Bristol, Avebury, and Cheddar
So these are from longer ago - end of June I took a trip out to Bristol to hang with inulro and, um, not sure Jason has an LJ. They met me at the train station and after a tasty lunch we headed out to Avebury. Being literally the day after the summer solstice, it was slightly infested with solstice celebrants. I kind of adored the lady in the satin red robe with staff who was chatting away on her cell phone as we walked in, but was too polite to sneak a photo. (Unlike Stonehenge, I'm not sure we actually have any evidence that Avebury was calendrical. Admittedly, its history is a little more messy - most of the stones were knocked down and then put up again, and many are still missing, but the primary orientation of the setup is North/South.) It was kinda grey and also super windy, but it didn't rain on us much.
A white horse
Standing stones
The ditch here (running around outside of the largest circle of stones) is much larger/more obvious than the one at Stonehenge. We walked along and around it, trying to avoid the sheep and their excrement.
You can see the concentric nature, and also the cluster of pagans in the middle doing...whatever they were doing. We waited until they were done and had gone to the pub before checking out the center area.
More Stones. When we were done we skipped the pub but did hit up the tea room before heading onwards.
This is Silbury Hill. Because for some reason humans worldwide like to make mounds. I also like how the clouds in this photo look like a big finger of god pointed down at it. Avebury is a few miles off to the forward-rightish from here, and West Kennet Long Barrow is directly behind me.
More Hill.
West Kennet Long Barrow is a Neolithic tomb, although they've removed the remains. You can walk along it as well as inside it. This photo is from the top, of inulro down below.
See, there she is.
And there's Jason, walking on the top of the Barrow.
Oh. And best quote of the day was the kid I overheard sitting on top of a stone at the front: "I'm not hogging it, this stone has been waiting for me for thousands of years!"
In case you're like, wait, you already showed us the white horse, this is a *different* white horse.
Went back to their place in Bristol, had a lovely dinner, played with the bunnies, and slept well. Watched some Daily Show too, which I hadn't seen since I'd been over here. With John Oliver taking over from Jon Stewart, it was like a weird British-alternate-reality version of the Daily Show. The next day we went to Cheddar to meet up with some peeps and play mini-golf and drink tea. Unfortunately, the intended tea room was closed. Cheddar is neat, although it is most definitely a small tourist trap town that reminded me a fair deal of some tiny American tourist trap towns. We did not go in any of the caves (which looked incredibly cheesy *snerk*) but did eat and buy some real made-in-Cheddar-aged-in-caves cheddar. Also, the thing with Cheddar is the Cheddar Gorge, which is a little like oh how cute, England tries to have some landscape, but was pretty cool. I didn't get any good photos of it, as we pretty much just drove through it and it was raining, but you can see it in the background of the below photo.
Last hole of mini-golf. I lost horribly.
I will close this entry with The Cute, this time in the form of fluffy bun-buns.
Tail wiggling position.
Anyway, had a fantastic time. And on the way out, it was supermoon!
It's that kind of glowing dot there. Full moon photos taken from moving train windows are not so impressive but it gets the *feeling* I think, of gorgeous huge full moon rise, yeah? Yeah.
A white horse
Standing stones
The ditch here (running around outside of the largest circle of stones) is much larger/more obvious than the one at Stonehenge. We walked along and around it, trying to avoid the sheep and their excrement.
You can see the concentric nature, and also the cluster of pagans in the middle doing...whatever they were doing. We waited until they were done and had gone to the pub before checking out the center area.
More Stones. When we were done we skipped the pub but did hit up the tea room before heading onwards.
This is Silbury Hill. Because for some reason humans worldwide like to make mounds. I also like how the clouds in this photo look like a big finger of god pointed down at it. Avebury is a few miles off to the forward-rightish from here, and West Kennet Long Barrow is directly behind me.
More Hill.
West Kennet Long Barrow is a Neolithic tomb, although they've removed the remains. You can walk along it as well as inside it. This photo is from the top, of inulro down below.
See, there she is.
And there's Jason, walking on the top of the Barrow.
Oh. And best quote of the day was the kid I overheard sitting on top of a stone at the front: "I'm not hogging it, this stone has been waiting for me for thousands of years!"
In case you're like, wait, you already showed us the white horse, this is a *different* white horse.
Went back to their place in Bristol, had a lovely dinner, played with the bunnies, and slept well. Watched some Daily Show too, which I hadn't seen since I'd been over here. With John Oliver taking over from Jon Stewart, it was like a weird British-alternate-reality version of the Daily Show. The next day we went to Cheddar to meet up with some peeps and play mini-golf and drink tea. Unfortunately, the intended tea room was closed. Cheddar is neat, although it is most definitely a small tourist trap town that reminded me a fair deal of some tiny American tourist trap towns. We did not go in any of the caves (which looked incredibly cheesy *snerk*) but did eat and buy some real made-in-Cheddar-aged-in-caves cheddar. Also, the thing with Cheddar is the Cheddar Gorge, which is a little like oh how cute, England tries to have some landscape, but was pretty cool. I didn't get any good photos of it, as we pretty much just drove through it and it was raining, but you can see it in the background of the below photo.
Last hole of mini-golf. I lost horribly.
I will close this entry with The Cute, this time in the form of fluffy bun-buns.
Tail wiggling position.
Anyway, had a fantastic time. And on the way out, it was supermoon!
It's that kind of glowing dot there. Full moon photos taken from moving train windows are not so impressive but it gets the *feeling* I think, of gorgeous huge full moon rise, yeah? Yeah.