Stonehenge

Stonehenge has always been on my bucket list. It did not disappoint. I don't know how I can say that since it is just a pile of old rocks, and all rocks are old, but I loved it. Maybe I just love old stuff. I wanted to spend longer in the visitors center learning about it but we were late for the bus. What can I say? I was having an educational experience!

Stonehenge has been around for a long time. It has been used, added to, and rearranged by many different peoples over the millennia. It was first created around 8500 B.C. Yeah. I had no idea it was that old. Some of them we know what they used it for (300 burial mounds are within this 2 mile area), but many of them we really have no idea. The smaller "bluestones" in the middle came from over 155 miles away. Many of these people were much more advanced than we give them credit for. Stonehenge is built to align with the solstices and stars. Don't ask me how, that's not really my area of expertise.

The Heel Stone.

The Dark is Rising, anyone?

I should have gotten a picture of the statistics, but in case you were wondering, this guy was tiny. Certainly shorter than I am.

If you wish to learn more rather than rely on my tired-student-sketch, go here:

 Special Stonehenge Page

Winchester

The city of Winchester originated from an old Roman fort (chester apparently comes from their word for fort). I took lovely pictures and rotated them, fixed them up so the lighting was right, but my computer is being passive aggressive and refuses to register this. I guess if you are interested enough you can tilt your head...

Winchester Cathedral

This is a Norman Cathedral built on the remains of an Anglo-Saxon church.

 I don't know who this is, but aren't all their graves so pretty? It's too bad we walk all over them. I kind of feel bad. Whose idea was it anyway to bury the dead so people tromp their dirty shoes all over their peacefully decaying corpse?

One of the aforementioned mortuary chests. They were doing restoration work so this was all I could see.

Some of the original 13th century tiles still show their pattern.

You can read more and probably get better pictures here: Winchester Cathedral

The grave and memorial of Jane Austen. I do not particularly enjoy reading her works, but I do admire her as a person and what she accomplished. I may not love her novels of manners, but she was a very skilled writer. 

She did not live in Winchester, but went there with her sister to look for a better doctor when she became ill. She died here and was buried in Winchester Cathedral with a grand total of four people at her funeral.