Sunday, May 18, 2008


Stonehenge has always, for some reason, been one of the 'things' which I have wanted to go and see and although I have been to the UK many times I've just never managed to get there. I had always thought that it was quite close to London - it is if you look on a map of the whole of the UK. In reality it is actually quite far away from London; a good two hours drive.
John and Julie, friends of Carons, picked us up at 08:30 for the two hour drive down to Salisbury and Stonehenge. I must say that I did enjoy seeing Stonehenge even though it could be adequately described as "just a pile of stones in a ring" and nobody actually knows why or how it was built although I have a theory (as in "just a theory" aka a hypothesis) of my very own to throw into the ring.

If you look carefully on the bottom left you can get a sense of the size of the stones but don't be fooled - the people in the photograph really were a group of midgets. :-)
My theory on the purpose of Stonehenge is supported by the following photograph of the supposed "heel stone":

I don't think that, from this evidence, that there can be any doubt that the ancient Britons were worshipping those denizens of the sea - the moray eels. One could also speculate that since creatures of the sea are also held sacred by pirates who worship the FSM that Stonehenge is actually an ancient temple to the FSM. Tenuous but possible I say!

From Stonehenge where evidence is sparse and speculation fun we went into the centre of Salisbury (previously known as "Harare") to have a look at Salisbury Cathedral. Not really my "cup of tea" as they say here but Caron and Julie are history buffs so John and I were dragged along. It is nothing if not an impressive and imposing edifice and there happened to be an orchestra and a choir practising for the evening's concert to add to the ethereal atmosphere as we sauntered around to the strains of Elgar whoever he was. I presume he's dead, shuffled his mortal coif so as to say.

Purely by chance we strayed into an enclave and saw an "original copy" of the magna-carta. I, of course, challenged the guide as to how it could possibly be an "original copy" since this seems to be an oxymoron to me. The guide was however correct since there were many copies all made at the same time and no original. The copies were made and sent to the town and cathedrals where they were read to the population. I must say that I did find this very interesting and even purchased an English translation of the magna-carta which I enjoyed reading since it is always referred to in the development of common and constitutional law.

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