London bound!

Thursday 13th October

Left Plymouth at 8 am and retraced our steps back to Exeter, then continued up the freeway up to Taunton, then turning east along the A30. We stopped off for a quick coffee break along the way, passed through a variety of different landscapes and then arrived at Stonehenge where we stopped. Jill says the area has been heavily commercialised since her last visit 40 odd years ago, but at least there is lots of information now available, so you can understand what is known about the place. It is estimated Stonehenge was built around 2000 BC. The rocks came from North Wales, some 400 miles away and weigh up to 10 ton each! The mind boggles as to how they were carved out and transported. The original purpose has long been forgotten, but many different people have used it over the years, the Druids being the last. When the Romans came, around 40 AD this was a very old site. The rocks currently are situated in cleared farmland, but apparently the area was covered in forest at the time it was built. Another mystery is the large mounds of earth that surround the area. It is believed that these were burial sites where people were originally buried, then as customs changed, the ashes of others were buried there. These mounds are quite prominent even today. I can understand if you just came upon this, it would not interest some, but when you have an audio guide and get to know its origins and significance, it becomes far more interesting.

We resumed our journey and took a quick detour south to the town of Salisbury, to see the well known cathedral where one of the only copies of the historic Magna Carta is situated. We saw the original which was written in Latin but still of great interest, as this document impacts everyone of us even today. This document took away the absolute power of the king and also gave rights to the individual. It is strange that King John petitioned the current Pope of the time to have the document annulled and the Pope attempted to do so in the belief that a king was given his authority by God. Just goes to show how fallible any of us can be.

After lunch we left Salisbury and headed back onto the A30 which then joined the M3 freeway right into London. We were the first to be dropped off at a hotel in Kensington around 3.30 pm, so had a quick goodbye to everyone on the bus and then we got a taxi back to Earls Court, sharing it with another Australian couple who were also staying in an apartment in Earls Court.

Our Tour guide was Mhairi MacLaren, (pronounced Varry) a tiny little Scottish lass, who started life as an actress and was in a number of TV shows. Some 28 years ago, during a ‘down’ period she was asked to fill in as a Tour Guide through Scotland and she managed to bluff her way, but enjoyed the experience and has been at it ever since. She was extremely knowledgable about the history of all the countries we visited in Great Britain and had a very good knowledge of the Royal Family. She was really entertaining and had us in stitches with her different accents and the songs she sang along the way. Our driver Davey was also Scottish and was very adept at driving a 40ft bus through the amazingly narrow streets and roadways. He could back that bus up the most crowded street you could ever imagine.