We just came back from our weekend of exploring the Southwest and I am trying to get it down before the next week begins and details start to slip away. Here is our itinerary from
Saturday.
We had started toward Avebury but had stopped on the way at
Cobbs Pick You Own farm. I know mom would have enjoyed it very much. It truly was the best PYO we’ve ever been to. First, they had an interesting way of cultivating blackberries, raspberries, tayberries, black and red currants. The bushes were very tall and with a good distance from each other providing more comfortable and spacious picking. I don’t know what they do to get them to produce this much but on some bushes, you could barely see leaves.
Tayberries were really interesting. They are a mix of raspberry and blackberry. They are not easy to pull of the branch without bruising and that could be a reason they are not sold commercially. Dan said it was the best berry picking in in life.
The farm shop was a medium-sized tightly packed an assortment of every delicacy possible. From delectable selections of Asian sauces in bright boxes, to ginger cookies dipped in dark chocolate, to the mini meat pies that looked like munchkins, and much more. Fortunately we were not very hungry when we came in so we were able to leave relatively unscathed.
The next stop was
Avebury circle. Similar concept and timing as the famous Stonehedge. Except
zealots and others over the years did too good of a job pulling it apart. Now you can hardly see the original circles. But some of the surrounding structures like Silbury hill are very impressive. We also liked the actual stones, some of them resemble monsters. I think the organization that manages the site did a good job too commercializing the place with all sorts of museums and other paid sites around. On the other hand, this, like many other sites, is well maintained and informative.
After that we headed to the
Stonehedge. In contrast to our earlier visit in April where were came very late in the day, this time around we spent over 30 minutes waiting in traffic on approach. It is located on some major (one lane) regional roads and is very visible from the road, so if not for anything else, there is always traffic because of the cars slowing down for the passengers to take a look. A warning to anyone passing through that area, to try alternative roads if at all possible. On the way back home on Sunday we passed it again from the other direction, and this time spent one hour driving through a 3 mile stretch.
The site is awesome. Definitively one of the highlights in all the travels we did. Don’t know why really. Despite many theories no one knows for sure why it was built and perhaps it is that mystery that makes it so fascinating.
On the way, we've stopped to look at one of the W
hite Horses cut into surrounding hills. Russian translation on the Wikipedia attributes them to some unknown and mysterious origins. But based on the English version and some local tourist information board, it looks like the first one could have been the work of a crazy local doctor and others just followed the suit. If that's the case, what next - crop circles a hoax?? :)
The
Old Sarum was a bit disappointing after seeing so many well-preserved castles and seeing some impressive aerial photos possibly made from flyovers from a small local airport. We saw a number of interesting small planes in different makes take off from there while we were at the castle.
At the castle there was an event for children going on. Two actors in costumes told the story of
Gawain and Green Knight. Dan, Georgia, and I really enjoyed it. It was done very dramatically with no amount of bloody detail spared. Isabella did some drawing at one of the crafts tables in the meanwhile. After the story the kids were called to do a bit of fighting. They were equipped with some foam swords and all went at it with surprising devotedness. I guess the story has helped to put them in the mood. Isabella asked if they are planning to kill Georgia. But everyone had survived. After the fight the kids did Celtic weaving. The lady in charge of crafts told us the blue paint used to paint the faces of the warriors also contained a clotting agent to help reduce the bleeding. Pretty cool.
Salisbury cathedral was very impressive. Even so we are trying not to get them confused as there are a lot of them and every one seems to be the “largest,” “oldest,” “Gothicest .” This one had the tallest spire and largest close (territory surrounding the main building). And it has one of the four copies of Magna Carta. And it was featured in the
Pillars of the Earth. What was also memorable about this one was that stained glass featured the first ever sponsored mentions we saw: “This window made possible by Lord X and Y.” This was very prominently displayed on the bottom. Also some of the epitaphs were really interesting as were the changing fashions on the sarcophagi. From multi-color hyper realistic medieval likenesses with staring eyes of the dead ones, to the scary skeletal looking ones with gaping mouths.
We walked through the pretty town to take a look at the Doom painting at St. Thomas’s church. One of its famous features was medieval Doom painting. Here is a helpful
PDF they also have displayed at the church. It is really cool too. Somewhat similar in spirit to Bosch. Interesting story of the double-white washing. Definitely worth a look.
Next on the agenda was some gastronomic discovery. We discovered a local fish and chips place and shortly after discovered that all fish tastes the same, no matter what it is called.
By then it was already around 6 pm. Too late to go to Glastonbury. We were thinking of going to see it tomorrow but it would be impossible to get out of the Kingston due to the bike event. So we tried to get a place locally. Remarkably, the town was fully booked. We tried every hotel, and inn, and bed and breakfast. Then as we headed back to Kingston, we stopped by at the Holiday Inn in Amesbury by the Stonehedge. They did not have any rooms either but provided a printout of a local hotels to try.
We finally found 2 rooms at Hotel George. Dan was a bit hesitant on account of this hotel being pretty full of character. But kids and Irina were tired and it was a good location to continue our exploration on Sunday, and so we stayed. A choice
Ralph Waldo Emerson might have approved because he stayed there too according to the plague downstairs at the bar.
This link portrays hotel as something that could possibly be
four stars. This link covers it on a bit of the opposite side of the
spectrum (maybe Mr. Emerson trying to do a bit signaling here). In reality it was somewhere in the middle. Beautiful old building with cool fireplaces, exposed black beams, and pretty blue wallpaper. But it is dated and could use some fixing and upping.
We put kids and Irina to sleep and had some beers at the bar downstairs. Decided to go to
Jurassic Coast tomorrow and finish off with Glastonbury.
As we walked around town in the evening, we saw a picture of beautiful sculpture of an
archer. It was called “An Archer of Amesbury.” A quick online search revealed a fascinating story of a
local discovery just over a decade ago featuring some of the richest finds in the country. The place was indicated to be right next to the Holiday Inn we visited earlier today. Inspired by the natural curiosity and beer, we set out at 10:30pm to find the statue of the Archer about a mile and a half away. At the convenience store, I’ve asked casually where the statue of the Archer is at, and the clerk sent us to the place we had been to earlier. They do have a statue there. Except it is an ugly one that looks like a giant
colossus. Another quick search online indicated that the real statue is at the gated housing development nearby. For those who want to repeat to keep in mind :)
We went back to our room. There was karaoke party going on downstairs. They’ve stopped at 2am aided by some cops. There were some good singers out there but not too many of them. I guess that may be one of the reasons it will be hard to add stars to George the Hotel.
In the morning we took the train to Waterloo station and met with Ricardo and his family. After that we did a mad dash to subway then another train DLR from the financial district to get to Greenwich. DLR was pretty cool. It is unmanned and we sat in the first car with a large glass wall. So first we enjoyed the scenery as it was going above ground - all the skyscrapers and new neighborhoods. And when it got underground the view got even cooler. Kids huddled up in the front and enjoyed the view.
When we got there, it was almost lunch time. We walked around Greenwich in search of the interesting place to eat and eventually navigated to Zizzy, the Italian place. Isabella had macaroni with nothing on them.
Greenwich is beautiful. Every place had a fascinating story to tell about Maritime history of England and world in general. We passed the impressive Cutty Sark, and the observatory and the museums. Seen a little of Greenwich on the way. Saw a great view of London from the observatory hill and took a picture of us standing on the meridian line. And did not feel like we did the place much justice. We will come back and revisit everything including the food :)
Tomorrow we are going to Ireland. Hopefully everything will be OK with our rental car. We have reserved hotels for the first five days. We will be moving in the counterclockwise direction around the island. We don't know yet whether all the places have the Internet so we may go off grid for some time. Will try to provide updates when possible.
