Well this is it...the tour is over!
Our last and final destination was Stone Henge and I wasn't sure what to expect. It's one of those places that you have heard so much about during your life you almost expect to be disappointed when you finally get to see it.
We arrived at the visitor's centre and there was a huge queue for the shuttle bus out to the site. We were told that if we preferred, we could walk instead as it was only about a 1.5 km. We thought this was a much better option, so off we went on our pilgrimage to visit the ancient site.
Well, I would just like to say that Nigel (our director is not very good at judging distance). It was more like 3 km because it took about 20 minutes to get there. Maybe it's how they build the anticipation for that first glimpse of the stones. Our tour group waiting in the long line for a bus finished up beating us to the site.
Finally we arrived at the site and there were people everywhere. It seems our tour coincided with the busiest time to come here as it was only open for half the day. They were preparing for the summer solstice the next day. It's the one day of the year that you can get free entry and are allowed the walk amongst the stones. They were expecting over forty thousand people and everyone of them would want to be in the centre of the ring when the sun reached it's peak. What a nightmare!
Our first glimpse of the stones was a little disappointing as I expected them to be bigger. Once you got closer to the site it was even harder to appreciate because there were so many people. It is an incredible feat of engineering but difficult to comprehend when you have to stand so far back from it. At least I can say I have been there and seen at least one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
The rest of the day was spent getting us back to London. We decided that it would be nice to spend our last night in London with the two couples we spent most of our time with. As usual we wandered around the streets trying to find a good place to eat. We eventually asked a barman for some advice The place he suggested was OK but the menu was limited (I'm sure it was one of his mates of his that owned it). We said our good-byes back at the hotel and it felt a bit weird that we wouldn't be seeing them in the morning. Terry and I had a great time with Kari & Brad from Canada and Julie & Steve from Sydney and it would be lovely to catch up with them some time in the future.
Paris here we come!
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