After leaving Gibraltar we spent 2 days at sea before arriving in Southampton, Great Britain, where all of the Brits we met during the past two weeks leave this ship and we’ll welcome today new cruisers, mostly Americans, to take the trans-atlantic voyage for the next 15 days.
We left the ship this morning, boarded a coach bus, and headed to the Stonehenge area, about 30 miles away. It’s a rainy day and we are in and out of showers as we travel through the English countryside, through the “New Forest” (planted by William the Conqueror about 900 years ago so that the area could maintain wildlife that they would subsequently hunt). In spite of the cloudy, rainy day, the forest was beautiful with the tree leaves in full fall color. We passed through quaint English villages with thatched roofed houses. Our guide said that a thatched roof can last 50 years! It’s made of hay and covered with chicken wire to keep the birds from hauling away strands of hay to make their nests. Never got a picture of a thatched roof as we sped by too fast and raindrops covered the windows.
Stonehenge evolved from a simple bank and ditch in the Neolithic period some 5000 years ago to a very sophisticated stone circle built on the axis of the midsummer sunrise. The bluestones were brought 240 miles from the Presell mountains in Wales. There are many stories about the significance of Stonehenge. It may have been an astronomical observatory or used for sacred rituals linked to the sun, successful crops or even the dead.
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| Here we are in front of Stonehenge...in the rain |
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| Artist rendition of what Stonehenge probably looked like |
We headed toward the town of Salisbury by first passing “Old Sarum”, which is a huge earthwork raised in about 500 BC by Iron Age settlers, and later occupied by Romans, Saxons and Normans. They built a castle and a royal palace and by the mid-12th century, it was a busy town with a fine new cathedral. Lack of water and squabbles between church and military led to the building of a new settlement by the river, now known as Salisbury. Old Sarum was abandoned and fell into ruin. There is nothing left of any building today.
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| Old Sarum |
In Salisbury, we visited the Salisbury Cathedral. I believe this cathedral was the inspiration (and/or filming was done here for the mini-series) of “Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett. It is one of Britain’s finest medieval cathedrals. Its spire is the tallest in all of Britain, and the inside is spectacular. There is nearly 800 years of history inside the cathedral including tombs of nobility from the 13th century and Europe’s oldest working clock (1386). The clock is outside on the bell tower; we got a close-up look at the working mechanisms inside the cathedral.
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| Salisbury Cathedral |
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| Tallest spire in all Britain |
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| The mechanisms of the oldest working clock in Europe |
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| A tomb dated early 1200's |
Also inside was one of the four remaining original texts of the Magna Carta. It is 76 lines of Latin exquisitely written on one page of vellum. No photos were allowed of it so I’ll need to find one on the internet for the photobook. It limited the power of the ruling monarchs and nobility back in 1215 AD and protected the rights of the citizens. Since then many countries’ laws as well as our Declaration of Independence are modeled after main points of the Magna Carta.
We headed back to the ship and will soon attend a Meet and Greet of many cruise critic rollcall members that we ‘met’ on the forum prior to the cruise that are boarding today.
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| Typical Salisbury street |
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| Another street in Salisbury |
Tomorrow we are in Belgium!
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