Lolling in London: Stonehenge

Frankly, the Stonehenge is not all that I thought it would be. In all the pictures and documentaries I’ve come across in my short unvaried life, it looks monumentally huge, overshadowing everything and everyone within a hundred-mile radius. I exaggerate. But it definitely looks grand enough, a titanic tribute to the ingenuity of the people that built it without machines. I was excited to see it, to stand among the simple, but great, stone architecture and admire their work. Unfortunately it was not so. In some small way, I felt cheated of my wonderment.

The Stonehenge is underwhelming, to say the least. Not that it was not a great achievement to arrange large heavy blocks of stones in such a manner by using only simple tools and mechanism, but it is not the mega structure that I expect it would be.

We booked a one-day tour to visit Stonehenge and Bath. I advise visitors to do the same because it looks difficult to get to Stonehenge by public transport (unless you hire a private car/bus). It is about a two-hour drive away from central London and situated among plain grassy fields that stretch for miles.

Typically there would be a visitor centre, filled with the typical tourist needful: washrooms, cafe, and gift shop, and typically filled to the brim with typical tourists. There is. And I saw this laughably ridiculous tank top in the gift shop display. Honestly, who in the right mind would buy it? 

From the visitor centre, you can get onto a mini-bus that brings you to the site or you can choose to take a 20-30 minute walk there.

Thanks to the many inquisitively touchy tourists of yesteryears, we are no longer allowed near the Stonehenge. Tourists have to edge along a ‘fence’ set up around the perimeter of the Stonehenge (for our safety) which further diminishes the experience. So as you walk around the perimeter of the Stonehenge, taking God knows how many pictures of the same unmoving structure from God knows how many possible angles, you will be greeted with boards of information which you will read and then promptly forget within the next second*. Believe me when I say I cannot remember what is written on the board. I’m useless like that. Anyway, you can always Google if you need info.

*Mini chewable info: I believe there is research done that places the blame on photo-taking. Because we are so single-mindedly absorbed with taking pictures of whatever that we’re there to see (because social media, because show-off) that we struggle to retain information about whatever we’re there to see or even what we did there.  It’s called the “photo-taking impairment effect” (I read a lot of online articles and retain useless information like that).

So, once again, I present to you a mainly visual tour of the Stonehenge, in glorious almost-10MP images taken in an assortment of angles, some so subtle that you could barely see the difference between pictures (I do use Photoshop to enhance the photos). However, you will see some differences in colour because the weather is behaving erratically, the rain and dark clouds gracing us occasionally. Also, I played with the camera settings in between shots so the colour may differ somewhat.

Taken while waiting for the mini-bus at the visitor centre.

I love the grassy plains and rolling clouds. 

The Stonehenge from far.

I find the purple flowers pretty.

The weather started changing.

Then it rained across the field.

A significant rock. Yeah... that's all I know about it.

The weather cleared.

The tour to Stonehenge and Bath is booked with Anderson Tours, one of the more affordable options around. It comes with transportation and tickets to the attractions. Meals not provided.