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Another day of touring with Harry Norman is planned for today. It will prove to be a longer day than yesterday, and we are very excited. The weather is beautiful and today's tour is a trip outside London to see Stonehenge, Avebury & the Salisbury Cathedral. Harry Norman picked us up promptly at 9:00 a.m. outside our hotel. Today's trip is a drive to Stonehenge about 80 miles outside of London. Harry is a very cheerful and sincerely nice man, and we feel like we've made a friend after spending yesterday in his company. I can definitely say that deciding to hire Harry as our guide was the best idea I had for this short trip. After looking at all the London tour booklets available at our hotel, I’ve realized that there is an incredible amount of attractions to see in this area. We could be here for a month and never see them all. So, a visit of 2 ˝ days is inadequate to really see this area of England. Without Harry, our short trip here would have been a disaster! We immediately made our way out of London on the “motor-way”. When we saw signs for Windsor Castle, we started to talk about it. This is another 1-day tour that Harry offers, but this was not in today's plans. Suddenly, Harry asked us if we wanted to drive by and take a few pictures. Oh, yes!......... we were excited. Harry has picked up on our interests and at times, he makes extra stops for us to take those photographs that we enjoy taking. He drove us to the charming town of Windsor, and parked the car. We walked about 2 blocks to the entrance of the largest Castle I've ever seen. This favorite Royal Residence of the Queen is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world. This 900 year-old Castle covers an area of about 13 acres and the sight is truly awesome to see. John and I immediately started to take photos from every angle we could find. Harry even took us to a back gate to see another view of this castle.
Walking back to the car, Harry took us thru the Windsor Royal Station, built in 1897. This working train station has charming shops thru-out he old station. Another interesting site Harry pointed out to us was this charming crooked house on the main street. Time had taken its toll, but it was still occupied and beautifully maintained.
Back in the car, we were soon driving thru the town of Marlborough. John informed Harry that this is the birth place of our oldest “New” relative, Thomas New..... An ancestor on our Mother's Father's Father's side (Great-grandfather) The News also resided in Devizes, a nearby town. Harry planned to take us thru that town also. This same Grandfather's Mother is our link to the Island of Fehmarn. If our Grandfather could see us now!!! Our next stop was the Whitshire's White Horse Trails, so named for the Horse silhouettes carved out in the sides of the grassy mountains. The first horse was cut in 1827 by the parish clerk to commemorate the Coronation of Queen Victoria. We saw one of these horses from the high point of this trail. Eight horses are carved out in various fields in this area and hikers in the area use this White Horse Trail. On our way to Avebury, Harry informed us that this area is known for its crop circles. A discussion followed on the origins of crop circles, and before we knew it, we were in the town of Avebury. This small town has it's own circle of ancient stones around the town that date back to the same time as Stonehenge.
After driving around the town, Harry took us to the Avebury Church and cemetery. By now, he knows that we like to look at any church we pass by! Before we explored the area, we decided to eat in the local Circle Restaurant, a vegetarian eatery. This turned out to be a very peaceful, out-door setting for a wonderful lunch of quiche and fresh salads. Harry left us on our own to go walking around the small town to explore the stones placed in a circular pattern of sorts. Walking from stone to stone, we found them fascinating. Both of us were busy taking photos from every angle. The stones are spread out, around the town, so we had some hiking to do. When we came into the area, we noticed sheep in the fields. So...... you must be careful where you walk. Some areas had no sheep dung, but others; particularly the last field we walked thru was full of fresh dung and live sheep! This was truly an adventure. It's amazing what we'll do to get a good picture.
On the way to the Town of Devizes, Harry stopped at the Devizes Marina to show us the narrow boats. He has explained about the narrow rivers and these narrow boats that were popular to use on them. They are long, thin houseboats suitable to sleep on and as we noticed some were nicely painted.
Driving into the small town of Devizes, we found the St. James Church and cemetery. From our family research, John knew this was the church of our ancestor, Moses New. His son, Roland Hill New left this area and went to India with the D Brigade. In this church we found a commemorative plaque for the soldiers of this Brigade that had died during the same years that our ancestor was there. This was a good sign that we had the right church. John went out into the cemetery to read the old headstones, but they were unreadable, due to their bad condition.
Next stop was the Devizes Town Square where we enjoyed a short walk before driving on to Stonehenge. Stonehenge means, "Hanging stones". It dates back to the late Stone and early Bronze ages or from about 3000 to 1000 BC. This ancient monument, which is now in ruins, consists of a circular group of large, upright stones surrounded by a paved pathway for the visitors to walk around and view this ancient site. The mystery that surrounds this site seems to draw people from all countries.
Located on the Salisbury Plains, Stonehenge seems to be in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly, we saw the Stones standing tall in middle of the green plains. Harry pulled into a parking area that was full of cars, buses and people. This British Park has several portable buildings selling food and gift to the tourists. After purchasing our tickets, they give you an audio tour to listen to in a hand-held stick-type unit. This narrates the site for you and tells you interesting information about the mysteries of Stonehenge.
The stones that are left of the original configuration are roped off so you cannot touch them. A path circles the stones and people walk slowly in silence listening to the narration from the audio sticks. It was extremely interesting. John and I took photos of the stones from all sides. You just can't seem to get enough of them! We probably took over 100 photos of these ancient stones between the both of us.
After an hour at Stonehenge, we drove on to see Old Sarum Castle, the original site of the ancient town of Salisbury dating back to Roman times. When you are driving towards this site, you see the shape of the fortress in the green grass on the hill off to the right of the road. It looks so odd. Harry pulled into a parking lot and we were surprised to see the ruins of this early society. After paying a small
admission, we were free to wander around. Only the old stone foundation is
left, giving you the layout of the castle in the grassy hilltop. There are
plaques to read explaining that “Old Sarum was once a great town, a royal castle
and an important cathedral complex – filled with the bustle of life. This all
changed in 1220 when Bishop Roger Poore built a new cathedral and town a mile
away at Salisbury.” This Royal Castle at Sarum was built for King Henry I
in the 1130’
Harry explained that it took 50 years to build the Salisbury Cathedral, and this is where Harry drove us next. It was after 5 p.m. and getting late so Harry took us directly to the Charter house on the church grounds to see one of the 4 remaining originals of England's Magna Carta. This is the famous agreement between King John and the barons at Runnymede. Harry told us there we 20 copies of this document signed by King John in the year 1215 and only 4 are remaining in England today. We marveled at this beautifully hand-written (in Latin) document that is as important to Britain as our Declaration of Independence is to us in America.
We had a quick look in the Cathedral, as they were going to have a service at 6 pm. Harry pointed out a fourteenth-century clock still running today inside the church. It's probably the most ancient, "working" clock in existence. The hands are gone, but it still chimes on the 1/4, 1/2 and hour. By now it was almost 6 p.m., and Harry had another hour of driving before he could drop us off at our hotel. We drove over 200 miles today touring the countryside around Avebury & Stonehenge. What a day we had! No!!!……..what a wonderful 2 days we have had in England.
Exhausted and hungry, we freshened up in our room and quickly went walking in search of a restaurant. About 4 blocks away, we found the Texas Lone Star...... A Tex-Mex restaurant!. Can you believe it, we're in London and we can't find an English meal for dinner! But...... The baby-back Ribs and the bloomin’ onion were very good. We walked back to the hotel for the last time. We had a lot of packing, some more working on this journal and a little sleep before we leave London. What a busy 3 days we have had!
Tomorrrow....... Flying into Hamburg and the drive to Fehmarn.
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