Stoned

DOCKED:   In our ongoing commitment to keeping up our New York and London legs, today the kids and I went on another hour long walk.

We headed NNE, toward Fisherman's Terminal.

ONLY THE STONES REMAIN: So, we went to England. You're probably getting tired of hearing that if you read this blog regularly. I know, we didn't invent traveling abroad, but given it was our first time, it was a Pretty Darn Big Deal to us.

While in Great Britain, we simply *had* to go to Stonehenge. Who wouldn't want to visit the mysterious neo-Druid monument. Radiocarbon dating suggests the stones were erected between 2400 and 2200 BC. A burial ground, was it also a sun-worship center? A mystical healing site? A huge calendar?  Some or none of the above and more. ...

All I know is that clearly people from all over the world are drawn to this place in the countryside, 8 miles north of Salisbury.

We'll never know what Stonehenge looked like waaay back in the day, but here's a depiction from 1645.

And we can attest it looks much different than it did in this 1877 photograph.

A bunch of the lateral/ground stones are gone, as is that tilting one in the right-center foreground.

Stonehenge has attracted visitors and attention for centuries. I love this photo, below, of the 10th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces march past Stonehenge in the winter of 1914-15.  Note the timber shoring Stonehenge up in the background. And that cottage behind the troops is long gone.

The BBC has a handy, one-minute animation of the history of Stonehenge here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7322444.stme

We visited Stonehenge on Sunday, Sept. 15. I think the gray skies helped keep the crowds down. We arrived around 11 a.m., before the day's onslaught. The day we visited wasn't the nicest, weather wise, but as it turned out, that wasn't a terrible thing

Following are waaaaaaaaay too many photos of upright stones. Bear with me. As I was shooting, I was thinking, "You're taking way too many photos." But then the other Me said, "Yeah, but you're never gonna be here again. And it's frickin' STONEHENGE!!!"

Hello, my pretty. Are you ready for your closeup?!

 Note the flowers which found a way to bloom at the base of the solo boulder above.

The first two 'towers' look remarkably similar.

 The pattern continued around the circle.

 To me, the two uprights with the horizontal connecting looked like the sign of pi. Who knows what it looked like initially, but I just saw pi, pi, pi, pi ...

 Of course, I couldn't help but wonder about the lateral stones. Were they *always* lateral, or had gravity taken its toll somewhere long the way?
 One upright kept demanding my attention.  See the one just left of center above, and on the right, below? Doesn't it look like there's something inside of the upright?

The kids listened to some of the audio tour of Stonehenge, and I asked them if this was explained on their audio tour and they said 'no.'  I'd love it if anyone out there has an explanation.

 Look, more stones!

 And more ...

 and more ...

I took some close ups, of course.  This craggy part caught my eye. 

Wonder what happened there? Maybe it's where the locals used to let tourists chip away at Stonehenge for a fee.

I took a few "pi pairs" shots. ... The one below looks like it has barnacles.

 And look at the mini pillars above.

 In the photo above, I was actually taking a photo of the Japanese tourist taking a photo.

And this one below looks so darn squared off compared to the rest.

Visitors are all herded in a counter-clockwise circle around the monument. On the way out, you encounter this interesting stone sticking out of the ground at an odd angle. And you can't help but think it has a bit of a face. ...

 It's called the heelstone.

English Heritage has a very cool Interactive Stonehenge map here: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/stonehenge/world-heritage-site/map/

There are all sorts of accounts and speculation about why and by whom Stonehenge was built. For fun, I asked the kids to write their own Stonehenge-creation stories today.

Remarkably, I was able to get most of our Stonehenge shots without scads of other people in the frame. However, the kids did manage to get into the shot a couple of times. ;)

Yes, Annabelle, I'm still taking photos ...

And here is a trio of intrepid travelers.  With a large tour group over their shoulders.

First up, Annabelle's.  Of course, she had to include an illustration ...

A long time ago, in England, there was a magical Dragon that had lived in the field around Stonehenge. He lived here because there were plenty of sheep to eat and plenty of room to fly. One day, a brave knight came. 

"Dragon," said the knight, "I and my village ask you leave to a new land, as we need more space, many people have come." 

The dragon looked at him, considering the question. "Hmmmm.....How about no?"

"Okay dragon. But I shall be back tomorrow to ask you the question again. After that, is your last chance to leave," said the knight, galloping away on his horse.

The next evening, the dragon was eating sheep. He heard a voice say, "Hello again, Dragon!" He looked down to see the knight.

"Oh. Hi." said the dragon.

"This is your second chance to leave, to remind you. Anyway, please leave to a new land, as we need more space, many people have come." said the knight.

"My friend, the answer is still no," said the dragon, and the knight returned to his village.

Another day had passed, and this time the dragon was ready for the knight. But instead had come a mage. "Please leave to a new land, as we need more...."

"I know the question, and the answer still is no," said the dragon.

"Then you leave me no choice." And the mage cast a spell, turning the dragon to stone, which then exploded and landed in the formation now known as Stonehenge.

THE END

And here's CJ's take

Stonehenge was built after a god named Xenu went on a trip to Europe. Xenu had an overly long beard, almost twice his height. He was born in North Korea, but fled all the way to Europe, which was connected to Asia, so he could seek democracy. Not only that, but he had overly large hands that could lift an elephant. During his trip, there were some Ancient Welsh soldiers, not knowing who he was or what he was there for, they decided to attack him. For hours and hours they attacked him with stones, and as the battle got longer, the more stones were thrown.

After hours of this, Xenu decided he had enough of the stone throwing, and decided to flee to England. He had actually collected all of the stones that were threw at him, and decided he had to do something with them. So, he made them into larger stones, assembled them in the shape of Stonehenge, and threw it over to Wiltshire, and that is the story of Stonehenge.