Jun 12 ’10 – travelogs

I really don’t get English breakfasts. In London we were pretty smart after the first day and either ate in our apartment or had pastries and coffee across the street. Today we had the hotel breakfast in the dining room – oops. Things look familiar, but taste very strange. Perhaps we’ll learn this time.

We chose to stay in Salisbury since it was close to Stonehenge and has a beautiful cathedral with an original copy of the Magna Carta. Today’s first stop: Stonehenge.

Stonehenge stands amid green rolling hills with roads on two sides, and they’ve done a very nice job of hiding signs of civilization. The visitor center is across the road and down the hill, accessed by an underground tunnel so it isn’t visible from the site. There is a paved pathway around the stones, and a small rope to tell you not to enter closer. It would be nice to walk amongst the stones, but given the amount of traffic it sees I can understand the reason they limit it.

We had mostly flat lighting all day, but you can get a sense of scale from the people along the left.

We took the audio tour which talks about the site, the stones, the myths and theories about their purpose. Like other museums, the audio tour comes on a small device you hold up to your ear after typing in the number of the stop you’re at – it makes it look like everyone there is talking on their cell phones.

A moment of nice light.

Kevin and Eric

Given the flat lighting conditions we had I’m pretty happy with how the pictures came out. I experimented with some stereo pairs, one of which is below:

Stonehenge 'wigglegram' - ooh ooh, 3D! The distance between the images makes it appear smaller that it really is.

Next stop: the English Channel…

Before leaving the hotel for the day we asked about places along the coast to visit. A number of suggestions were offered up and we chose Lyme Regis – it’s supposed to be very beautiful and not too touristy. It was a few hours of driving, but we enjoyed seeing more of the English countryside.

Our first sighting of the English Channel from Dorchester Road (A35), looking South.

The community itself is a small beach town. There are cabanas along the beaches, a lawn bowling club, and an aquarium/museum on the breakwater.

We arrived at low tide, surprised to see boats in the small harbor sitting on mud. Lyme Regis gets about a 3m (10ft) tide difference twice a day and the harbor was not made in deep water.

Low Tide at Lyme Regis

It was interesting to see the dual keel sailboats that stand upright rather than falling over like a typical sailboat would.

The end of the breakwater protecting the harbor had this stone staircase built into it.

The stone wall protecting the harbor has interesting steps leading down it. The first step is a bit disorienting.

We had lunch in a pub, watched a family launch their ski boat by backing about a hundred feet into the shallow water of the harbor, and headed back to Salisbury.

Salisbury Cathedral was a short walk from our hotel.

Salisbury Cathedral from inside the Cloisters

Built in the 13th century, it is an incredibly beautiful Gothic Cathedral. We listened to an organ recital for a bit before exploring the rest of the church.

Connected to the church and next to the cloisters is a small building with one of four remaining original copies of the Magna Carta housed within. It is a stunning document to see for its historical significance, its age, and the beauty of the script.

Shadow play in the cloisters, and one of only a few pieces of photographic evidence that I was on the trip.

Enjoying the rare sunlight, we napped in front of the Cathedral.

After nap time on the lawn we ducked into The Wig and Quill pub to watch the qualifying round of the F1 race in Montreal. We grabbed dinner at a nice Italian restaurant down the street and returned to The Wig and Quill to watch England vs. USA in the World Cup. Lucky for us, the game ended in a tie – we neither got beat up nor humiliated with our new drinking buddies.

Good beer and a very friendly local crowd (which is important during an England vs. USA World Cup game).