The Big Trip Day 12 – London

Last night, we got a good night’s sleep despite the snorer. Maybe we just slept through it, but I think that’s unlikely; the snoring was really offensive. I think maybe he just didn’t snore that night, which is really odd. I have a theory: maybe he was so passed out on alcohol or drugs, his body just forgot how to breathe properly while he was asleep. He seemed like a bit of a weirdo. He seemed to have nothing with him and he was sleeping in his clothes.

Anyway, we packed down some breakfast and headed out. We took the metro to Waterloo Station to catch our train out to Salisbury. Then we took a bus out to Stonehenge. It was a double decker.

We got on first, so we sat right up front on top. We got a bit of a tour of Salisbury and the surrounding countryside on the bus. Salisbury is pretty neat. It’s got some weird old buildings.

Once we got out into the countryside, we noticed that the trees along the road were meticulously trimmed to accommodate the bus. It looked odd from where we were sitting.

There was all manner of cattle out in the fields. Cows, horses, sheep, goats, even big old hogs. But mostly sheep. And cars.

So there was Stonehenge. There were rocks. Will says, “It was stony. There were stones and a henge. It was windy.” The weather was pretty bad; it rained off and on and it was cold. We took a ton of pictures, but I’m only including a few that I like the best.

There were also ancient burial mounds.

These two rocks are interesting. One feels warmer than the other and it’s supposed to be mysterious. Really it’s probably just in the way the two rocks conduct heat, similar to how metal feels colder than most other materials. I’d say the difference between the two stones was just enough to be noticeable.

Included in our bus and Stonehenge ticket was admission to Old Sarum, which were ruins of a castle on top of a hill. It was pretty neat. It’s on top of a hill and it’s surrounded by a ditch to make it easy to defend.

They’re the ruins of an old castle and from the top of the hill, you can see where the old cathedral was.

There were also signs telling you what rooms were where and showing you what the castle looked like in its heyday. But some of the signs were tricky to operate.

Then it was time to catch our bus back to Salisbury so we could catch our train back to London. We were tired.

So we got back on the train to London and we had some snacks: some leftover potato chips, some shortbread, and we split a “tin” of beans. I just happened to have some spoons in the backpack. It’s not weird to eat beans out of a can on a train is it? Also, don’t tell my dad I’ve been eating cold beans.

When we got back to Waterloo station in London, we were still feeling a bit “peckish,” so we stopped off for a nice Cornish Pasty. We both had the traditional Cornish steak pasty (with a long “a” like in “cat”). They were good. They’re basically flaky bread pockets with bits of beef and vegetables and sauce in them. They’re good sized too.

We made our way back to the hostel on the “tube.” After a short stop at the hostel, we set out on a journey to a grocery store. Here we were able to get some things that were on my list. We had already crossed Cornish pasty off the list. At the grocery store, we found Cherry Bakewells and Strongbow Hard Cider. More on that during a later blog post.

We got back to the hostel and blogged for a little while. Tomorrow, we have plans for museums and we might go back to St. James Park to feed the squirrels.

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