And in no particular order…
1. Learned that Stonehenge is so not worth it. First, if you’ve seen a picture of it, and I’m guessing you have, that’s about as close to it as you’re going to get physically.
Second, it bothers me that they’ve reconstructed it; I’m much more impressed when they let things decay naturally so I can marvel at their longevity in spite of their degradation.
Third, I’ve been to the replica in the Gorge at least twice, and not only am I allowed to touch it, but it’s got all the pieces in the right place—incidentally, kind of like what they were going for when they started putting the original one back how they thought it should go.
Drive by if you have to, maybe pop over the road and peek at it through the chain link fence, but save your £6.50 for a) Salisbury Cathedral or b) Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire. Which have now taken spots 1 and 2 on my top-three best spots in the UK (no. 3 is Snowdonia, in Wales, for those keeping track at home).
2. Watched two ring-neck pheasants (just called “pheasants” here) at the aforementioned Fountains Abbey duking it out over a presumably foxy lady pheasant.
3. Visited the aforementioned Salisbury Cathedral, which boasts another of the four remaining original Magna Cartas, the world’s oldest working clock, and the tallest spire in the UK (also the tallest building in the world built before the 15th century).
I’m still a little disturbed by the way the cathedrals charge admission (“suggested donation” accepted by a man in a booth or behind a desk who then gives you a ticket and receipt) and then hawk cheap gifts bearing their names from gift shops inside the cathedrals themselves. Did we not get the memo re: money changers in the temple? But I guess it’s okay since a) they don’t charge you if you tell them that you’re visiting for purely spiritual reasons, and b) the cathedrals are so packed with old, interesting stuff that they’re essentially museums.
4. Finally actually went inside the Tower of London. Where in the Bloody Tower, England boldly congratulates itself on only ever torturing some small number of people (something like 81 or 241…). Well done you, England, only I think you forgot about all those other people who were burned at the stake; boiled alive; hung, drawn, and quartered; etc. I guess it doesn’t count as torture if the intention is eventual, horrific death rather than interrogation or punishment? England, you are one complicated broad.
5. Also in the Bloody Tower, witnessed an 8- or 10-year-old boy examining assorted torture devices with his parents: “We’re much better at torturing people now, aren’t we, Dad?” Well, yes, son, I guess that’s one way to put it.
