Stonehenge, Salisbury, Old Sarum

This weekend saw another bank holiday so we loaded up the Ipods and Nintendo DSs and headed west.  This was a weekend that reached back the farthest in terms of history.   Stonehenge is the classic postcard family shot.  The mystery is quite intriguing and the fact that the site is actually a fully functional calendar is amazing.  Up the way is a site with quite the dated history that saw many years of subsequent development to ultimately end in ruin.  Old Sarum was another landmark with a history that dates back to 3000 BC or before.  The Romans made it a fort and in 1069, William the Conqueror brought all the nobles together at this site to swear allegiance to him.  There was a major cathedral on the site  and it flourished until the 13th century when New Sarum became the major center in the area.  This New Sarum is better known as Salisbury.  If you look between Maggie and MJ, you can see the tower of the cathedral in Salisbury (this is the tallest spire in England) .  Cool nugget about this site.   It has the best surviving copy of the Magna Carta and also contains the oldest mechanical clock in England.  The Chapter House, that houses the Magna Carta also has a really cool collection of carvings that basically tell many of the major stories of the bible from the creation story, all of Genesis and ended with Moses receiving the Ten Commandments.   Salisbury was the spot where Emma, by Jane Austen had scenes shot.  Here is Vivian at the house.  I could launch into all that I know about good old Jane but it would be a short paragraph.  Lunch for the day was at a nice little fish and chips place.  We had the third floor window all to ourselves.