Stonehenge

One of the most famous sites in the world (some people just recognize it from their Windows wallpaper though :P), the Stonehenge is a Neolithic UNESCO world heritage monument located near Salisbury, 2 hours from London. The stones were raised somewhere around 2000 and 3000 BC and diverse theories suggest that these were used as a place of healing, as burial grounds or as a place of worship and religious gathering.

while walking up...

 A lot of local tour operators operate buses from the Victoria terminus in London to the Stonehenge and the Roman baths. We decided to skip the baths due to lack of time and randomly picked an operator online and booked our tour just the day before. We were asked to pick up our tickets from a counter at the Victoria Terminus. After standing in multiple queues and after the person at the counter made a few calls, we finally had our tickets in hand. After a wait of about half an hour, a representative verified our tickets and we boarded a small van/bus with about ten other people. Even among those ten people, we were not the only Indians. We are EVERYWHERE!

We did not have a guide, but the driver doubled up as one, as he enthusiastically pointed out various lesser-known spots of London and beyond during our journey. After a pleasant drive through the English countryside (most of which we slept through), we reached the Stonehenge! The buses drop you near the Visitor Centre. Parking is free for all vehicles, so if you are driving down to visit, no problem. Visitor Shuttle service operates frequently from outside the shop near the visitor centre. There is no pre-booking for the shuttle and it takes 10 minutes to reach the Stones. Shuttles stop at about halfway to the Stonesand you can walk up to the monument.

Heel Stone

Stonehenge is a part of English Heritage, an organization that maintains almost all the heritage sites of England. Apparently, visitors were allowed to walk and climb the stones when it was first opened to public, but not anymore. Now, you can only walk around the monument from a short distance away. However, access is permitted during the summer and winter solstice, and the spring and autumn equinox. You can get special access throughout the year though, but I guess that is restricted to members of English Heritage.

Audio guides are free for the ticket holders of Stonehenge. The audio guide marks various spots across the stones, so you are able to appreciate every piece of ancient stone better. Apart from the Stone Circle, there are many other spots around the Stonehenge that are of archaeological importance. One of them is the Heel Stone. At summer solstice, an observer standing within the stone circle and looking north-east, would see the Sun rise above the heel stone. The audio guide takes about various other points around the Stone Circle, but you need a) patience b) a keen interest in archaeology to be able to appreciate and understand everything. We unfortunately didn't have either, so we proceeded to the exhibition centre.

Neolithic houses

 The exhibition centre has old relics including Neolithic weapons and tools, replicas of how the Neolithic man would have looked and the history of Stonehenge through impressive visual representations.

Neolithic Houses endowed with replica of Neolithic weapons, pottery and other artefacts, have been constructed near the Visitor and Exhibition centre(a pretty new addition, constructed in 2013). These houses reveal the homes that the architects of the Stonehenge might have lived in thousands of years ago.The houses also have volunteers and interpreters and visitors are allowed to take a close look at the houses through the doors.

Inside the houses

We did not have enough time to explore though, since our driver had given us only about 3 hours, so we took a quick look at the exhibition and the Neolithic houses, and went to the shop for buying souvenirs. They have chocolates shaped in the form of rocks, which would be a pretty good omiyage to take back home.

I would recommend that you drive down or take a private tour to the Stonehenge (or a full day tour instead of a half-day tour like us), so you can enjoy the monument at leisure. I would have loved to sit back for a cup of tea at the café near the Visitor centre, but the half-day tour barely gave us time to click pictures and buy souvenirs. Having said that, we also loitered around the monument for a long time trying to figure out the spots that the audio commentary pointed out, in vain. I felt that the Exhibition centre was much more informative and precise than the audio commentary, but maybe that was just me.

 It took us almost 3 hours to get back to Victoria, thanks to the crazy rush-hour traffic. We ate dinner at an Indian restaurant called Khans of Kensington and took the Tube back home(we were the only Indians). We are going to take a break tomorrow and just spend some family time.