Spectacular Stonehenge from London (#15)

We planned two nights near the airport at London Stansted to get ourselves ready for our flight on RyanAir to Bucharest, Romania in two days.

Our Holiday Inn Express had great AC, some food, and offered shuttles to the airport every 30 minutes. You could also rent cars from our hotel parking lot. We arrived in a heat wave (88 degrees) and there were many of these rental cars with the hatches up and doors open. We haven't seen this strategy of cooling off cars in the US.

We finished most or our chores (laundry and mailing items back to US) so we had a free day to go to Stonehenge. The plan had been to go to Stonehenge the second day in Bath, but the trains shut down due to the heat. The following day was cooler and rainy, so we decided to take the 4 hour trip from London to Stonehenge and the 4 hour trip back with 6 buses and 6 trains for Stonehenge. And - we were glad we finally made it!

We needed to take: shuttle to airport, train to Waterloo, Central Tube to Bath Tube, Waterloo Tube to Waterloo, Waterloo Train to Salisbury, Salisbury Stonehenge Tour bus to Stonehenge, Stonehenge Shuttle to site.... and then reverse. We left at 6:00am and returned at 6:30pm and spent less than 2 hours at Stonehenge. Was it worth it? YES!

Once we were arrived in the open expanse from Stonehenge, there was a calming feeling. From Laura's ancestry research and DNA matching, her ancesters lived in the area 200 years ago or more.

We have so many fantastic pictures to share.

This is the back of stonehenge with more irregular stones that wouldn't have been seen on approach up the hill from the river Avon.

In Ireland, we saw smaller structures that used these type of stone to support thatched roofs. Could Stonehenge also have had a cover at some point?

This is the front of Stonehenge.

There is a valley around Stonehenge that is thought to predate the stone strutures.

Archeological remnants show artifacts from distant lands indicating that Stonehenge was likely a place to come for spiritual reasons.

The pilgrims would apprach here and this is the line where the sun lines up for the solstices.

There are two paths that the curators believe pilgrims came to Stonehenge that are mowed to walk the path.

Surrounding Stonehenge are burial mounds about the same size.

Location: London Stansted

Stay: 2 Nights

Hotel: Holiday Inn Express Stansted

Pros: Solid location to the airport for RyanAir, early breakfast at 4am, comfortable amenities

Cons: Not near any London attractions, No hot breakfast until 6am

Rating: 3 stars

Stonehenge: 5 Stars. - Wish we had more time there