Saturday, May 30, 2009

Stonehenge & Salsbury.

This blog promises to be one of copious amounts of pictures and information. Enjoy!

Fields of Canola plants mixed with red poppies. It was gorgeous. Excuse the reflection, I was on the bus while taking this.



Proof that I was at Stonehenge.

A drawing of what Stonehenge originally looked like. It's been through three transformations.

The United States Army touring around Stonehenge. They were there to do a reenactment of D-Day in France; they will be jumping out of planes.



Stonehenge, ladies and gents. I got a ton of different views of it; you could walk all the way around the rocks. However, they don't allow people to actually go THROUGH the rocks anymore...people use to chip pieces off for souvenirs and also steal some of the stones for building purposes.


The center stones are called "blue stones" because they have a blue tint to them when it rains.


We got to see sheeeep!! There are a lot around England, but these ones just hang out around Stonehenge all day. It reminded me of my childhood days on a sheep ranch.


The longest day of the year is coming up in June, and people come out to Stonehenge to camp out and watch the sunrise because on this particular day, it rises DIRECTLY through the two largest pillars of Stonehenge. Maybe I will be making a camping trip for it? It would be phenomenal to see.


This camping out ritual also happens on December 21 because that's when the sun sets directly between the two largest pillars. I'm sure it's a little chilly on such a flat plane in the middle of winter.


No one knows why Stonehenge is here, what it was used for, or how it got there. We DO know that these stones have been here for about 4,000-5,000 years and were shaped the way they are using only other stones (it was the only thing that could cut through these rocks with the consistency of steal.)


There are several burials of important people from the time of Stonehenge's beginning just across the street from the actual Stonehenge site.


There is also evidence that there was a Wood henge not too far from Stonehenge...obviously there is nothing left of the wood, but there is proof that there once was one; which was possibly used for rituals like Stonehenge was believed to be for.


Contrary to popular belief, the Stonehenge is NOT connected with the religious tribes, the Druids. Stonehenge was here long before the Druids.


Fields of Canola plants can be found ALL OVER the English countryside. It really is something to behold.




I also took this one while on the bus, nonetheless, I thought it was cool.


Jake and his "rape kit". It included a bright pink baton and whistle. He used both pretty ardently for the remainder of the trip. You kind of have to know Jake to understand.


The quaint charm of the town of Salisbury.



Instructions when crossing the roads-for the Americans. Haha. Thanks, England.


The Salisbury market that happens every Tuesday and Saturday.


This picture should be entirely self-explanatory.


The Salisbury Art Festival was going on and this was a little bit of a street performance. I wasn't sure what it was about, but there was piano music going and the boy pulling the large table was portraying a crippled person (or he may have really been crippled) and the young man sitting at the table with the party hat on just had a sad look on his face throughout the piece. Maybe it was supposed to show a loneliness because no one came to the guy's birthday party? The man just pulled this table up and down the streets. I don't know. It was bizarre.


This pretty much sums it up.


Downtown Salisbury, England.


The center of Salisbury.


Poundland is the equivalent of the United States Dollar Store. Haha. I love it.

Lucky for us, the Salisbury International Art Festival was going on while we were there.


Detail on the outside of the Salisbury Cathedral.


This was actually an art exhibit. There was a light and sound show inside of this structure/blow up thing. It was strange to walk out of this Cathedral coated in religion and see this!


The Salisbury Cathedral.

I thought this was really beautiful.

I'm not the greatest at self-portraits. I was standing inside of the Cloisters at the cathedral.


Another view of the cloisters in the courtyard of the cathedral. These were created in the last 1200's.

The rest of the group in the courtyard.


"In quietness and in confidence shall b your strength." Words to live by.


These little speakers were placed all around the cathedral's courtyard and different speakers would play whispering voices at different times. It was very eerie when one had no idea where these strange whispers were coming from and how they moved around you so quickly.


The 404 ft. spire of Salisbury Cathedral. This was added in the early 1300's.


I m not positive as to what these are, or their purpose, but they were scattered in path-form in the cathedral's courtyard and I was fascinated with them.




Another view of the spire. A few fun facts about it: 1.) It has moved 27 inches since it was build due to it's heaviness. 2.) How has it not been struck by lightening in all of that time? Well in the very tip of it there is a sphere shaped case that supposedly held a piece of the Virgin Mary's robe. Noone's sure if that's accurate, but the sphere was taken down 30 years ago and there WAS cloth in it, which is now in a museum.


The entrance into where one of the four remining copies of the Magna Carta is. I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside, so this is as close as I could get. It's really cool to know it's in there though. The room was also surrounded by stone carvings depicting events from the Bible...i.e. Noah's Ark and Adam and Eve.


Another view of the cloisters. According to Wikipedia: a cloister (from Latin claustrum) is a covered walk with an open colonnade on one side, running along the walls of buildings that face a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church usually indicates that it is (or was once) part of a monastic foundation.





The tomb of William Longespee. The information under the tomb read: "Earl of Salisbury. Illigitamate son of King Henry II and half brother of King John. He was present at the laying of the foundtaion stones of the Cathedral in 1220. He died in 1226 and was the first person to be buried in the Cathedral." He also was the one who got the Magna Carta over here.


The gold circle is/was the exact center of the spire. The black square is where it's moved to over the years.


The inside of the Salisbury Cathedral- which was also one of the first cathedrals to used pointed arches instead of rounded. It took more skill to make the arches point at the tips.





Notice how the second pole from the left is slightly bent. The pole is made of limestone and the weight of the spire has caused these to bend over time. Considering the sturdiness of limestone, this was quite a feat.


The font in the cathedral. This is for baptisms...notice the glass-like reflection. This was a pretty religious experience to witness.


Notice the cross drawn on the side of the font. The remarkable story behind that: these crosses are placed on every side of the font in holy water or oil to make them official to be used in baptisms and then they fade away after a short span of time, but the crosses on this particular font never faded away. They can't get rid of them, they never faded into the font after all this time!


Some old flags hanging up in the cathedral.


The oldest clock in England.




A mini replica of the cathedral.


The cathedral's foundation is only 4 ft. deep! It's held together because it's waterlogged. The cathedral would fall over if the water ever dried up.


The side of the cathedral...with some scaffolding?


I love the blue information dots. I will miss these about England.


Dad- you would fit in so well here. There are greyhounds/ whippets dipected in all sorts of ways. Haha.


There were a lot of beautiful houses in Salisbury.


"Life's but a walking shadow."- From Shakespeare's Hamlet. The passage underneathe it is from St. John Chapter 17, Verse 3 and reads: "This is life eternal that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."


Ello loves-

Whew, it feels like I have already provided you all with so much information. I tried to soak up as much as possible (as I do on every outting we go on). This was an interesting and beautiful (weather and site wise) day. As I entered the Salisbury Cathedral I could truly feel the religion still ringnig throughout the stained glass and archways. Many cathedrals have become more tourist atractions and less religion-based, but at the Salisbury cathedral the true meaning behind these beautiful structures could still be feverently felt. It was amazing.

Stonhenge was quite the experience too. The mystery behind the stones makes them even more intriguing and enchanting. I think they will always be a mystery and that would be ok with me.

The next few days and weeks for me are as follows: A Taste of Spain festival tomorrow in Regent's Park, Along the Thames River Walk, Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare's Globe Theater, Harry Potter and Beatles walking tours through London, "Wicked" play, Wimbeldon Tennis Tour, A weekend in Paris(!), Jack the Ripper Walking Tour, Greyhoud Racing, Bath, England daytrip, Comedy Store Player at the Regents Park Open Air theatere, "Dirty Dancing" the musical/ play, Cricket, Midsummer Boat Party, and the Royal Ascot Hores races (as seen in "my Fair Lady" complete with the fancy outfits and outrageous hats!) So those are definitely things everyone needs to be checking back for. :) I am still absolutely astonished that people even read this, but I appreciate each of your support and interest. I take it into consideration everytime I sit down to write one of these.

This was a short blog. Wow. I'm usually much more long-winded. I hope all is well in the States, and until tomorrow; keep on keepin' on. I love and miss you all. Cheers.

Always,
Mattie.

1 comment:

  1. Mattie - I guess you know that to post a comment to your blog is not too straightforward -- well I guess it is --- one just needs a Google, LiveJournal, etc. account to sign in -- then you can post. In any case, you said this was a "short blog" for today, but it was pretty long and interesting to me! Keep up the good work, but don't get 'blogged-out'.

    IsleofManTom

    ReplyDelete