All of The United Kingdom and Ireland Self-Driving Guide (71) - Stonehenge
We're leaving England early tomorrow morning, and we're leaving our last attraction, Stonehenge, which claims to be the most famous and mysterious prehistoric site in the British Isles, almost as famous as the pyramids of Egypt, so with the regret of giving up bathing in bath spas, we set off for Stonehenge.
It takes only 1 hour to travel from Bath to Stonehenge, but because it is not too far from London, there are not too few cars on the road, plus almost all of them are up and down lanes, the speed has not been able to get up, driving in the UK for more than ten days of "flying cars", this speed is really a bit unaccustomed.
Following the navigation into this sheep's gut-like winding path for the last time, whenever I walked such a road for more than ten days, I was worried that the mirror would be scraped off, because even if it was such a narrow mountain road, everyone did not slow down at all when turning and meeting cars. Fortunately, we were safe every time.
Turning from the A36 to the A303, there was still 85 miles to London when the traffic was heavy and the driving was very slow, and I couldn't help but feel a little impatient, but I soon understood why everyone was driving slowly.
Look at the open grass in front of the left side of the window, there is a pile of large stones, and the crowd is lined up like ants.
On this empty Salisbury Plain, this large mass of stones called Stonehenge has stood for 4,300 years. As a famous prehistoric cultural site in Europe, what exactly does it do? How were they shipped? How did they come to be placed like this? And so on, are still unsolved mysteries, some people even boldly speculate that they are the product of aliens, and some people say that this is a big deception directed by the British.
Then the navigation suddenly turned us to the left into a very narrow dirt road.
Not far from the car, Stonehenge was getting closer and closer, but the road was blocked by barbed wire.
Continued on, looking for the entrance, but farther and farther away from Stonehenge, but that was the direction the crowd had entered. The crow landed on the stake and looked at a handful of advancing crowds, which must have been a daily necessity for it.
Arriving at a small intersection, we saw a parked bus, and the crowd got out of the car and entered the entrance in the direction of Stonehenge, but this was not the visitor center at the ticket office, and we had not yet bought a ticket, so we could not get in.
The original visitor center is not near Stonehenge, self-driving navigation to navigate to stonehenge Visitor Centre, not Stonehenge, after buying tickets in the visitor center to take the scenic bus to go, the bus is about 3 highways, here is the end of the bus. The road where the bus comes is a one-way line, and if we have to drive, we have to take a long detour, and if we go, we have to walk for a long time. I didn't expect that the United Kingdom also has this kind of attraction that is fenced up to charge, and it is also necessary to take the scenic car, no wonder many British people will spit on Stonehenge, in our words, "do not regret, go to more regret."
Look at the time, look at this pile of stones, we intend to enjoy it here. Because even if you go in, this pile of stones is surrounded by a smaller fence in front of it, which cannot be touched like a pyramid, and it takes a long time to walk through the entrance, and the overall effect cannot be seen at close range.
This pile of more than 80 rocks, large and small, was discovered by a priest in England by accident while out in 1130 AD, most of the rocks are nearly 7 meters high, each weighing 20 tons, but salisbury plains do not have stones, since then this strange monument has caused people to study and speculate.
According to research, Stonehenge was founded at least 2300 BC, when it was first built as a circle of vertical boulders, which were superimposed with a circle of horizontal boulders, which were neatly arranged in a complete concentric circle, and the center of the circle was a symmetrical horseshoe shape of some boulders.
This adds to the mystery of Stonehenge, because 4300 years ago there must have been no trucks and cranes, how did the ancients transport these boulders here, how did they build them, and what was the purpose of building them?
There are many speculations about the origin, transportation methods and construction methods of the stones, and there are many opinions about the purpose, some experts speculate that this may be the place where religious ceremonies were held, and some analysts say that this may have been built by ancient humans to observe the celestial phenomena, which is the earliest observatory, because on the day of June 22 every summer solstice, the main axis of Stonehenge, the ancient road leading to the stone pillars and the rising sun on the morning of the summer solstice are on the same line; in addition, there are two stones in the stonehenge that point in the direction of the winter solstice and sunset. However, some people say that this is a large cemetery, because many tombs have been surveyed, and some corpses and funerary items have been unearthed.
One mystery that has recently been solved is that the 50 light gray sandstone boulders in this pile of stones come from the "Sassenite" in West Woods, 25 kilometers away, the Salsens Rock, which was once a prehistoric area with frequent activity. Researchers speculate that the builders of Stonehenge dragged the boulders more than twenty kilometers with wooden sleighs to transport them to their current location.
Originally, it was to complain that the navigation brought us the wrong way to enter, but I did not expect to hit it by mistake and save money and see the scene, otherwise we would definitely feel that this famous attraction was a bit "pit". Goodbye Stonehenge, keep your secrets, and maybe that's what the builders want most.
Back to the A303 road to London, the 17-day journey is coming to an end, this trip to me feels very much the same as expected, not simply good and bad, or beautiful and not beautiful, but these two are not yet a large province of our country, the personality of people in different regions and treat people are very different, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland Although they are on two small islands, they have 5 completely different personalities and attitudes, so this trip to the whole of the United Kingdom and Ireland feels like walking 5 countries.
In the T4 airport building to return the car, tax refund, and then go to return the Oyster card (Oyster), it turned out that the amount of the card exceeded 10 pounds, the machine could not do it, can only go to the T3 manual counter, but the subway between the terminals to swipe Oyster card is not billed.
Our flight was early the next morning, so we booked a hotel not far from the airport and took our first taxi on the British island. The car that doesn't look big is very capable of stuffing people and items, the front co-driver's seat does not have a seat, which is used to put luggage, and there are two movable seats in front of the rear seat, so that you can put in a lot of luggage and four people except the driver.
Dinner was the hardest meal of our trip, the price was not cheap, and it seemed that the area around the British airport was also unreasonablely expensive.
Tips:
Stonehenge tickets and opening hours: £17.2 per adult (including scenic car), 9:30-17:00 from 16 October to 15 March, 9:30-19:00 from 16 March to 31 March and 19:00 from 1 To 15 October, 9:00-20:00 from 1 June to 31 September
Don't want to follow the group! I don't want to travel poorly! How to enjoy the best experience during your trip at the most economical cost? More comfortable and comprehensive self-guided tours, self-driving tours, please pay attention to the "gluttonous little lady" who walks between sensibility and reason