"England - My Dream Vacation" a England Travel Page by ElaineCatherine

"Leave the beaten track behind occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do you will be certain to find something you have never seen before."
- Alexander Graham Bell

Ive recently come across this quote and it really touched me! I found it a bit serendipitous that Ive been spending alot of time working on my VT pages and hence thinking alot about traveling and where Ive been as well as where I want to go. It seemed sort of like one of those messages from the Universe, you know, words or a thought that come to you just when you need to hear it most. Some people belive in that kind of thing.. - Im one of them! Mind you this message came in the form of me helping my son with his 4th grade biography report, which happened to be on Alexander Graham Bell. I loved this quote and really wanted to share it with everyone at VT.

Well, this page is going to be about all the places in England that Ive been. Ive got a London Page and a Warwickshire page, but Ive found that some of the other places Ive been dont really fit into either of those two categories. So here it is.. My random English ramblings.

So. I spent a day with a very good friend touring around Wiltshire. We had planned to see Stonehenge and Avebury, and whatever else we happened upon along the way. We went to Stonehenge first, but I love this picture of Avebury so much I couldnt resist showing it first. And I did take this one myself. I seem to have gotten lucky and caught some lightening. English weather was notoriously changable, and the very brisk cool and clear morning sky under which we saw Stonehenge turned into a humid and rainy afternoon! We drove up thorough some very pretty picturesque towns til we got to Avebury. It was truly raining cats and dogs by this time, but we decided to brave the rains and get out and explore.

And immediately I was again awed by the amount of work that it must have taken to create this monument. I spent alot of time trying to imagine how it must have been done, but in the end my non-engineering mind could only come up with one answer.. "It must have been Aliens" but my companion had other thoughts. When I said this he said something like "To say it could only be aliens that created this is to do a dis-justice to the people that actually created this. Just because they lived long ago, doesnt make them less 'advanced' than we are. It is likely that they had a very different kind of intellegence or wisdom -a wisdom that made all this possible" Boy, did I feel a bit silly about my alien comment! But those words did strike me as very very true.. and full of their own rather modern wisdom!

Oh I should also mention, that there have been several crop circles made in the fields near Avebury. (hmmm, maybe it is Aliens after all)

Next is Stonehenge. Here is a nice picture of Stonehenge. I didnt take it of course. But Ill share a bit about Stonehenge with you. I have been fascinated and curious about mysterious and curious things like Stonehenge all my life. Even as a young girl, I would scan the shelves of the library looking for books about mysterious things, like the paranormal, stonehenge, aliens and the like! So when I went to England for the first time, I was thrilled when the opportunity came up for me to go to Stonehenge. (in the form of a very dear new British friend) I was thilled beyond belief.

We set out from London and quickly left the city behind us, and as we began to enter the country, it became abundantly clear to my why my little part of the world is called "New" England. It looks very much like Old England!

So I was warned that I might be dissapointed because it is thought that Americans have this mistaken impression that Stonehenge is really massive, and they are often dissapointed that it isnt that big at all. But when I first saw it, it really took my breath away. I wasnt dissapointed at all. It wasnt as big as I thought it would be, but it certainly was as beautiful. It was a bone-chillingly cold day in February, but we walked around for well over an hour, and took alot of time to really enjoy looking at the structure. All the while, trying to guess the purpose of the structure and imagine how ancient people might have used the site. In its day it must have been truly a sight to behold and the amount of work that was put into it, can only mean that it was very important.

I dont know if modern man will ever really know all the secrets of Stonehenge. I suppose the secrets are what keep us coming back though.

"Climbing up on Solsbury Hill, I could see the City Lights, wind was blowing, time stood still, Eagle flew out of the night" -when I think of Silbury Hill, I cant help but sing Peter Gabriel's song Solsbury Hill.

Silbury Hill another mystery. You cant climb up on it though, it is apparantly eroding quite badly, and some anti-erosion netting has been placed over it. Anyway, I got 3 mysteries all in one very very great day.

It is thought that it may be an ancient burial mound. But that fact isnt completely proven. There are numerous rumors surrounding it and West Kennett Long Barrow which is nearby. Some of which include that they are ancient pagan ritual grounds.

I wish I had been able to see Silbury Hill better though by the time we left Avebury, it was absolutely "Chucking it down" as my dear British friend says. And we could barely see out the car window! But I did see it a little, well, I guess that gives me a reason to go back!