Thursday, August 16, 2007

Hampton Court, Stonehenge, Bath, Salisbury

July 5, 2007

We began our tour of England today by visiting the Hampton Court which was the home of King Henry VIII - and then King James (who had the King James Bible translated into English). The palace was old, very medieval....but it was the gardens that were the highlight of this place. The Queen's Annual Flower show was hosted at Hampton Court today. It was very crowded, but a real treat.

The palace was nice, but our next stop was the highlight of the day. Stonehenge! I thought I would just look at the standing rocks and say "that's nice", but this place was captivating. We did have an audio tour device that explained the stones, the structure, the altars, the calendars, etc.... See that flat stone in the picture to your left? That is where sacrifices took place around 200-500 BC.


Salisbury England has a Cathedral that is the oldest cathedral in England. This cathedral houses the Magna Carta. We also saw where William Golding wrote "Lord of the Flies". The English pubs are famous for thier fish and chips - and we now know why. Yes, they are deep fried, very greasy and quite delicious. We only bought one meal and shared it...however, it was very hard to share. Right next to where we bought our fish and chips there was live bagpipe entertainment - in full bagpipe uniform and everything.

Our last stop of the day was Bath England. This place was quite a surprise to me. I knew we were going to see Roman Baths - and I had seen Roman Baths in Israel. But what I had seen was ruins. this roman Bath - that was built in 400 AD is still in working condition. I have never seen anything like it in my life.

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