It's raining this morning so I thought I would take the time to write about yesterday. The weather forecast is pretty crappy for the next couple of days. Today the high is only 59. But that usually means it will be around 65. Forecasts are pretty worthless here. It rains when it wants to, even if it's sunny out. And when the forecast says showers and 60 it'll rain for a couple of minutes in the morning and be 72 and sunny the rest of the day. Anyway, back to the blog...

Yesterday was a long day, but it was so much fun. We met outside the Med Kitchen on Gloucester Road at 8.30 to get on our super comfortable charter buses we got to go to Stonehenge and Salisbury. Christa and I were smart and picked the seats next to the emergency exit so we had double the leg room! It took about an hour and a half to get to Stonehenge. The ride was really pretty. We went past Richmond right outside of London where the main campus of my university is. And you can see Keith Richards's house on the hill from the road. The highways here are a lot different than at home. Even going out of London they're only four lanes. Stonehenge is 2 miles from the town of Amesbury. It's pretty close to the road now and they're planning on making tunnels in place of these roads within the next 10 years. They believe the stones were put there around 3200 BC. A ditch 6 feet deep was dug all the way around the stones using deer antlers and the shoulder bones of oxen. Our guide said that most people believe it separated the earthly world (outside the ring of stones) from the spiritual world (inside the ring). The barrows around here are also burial grounds of the leaders that lived during that time, but they also found the body of a Saxon soldier and Roman coins here too.

There are also a lot of stories associated with Merlin and Stonehenge. It's so crazy how everything ties together. Geoffrey of Monmouth (a clergyman from the 1100s and one of the major figures in the development of British history) says that Merlin brought the stones from Ireland where it had been built by Giants who brought the stones from Africa. He also said that Ambrosius Aurelianus (war leader of the Romano-British in the 5th century), Uther Pendragon (father of King Arthur), and Constantine III were buried inside the ring of stones. The town of Amesbury which I said is close to Stonehenge is actually named for Ambrosius.

Also close to Stonehenge is the town of Marlborough. Marl (Merlin) borough (barrow) which means that Merlin is buried there. The town's motto is Ubi nunc sapientis ossa Merlini - Where now are the bones of wise Merlin. This is also the town William the Conqueror built his castle in 1067.

Okay that's way too much information about Stonehenge, but I think it's so interesting!

The next stop was at the town of Salisbury. We visited Salisbury Cathedral first. It was built in 1220 and has the tallest church spire in the UK, the largest cloister in England, the oldest working clock in existence (from before 1386), and one of the four surviving original copies of the Magna Carta. It's official name is the Cathedral of Saint Mary. All of the people buried there have interesting stories about how they died and what there lives were like. The Chapter House where the Magna Carta is has an octagonal shape. It's a square inside a circle. The square is earth and the circle is heaven and symbolises that Christ brought together heaven and earth. All along the upper part of the ceiling in the stone are carvings from the major parts of the bible starting with Genesis. My favorite ones were the Tower of Babel and Sodom and Gomorrah. The detail was incredible and I wish I could have taken pictures, but they're afraid someone might try and sneak one of the Magna Carta and it could hurt the preservation of the document.

The actual town of Salisbury was really old. The roads are so narrow and the buildings are close together. It was market day so the square was packed with people selling all sorts of things. I bought an umbrella there and that was just my luck because it started raining right after I got it. Christa and I ate at this little cafe close to the church. They bring out your meal on a little silver platter. I got this sandwich that was turkey and cranberry sauce, tomatoes, and lettuce. On our way back to get on the bus we stopped at a little pastry shop and I got this giant chocolate truffle and she got this tasty pecan triangle. The one thing I'm going to miss in Europe is the pastry shop on every corner! They have the best cakes, pastries, scones, and coffee!

Last night we just had dinner at this place in northern London. Nothing too special, but on our way back to the tube we did see men dressed in mini skirts, black knee socks, white blouses, and pink wigs in pigtails (like Britney Spears) standing in front of the fire station. I would have gotten a picture, but I wasn't sure if they were drunk or not and didn't want to attract any attention. I'm pretty sure it was a dare though because they were clean-cut guys.

That's all for now! I'm just being lazy all day today and catching up on some homework. Tomorrow evening I'm going on the London Eye! I'll take tons of pictures.