Cornwall Trip, Day 2: Stonehenge, Salisbury

So the next morning we got up early to at least go see Stonehenge and Salisbury before deciding whether to keep going on to Cornwall. We drove a short ways over to Stonehenge, which we had been told would be somewhat underwhelming, which turned out to be true. The historical significance and wonder of it is interesting and all, but seeing it just isn't all that impressive. Worth stopping by, but nothing particularly remarkable. We did, however, get to see it covered in snow, which is pretty unusual.

When we got there, we discovered that in order to get past the fencing surrounding it, you had to pay 6 pounds. Maeghan and Diane were up for paying, but Lisa and Guido and I were not so convinced it would be worth it, so they went past the fence and we just looked at it from a short ways away, which still got us a pretty good view, as seen here:


Here are a couple pictures taken from closer, where Maeghan and Diane got:


And here are a couple taken from afar:

As you can probably tell from this last picture, it was a bit cold and windy, so we didn't stay for very long before heading down to Salisbury, about a 10 mile drive away, home of the Salisbury Cathedral, a gorgeous cathedral built in the 13th century and home to one of only a handful of the original Magna Cartas (and the one in the best condition).

When we got into the Cathedral, a group of men who looked to be in their seventies were milling about. They were volunteer tour guides, and one of them, Michael Avery, gave us an absolutely amazing tour of the place. He was the sweetest man in the world, and he clearly had a passion for the history of the cathedral and the Magna Carta. The place is lined with all sorts of interesting historical tombs and artifacts and such, all of which I couldn't begin to explain. This was probably the highlight of the entire trip, and anybody visiting England should take the time to stop by here.

Some pics:

This is from outside the cathedral. There are better views of it, but nobody got any good pictures of them.

This is a little courtyard in the middle, that looked really pretty with the snow.

The archway looking onto the courtyard.

A little colonnade sort of thing outside the cathedral.

Inside the cathedral.
This is cool. It's a picture of a fountain which pours off the sides but is totally flat on top so that it creates a nearly perfect reflection of the ceiling above. The tour guide told us that a couple weeks earlier a lady had mistaken it for a glass table and put her handbag on it, which they then had to fish out.

This is some sort of tomb. There were a bunch of tombs and burial stones all over the place. There was also the longest-running clock in the world, and a series of flags of England dating back, the earliest a ratty-looking one from the 1800s. A bunch of really cool stuff, basically. Then we went into the room with the Magna Carta, which we couldn't take pictures of. Original copies were made for each county in England, though only a few have survived, and the one there was the best preserved. It was pretty impressive, especially to a bunch of law students.

As we were leaving, our guide gave us a bit of advice which would prove extremely helpful. He told us to drive south along the coastal roads instead of the more direct route further to the north, due to the weather conditions that were wreaking havoc. He seemed to think we'd be able to make it to Cornwall without too much trouble, so we were encouraged enough to give it a shot. We left for Newquay, and besides one point when we had to stop at a gas station to let Maeghan pee and ended up getting stuck in the snow and having to push our way out, we made it without too much trouble. It took a bit longer than we had anticipated due to the longer route, but it was a gorgeous drive, and once we got into the southern part of the country, the snow disappeared entirely and the sun emerged.

We got into Newquay and arrived at our place, which was a whole apartment in a hotel that we got for cheap because it's not tourist season at all there (it's a big attraction for surfers in the summer, but not so much in the winter). We did some grocery shopping and got some wine and Guido made us some authentic Italian pasta, and we planned out our itinerary for the next couple days.

Some pics from our place:




The woman who ran the place had a bunch of DVDs in stock as well, so we grabbed Anchorman, which Guido and Diane had not seen. This, however, brought about a terrifying moment:

You will notice in this picture that Anchorman is playing on the television, and yet the DVD is ejected from the player. This was a major Poltergiest moment in which I freaked out that the place was haunted, but eventually we learned that by some bizarre coincidence Anchorman was playing on TV at the same time we were trying to play it on DVD.

Anyway, we had a fun evening of hanging out and watching the movie and drinking wine, then went off to bed.