In the outskirts: Oxford and Stonehenge

"In the outskirts: Oxford and Stonehenge"

Hey, everybody!

In today's blog entry, I'm going to talk about some of the impressive places that are on the outskirts of London, or in counties near London. It is almost mandatory that you go and see them, especially Windsor and Stonehenge. In the blog post that I made about "the 23 places I liked best in London", I was left with a few that I didn't mention and share my thoughts about because, if I did, the post would have been too long (longer than it already was). So, I'm going to dedicate just one more post to these two amazing destinations which I love. Let's get started!

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FIRST DESTINATION: STONEHENGE (+ SALISBURY)

The first place I'm going to talk about is Stonehenge because it's the one I'm most fond of now, as I'm writing and remembering the marvel. First of all, what is Stonehenge? It is a monument made of stone and is one of the great mysteries of humanity. It is widely believed that it was constructed at the end of the Neolithic period in history, but the purpose of it is still unknown despite there being several theories - so, it is a mystery. All the stones form four circles and in the center of the structures there is one stone that is believed to be a kind of altar.

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How to get to Stonehenge?

Kate and I did exactly the same thing as when we went on the Harry Potter Tour. We booked a bus, also taking it from in front of Waterloo train station and the journey was also about an hour and a half. The bus waits for you over a few hours which gives you enough time to see this megalithic complex. Then you go back and it drops you off to the same place where it picked you up from at the start.

We arrived, but not directly at Stonehenge. There is a kind of building where the tourist offices that process everything were. We had already booked our entrance ticket, so once again, we skipped the queue. Good! There they gave us a device that had headphones to wear and it told you the history of Stonehenge and why it is still so relevant today. After explaining how the device worked, the voice was only available in English I think, from what I remember. Then they take you to a bus which is the one that takes you directly to Stonehenge. It's a small bus, like a minibus.

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You get there and there it is - right in front of you. It's much more impressive in person than in photos, like everything else, wow, it has no comparison. Obviously, you can't get close, there is a barrier that prevents you, but the distance between you and the historical monument is relatively short. When I went it was a rather cloudy day, which was a pity, since they say that it is much better to see it in the sunshine because it's believed that those who built it had knowledge of astronomy and when the sun shines, its rays pass through the axis of construction. It is also believed that rituals and festivals were celebrated around the here, but how did they build it? We don't know. It reminds me a little of the pyramids of Egypt. Something I would also like to point out is that, when I was there, there was a children's choir who started singing songs (all very funeral-y, I don't know) in front of Stonehenge. Everyone watched them and applauded. It was special, really. I don't think that happens every day. It's a pity you can't upload videos to this blog, because I recorded a little piece of one of the songs that the choir sang with my mobile phone with the Stonehenge behind it, it was great.

After spending an hour there with the device, listening to the explanations it gave about the monument made of stone, we got on the bus again and left.

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We found out that there was a popular village called Salisbury nearby, well, it's more of a city. So, of course, we went to visit it! We were in Salisbury for about two hours, more or less, because we stopped to eat. Salisbury is a pretty quiet town, with small alleyways and little houses and nice shops everywhere. There's a museum too, but there's nothing specific that actually give the city any particular charm, it's just the city itself. It's full of Gothic churches and we went into one of them which was really well-decorated with little lights... And there were also lots of green areas where we could rest and have a drink, even though it was pretty cold that day, so had a drink inside a café. At the end of the day, we got back on the bus and went back to central London.

It had been a fantastic day because we managed to kill two birds with one stone as we had visited both a historic monument and a special city all in one day! With this, I hope you have learned something, or I hope I have told you enough about the importance of Stonehenge - I loved it! Although, some time ago (after this trip, of course) I read that they had found something else like Stonehenge, but much bigger and also in England! It was a little bittersweet to find that out, being honest.

I hope you appreciate the sheer joy on my face!

SECOND DESTINATION: OXFORD

So, as you all know, Oxford is one of the most prestigious university cities in the world. Its great rival has always been Cambridge, which I did not get to visit in the end and I was told that it is much prettier than Oxford, so it will happen another time.

How to get to Oxford?

We took a train from Waterloo station to London Paddington and from there we got another one that brought us directly to Oxford. I think it cost us 20 pounds. It didn't take long to get there. In addition to this, at the train station there are thousands of FREE maps and tourist guides that you can pick up at the different stands. We took a little map and went looking for the tourist places of interest.

The first thing we went to see was the Natural History Museum that we loved. There were dinosaurs and it was the first time that I had seen a skeleton of one of them. There are all kinds of animals, most of them unknown, which is what makes the museum so much more interesting in reality. It's not very big really, when you see the peculiar structure of the building.

We also went to see the university's botanical garden where we took some beautiful photos in the beautiful sunshine we had that day. They say that in winter it is beautiful because everything is covered with snow, but when we were, the sun was setting and the plants and the whole place was covered in a special colour. We also visited the Harry Potter Grand Dining Room, where all the films had been shot. You know I'm a big fan...

Afterwards, we visited the Bodelania Library. Well, we only saw it from the outside, appreciating its architecture because you couldn't enter at that time. It was a big mistake not to have looked at the opening and closing times!

And the truth is, Oxford doesn't have much more than this... It was summer, so we didn't see much of the university atmosphere, but I'm sure Oxford has to be something very much like Aberystwyth during the university term-time, as far as it goes. After visiting the most interesting parts of Oxford, we sat in a green area to rest and have a snack. A little later, we decided to go to Starbucks for a milkshake and coffee. Starbucks never disappoints!

And that's it for today's post! I hope you liked it - share it, give it a like, comment, whatever you want. You know that I am always delighted to tell you about my experiences in different places!

We will see each other again tomorrow, as always! Kisses to everyone!

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