Stonehenge and on to Royal Tunbridge Wells (10 November 2024)

Stonehenge

I had chosen to take the longer route to Tunbridge Wells as it avoided the likely congestion around London.  The route took us near Stonehenge and I suggested to Bev that we do a detour. 

I was last there 27 years ago.  Things had changed, as they do.  Last time I am sure that we parked within viewing distance of the site and walked a few 10s  of metres to it.  I am not sure if we were able to wander through the stones at the time but it felt like we could.  This time the visitor centre was about three kilometres away from the site and we were shuttled to the site.  One could walk if you wanted to but it was a 30 minute walk which we did not have time to do. 

The stones were as I remembered them but there was a lot more information available and it even pointed out where the stones were aligned for the summer solstice.  While there were quite a few people there I suspect it was nothing like the crowds in summer.  Fortunately just as we arrived the cloud lifted a bit making it a better viewing experience.

 

The heel stone and arrow for the summer solstice

Three hours after leaving Stonehenge we arrived at our hotel in Tunbridge Wells.  It was a lovely old hotel that had a slightly faded grandeur.   It was dark by the time we got there so after getting our room we spent the evening in the warmth of the hotel reading and blogging.


Having fun




Various shots of Stonehenge

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Choosing where to go next (28 October 2024)

Image
  Canal St-Martin There is so much to see in Paris, which makes for an almost overwhelming number of places to choose from.   Graham had what he called “crikey” moments where something would just take his breath away.   The Pont du Gard was one of those moments but he had many more so the challenge was to find at least one on our last full day in Paris.     We were keen to go to Belleville which is the highest point in Paris and Graham had picked up a book in the apartment with graphic photos of its former self before and after it had been redeveloped in the 1970s and later.   The view from there on a good day is excellent as you can see the city laid out with its various landmarks.   It   was quite misty when we left but we still decided to go. Parc de Belleville   We entered through the Parc de Bellville and climbed to the lookout point.   The Eiffel Tower was not visible due to the mist but as it was coffee t...
Read more

Frankfurt am Main

Image
Looking toward the CBD We woke early and found that our apartment had a wide and expansive balcony that gave us a view from the west to the east.   It was a nice outlook.     Apartments' courtyard View from the balconey of apartment It was over twelve hours since we had last eaten and Bev wanted breakfast so we went looking for a place in the local area settling on a bakery/café.   The food was carb heavy but it did the trick.   (Comment from Bev: Yum! – there will be a few of these added comments throughout as she edits my blog)   Our tram stop - cycle lane on my right Just before we left New Zealand I had a message from Deutsche Bahn to tell me that the train we were going on from Prague had been cancelled and we had to find another way of travelling.   The website was optimised for German speakers of course so I think the translated version was not as clear.   I thought the easiest way to deal with it was to go to Fra...
Read more

The Causeway Coastal Route (2 November 2024)

Image
Carrickfergus Castle It was very damp when we departed for Derry/Londonderry, taking the Coastal route there.   Normally this would be done when going to the Giant’s Causeway but we had not managed to do so.     The first stop was Carrickfergus Castle about 20 minutes out of Belfast.   It is a Norman castle that was built in 1147 on a rock that has fresh water available.   Over succeeding centuries it was much modified to become the fortress that it is today.   It was a central player in the wars of control of Ulster.   Initially it was the main centre of Ulster but eventually in the 1700 and 1800s the centre moved to Belfast.   Halloween display in the Keep   We paid the small fee to have a look around.   It was interesting to go into a very different kind of castle to those we had visited in France.   The idea was the same but execution was different.     In the main Keep which is the large...
Read more