Avebury, Lacock, Salisbury

Today was a busy, busy day! Today, we started out our day on a coach trip to Avebury. Avebury is a stone circle that is older than Stonehenge, and the big plus about Avebury, is that you actually get to walk among and touch the stones. It is fascinating to be among things that are so ancient. It really made me feel kind of insignificant and puny. Another really cool thing, at least for me, was the sheep. Apparently, the National Trust, who is in charge of this henge (as all stone circles are called, according to Hugh, our fantastic Blue Badge guide – more about that later) allows some farmer to let his or her sheep graze among the stones. We wandered in-between a whole flock of sheep. This is good, because it keeps the grass down. This is not so good, because it requires you to do some sort of weird poo-poo dance as you walk through the grass. It's hard to look at the stones while you are watching where you put your feet. There is a big hill that the ancient people built with the dirt they dug out of the ditch that surrounds the circle and from the top of the hill, the view is just incredible.

After Avebury, we moved on to Lacock. Lacock is this town with an abbey that used to be a nunnery that has been standing for hundreds of years. Hugh told us that this is one of the few remaining really old manor homes that remain, as the stones for some were used to build other things. He showed us the "ha-ha" a ditch dug to keep the grazing animals away from the front of the manor house, I guess so the lord and lady of the manor didn't have to do the poo-poo dance. (Funny, I wouldn't have realized how important the ha-ha was, if we hadn't been to Avebury first.) The Cloisters of the Abbey were used in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which over here, was called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. On the way back, we watched the movie in the bus, and it was really cool to see them walking in places we had just walked. I found this room called the Warming Room, which is the only place the nuns were allowed to have a fire, and it has a big rectangle tank in it, that they think may have been used to hold fish to eat on Fridays. Pretty cool stuff. We had lunch at the Red Lion, which is a bed and breakfast, and the people sitting next to us asked us what part of the States we were from. What is it, do we have a sign that says "Hey look, these are Americans?" When we told them we were from Florida, they asked if we knew Placida, which is near Englewood, which is where my family is at the beach this week. We have both eaten at the Fishery, which is this great restaurant in Placida. How cool is that? It really is a small world.

Last but not least, we went to Salisbury, to the Cathedral. Salisbury Cathedral is celebrating is 750^th birthday this year. Go ahead and do the math; that means it was built in 1258. Now, I learned during Dr. Kotrla's class that I am innumerate, that I have basically no concept of numbers, but that completely boggles my mind. It is just hard for me to comprehend that I was standing in a 750 year old building. They are working on it, refurbishing some parts, but still . . . 750 years is just beyond me.

We have had several tours now with Blue Badge guides and of course, being the nosy, or rather, the curious person that I am; I have had several questions bubbling through my head about the guides. So today, poor Hugh was the recipient of my questions. So, here goes, way more than you probably ever wanted to know about Blue Badge Guides. First of all, to be a Blue Badge is not just any old guide. They are recognized as the best guides around. Each guide chooses, based on their own interest, sort of a specialty, some things that they are really interested in, and has to study to know all the big facts but also the little bits and bobs that make a tour really interesting. They have to take a really big exam, and do practice tours. I also think that they practice an authoritative tone, so even if they are making something up, it sounds really good and they make it sound like they know what they are talking about. We have had fantastic guides, Hugh and Brian are both fantastic. I have no idea how anyone would get in touch with them, but if you ever need a Blue Badge guide, try and get one of them. They even satisfy my curiosity, which sometimes is not an easy thing, since I want to know everything, and sometimes have some pretty weird questions flying around in my head.