

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