Yesterday morning, I checked out of the hotel in London, and hopped on the underground to a train to Salisbury, which is right near Stonehendge. At the Salisbury rail station, a bus met the train and took visitors to Stonehendge, and two other places if we wished after Stonehendge-Old Saram, which was the point of an old castle and some war re creation scenes, as well as the tallest Cathedral in Europe.
On the bus ride, a recording narrated some historic facts-for example, during World War II, the Germans we're under orders not to bomb Salisbury, because the Church was so tall it was used as a navigational point for other targets. There we're some people speaking German (I believe) right in front of me on the bus, so I was tempted to thank them for not bombing Salibury (but didn't). Also one of four remaining documents of the Magna Carta is here-which talked about swift justice, no illegal bribes, protection from illegal imprisonment 500 years before the decleration fo indepence)
And of course, the recorded voice talked about Stonehendge, how nobody knows for sure why it was built, what is was used for (sundial, health, etc), as it is one of the oldest arechological finds on our planet. What did I think about?-the classic masterpiece-National Lampoon's European Vacation, where Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase, of course), drives to Stonehendge, talks to the family about it for 5 seconds, and then drives away, but not before going into reverse and knocking it down (you can't do that anymore-there are ropes around stonehendge so you can't get within 100 feet, if I had to take a guess). That movie brings back memories-for example-the night before I left for the translatlantic cruise from Barcelona where I met my girlfriend-that movie was on coincentally, along with the other classic-Euro Trip.
Stonehendge was everything I expected it to be, which was crowded-but you could get relatively close. It was nice seeing something live which I have seen immortalized on tv, movies, print for so long (including European Vacation)
