Amesbury to Bath
I have to say, I've never had a day so full of incredibly fascinating things as this day.
We rose before the sun and rode the 2 miles to Salisbury, and Stonehenge.
On a normal visit you can only walk around the outside of the stones, far away from them. We managed to get into an Inner Circle Tour, that left the visitors' center at 5:30 am, and deposited us right at the stones.
We had free rein to walk among the stones, get a really close look at them and feel their amazing energy.
BUT NO TOUCHING THE STONES!
It was so hard to not reach out and place your hand on these ancient stones, but we understood the reason for it - since people had spent more than a millenia among them touching and carving their names into the rocks.
We even found some bullet holes from the near by British Artillery Range.
Our guide was wonderful, explaining the Stone Circle (as best she could, there is no real explanation for why it is here, or who erected it) and then left us alone to wander about and ask questions as we wanted.
I don't think I can explain how sacred and full of energy being in the stones felt. We were there for Sunrise and as the sun moved higher in the sky, the look and feel of the stones changed.
It was an awesome experience.
10,563 pictures, and an hour later, we were back at the visitor's center, our bodies still tingling with the remnants of the stones' energy.
Back on the bike we made our way to Cornwall and Tintagel Castle.
We started to question our bike's GPS when it took us on some really, really narrow roads. Granted England is full of narrow roads, but these were no more than a cow path in some cases.
Finally, we reached the west coast of Cornwall, with its craggy cliffs and crashing ocean.
We've been to a lot of castles (and ruins) over the past few years, but there was something about Tintagel that was especially awe inspiring.
This castle was built in the 1200s as a fortress, but archeologists have found evidence that there was a castle/fortress of some kind on this site since at least the 400s. It has long been associated with the story of Camelot and King Arthur.
Maybe it was just the power of the sea as it broke on the shore below the castle.
Maybe it was the sheer drop-offs that would send you into the crashing sea.
Whatever it was, we were filled with the historicalness (not a word, but don't know how else to describe the feeling) of the ruined Castle.
About 7,982 pictures later (slightly less than Stonehenge, but I was quickly filling up my SD card),
we got one last shot of King Arthur.
then made our way to Bath for the evening - and finally something substantial to eat for dinner.
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