L U N A T A L K with Eva Moon

They Lied

September 28, 2007 on 1:15 pm | In General Musing, Travel |

I always thought Stonehenge was like, 18 inches tall. Turns out it’s enormous.

Actually, that’s not what they lied about. I thought I had signed up for one of the special “inner circle” tours - before tourist hours, touch the stones, human sacrifice at sunrise, etc. But somehow we got picked up for the day tour - stay on the path, don’t even thinking of stepping over the wire. Under other circumstances, I might have sulked. (And I can be a world class sulker. Ask anyone in my family.) It turns out, though, that Candide might not too far off the mark when he said that if this is the best world, anything that happens must be for the best. If Mike had known it was not going to be an inner circle tour, he would have refused to go at all. But the day-long tour included extra stops that easily made up for the disappointment. Starting with:

Avebury. The stone circle in Avebury is the largest in the world (the circle, not the stones). There’s a church smack in the middle of it - built from the broken remnants of circle stones - purposely, of course, to make a point. You can touch the stones, as long as you’re willing to tread sheep shit to get to them. Nick, our guide showed us how you can dowse the energy fields between the stones with copper dowsing rods. (He’s also a big fan of crop circles and cheerfully bullshitty explanations proving every interesting expression somehow originated in medieval England) I tried the rods and the effect was eery. As you walk between stones, it feels as if a strong magnet is pulling the ends together, or apart, or even spinning in circles. I suspect it’s actually caused by unconscious hand tipping. It doesn’t take much movement for gravity to pull the long rod in the direction it’s tipping. But of course it’s much more fun to speculate about energy fields.

Stonehenge. What can I say? It’s freaking amazing, even from behind the wire. The setting is open and exposed and the wind was unrelenting, but that and the threatening skies seemed appropriate. I wanted to walk amongst the stones and touch them, but it was enough to see them with my own eyes. There will be more pictures later.

Salisbury Cathedral. The most magificent cathedral I’ve ever seen. There’s a wonderful book about it (fiction) called Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, that I’m now desperate to reread. Nick told us the research and history presented in the book is very accurate.

Old Sarum. There’s not a great deal to see anymore beyond low stone walls and embankments. The motte and bailey layout is clearly visible - nice to get an idea of scale, since there are two motte and bailey castles that figure in our novel. I can recommend the book “Sarum” by Edward Rutherford. It’s the best of his several weighty tomes. How weighty? you ask. Well, if you were to make a life-size replica of Stonehenge out of Rutherford novels, you wouldn’t need more than a dozen or so. Still, it’s a good read. I might have had more to say about Sarum the place if it hadn’t been raining on us so insistently.

All and all, a wonderful day. Now to be capped off by a nice hot bath. Ahhhh!

See more like that one:

• Falling for Antonio - The Final Chapter
• Falling for Antonio - Pt. 2
• Falling for Antonio - Pt. 1
• Where the Hell...
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