It's a henge! Made of stone!

Today PetDoc and Noise had to go back to work (suckers!) so Serdic and I decided to get out of the city for a day, and we did a side trip to Salisbury and Stonehenge. I had been before, but not for nearly 15 years, and Serdic had never been, so we decided it would be a worthy way to spend the day. We took the train from London to Salisbury (a journey of about an hour and a half), then caught the "Stonehenge Tour" (of course) by bus to Stonehenge.

Stonehenge is a really interesting and awe-inspiring place. I know many people who say it's just a pile of rocks, but I find it endlessly fascinating. Why is it there? What were the people who built it like? What did it mean to them? They obviously put so much effort and care into building it, but what was it for? Whatever it means, it is a striking sight and we spent a lovely hour circling the stones and examining them from all angles.

We caught the next bus back to Salisbury where we found a 13th century pub for lunch, The Haunch of Venison (gotta love those Ye Olde British Pub names). We had a fantastic lunch -- I had shepherd's pie and Serdic had a chargrilled pork loin with bubble and squeak (!) and a cranberry jus. Delicious.

After lunch we wandered down High Street to Salisbury Cathedral. The cathedral is famous for having the tallest spire in the UK, and it certainly is a beautiful building, situated in a large green space that sets it off to perfection. We spent a lovely hour exploring the church, including the chapter house where one of the four original copies of the Magna Carta is displayed. Eventually we wandered back to the train station and caught a late afternoon train back to London, arriving back in time to have take away fish and chips with PetDoc (Noise had to work late). All in all it was a lovely day. We have been blessed with wonderful weather so far (knock on wood) -- sunny and warm (without being too hot) nearly every day. I even have a bit of a sunburn on my face -- funny that I had to come to England to get too much sun!

I am also told that it is my responsibility to blog about the concert we attended last night, as Serdic fears he wouldn't be able to do it justice. I think that will have to wait for my next entry, as this one is long enough, but let's just say that last night we stood in a crowd of 30,000 people and sang Happy Birthday to Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was awesome.