The wheels on the bus go round and round….

Sticks and stones may break your bones, or, as we found out today, they can also make for a major tourist site J

 

This morning we woke and rushed out the door for our first day traveling outside of London to Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge and Avebury Village. The weather was cloudy in the morning but the rain held out for most of the day, until the very end.

 

Upon getting on the bus, we soon realized that this was not going to be your ordinary bus ride. The narrow roads and rolling countryside of England make for quite a beautiful visual and an escape from the city streets of London, however the abrasive breaking paired with the sleepy tendency of our bus driver also made for a nauseating experience. Needless to say it was a long….long….long ride (Dad and Lynn- picture the Jamaica bus ride…. But for six hours….) In fact, our advisor’s four year old son projectile vomited within the first hour, and I think we were all feeling similarly sick.

 

Arriving at the Salisbury Cathedral was a welcome break from the motion sickness. It sits in a quaint little village and is a breathtaking landmark. Acclaimed as Britain’s finest 13^th century cathedral, it certainly lived up to its reputation, with the exception of the scaffolding masking some of the gothic architecture due to renovations being made to recognize their 750^th anniversary.  We walked around and took an hour-long tour, but it was hard to hear through the Latin chanting of a children’s choir practicing their songs, conducted by an amusingly over zealous teacher. However, we took some pictures and did hear some stories of how the cathedral came to by and how miraculous it’s construction was, which was very interesting.

 

We had lunch at a café in the church – Laura and I split some cold chicken, potatoes and vegetables which was one of the healthier and more delicious meals we have had. Sandwiches here in England are not your friend - well at least they are not my friend. I miss a good old turkey and cheese sandwich on wheat- here its like egg, Brussels, chili and watercress or chicken coronation (code for chicken and yellow dressing and a bunch of other obscure things kind of mushed together between two very think pieces of white bread). So food has been a challenge, but today it was nice to eat chicken not dipped or rolled in anything gross.

 

We then rode the break all the way to Stonehenge, which was very cool. The monument is a free standing formation of huge stones that were moved miles and miles from outside towns starting over 5,000 years ago. No one is quite sure how it came to be, but historians have concluded that the stone formation is representative of the sun and moon cycles and were created to assist in making discoveries about the solar universe. However, there are other less widely accepted theories, which were interesting to hear. In fact, there was a hippie group protesting tourists with signs that read “Free the Stones,” meaning leave this ancient ground alone… unique to say the least.

 

Then back on the bus we went, to our dismay and headed another 45 minutes to Avebury Village where there was another stone formation with a similar background, but in a more circular formation. But before we could even explore it began to downpour and so we basically sat in the café, had a mocha and a muffin, glanced at the stones and then headed back home.

 

In total we were on the bus for about six hours and it was an intense journey to say the least. I am definitely glad to be back at the flats and not in any moving vehicle. The moral of today, bring some motion sickness pills on the bus!

 

Tonight all the flat girls are planning to go out to a club since we have a much-needed free day tomorrow, so that should be a lot of fun! So I am off to eat dinner and get ready J updates soon

 

Love Jenny