Mysterious Stonehenge

I did manage to drive all the way to Stonehenge, which is really the whole reason I wanted to rent a car in the first place.

It is strange to drive up to it, because it is really in the middle of nowhere. You go past a roundabout and then all of a sudden there is a left turn for Stonehenge. Once you turn the corner then there are tons of people and it becomes quite chaotic. Big bus tours and lots of cars in the lot. But the tourist turnover is fairly high, since you pretty much walk around the rock and thats it. M said it was really impressive to see on the drive in, but of course, I was white knuckling the steering wheel and trying not to run off the road, so I didn't notice.

They charge you 2 pounds to park your car, but then they give it back when you buy a ticket. I thought that was weird until I saw all the people who just walked around the fence to get a peek in. Real admission is 5 pounds each, which is okay considering they give you a free audio tour to listen to.

I have to say, while I love those audio tours in general, the ones in England are a tad bit too wordy. I often find myself getting bored waiting for the people to finish talking. The Stonehenge audio tour was like that - I felt they were trying to over-dramatize the whole thing to keep people engaged and walking slowly around without piling on at certain places. I guess the traffic control did work to an extent.

I must say, even with all the hype and the tourists, Stonehenge is pretty impressive. While it is ancient and there are all these mysteries about its origin in use, it seems pretty obvious to me that it was constructed as a big calendar. Why the calendar had to be so large, who knows. But with the sun's position at the solstices it seems to be that must have been its purpose. There are also evidently a lot of kings and other noteworthy types buried in the mounds surrounding the place, as well as a lot of sheep now grazing over them.

Bella Roma

A few weeks ago, we went to Rome for a long weekend, Friday afternoon through Tuesday morning.

The trip certainly didn't begin well. The combination of a cheap ticket and american express travel put M and I on too different flights from Heathrow, through Germany, to Rome. I went through Frankfurt and he went through Munich, and we were both severely delayed. I made it in time for my flight, but it was cancelled, and Mark missed his altogether. I spent about seven hours in the airport in Frankfurt, which is not really a bad airport, except for the smoking in all the bars. I read an entire book and most of another one and was bored out of my mind. M at least had a better time with a group of pals in Bologna. I finally arrived around 1 a.m., only to wait almost an hour longer for my bag. When I finally escaped the baggage claim, the train had stopped running and there were no taxis to be found anywhere. Finally a sort of shady taxi guy took us and a couple of guys from my flight into Rome for 50 Euro, and we made it to our B&B shortly before 3.

Luckily it got much better from there...

The place we stayed was wonderful. I had been panicking about finding a decent place - Rome is not a cheap city and all the reasonable accomodations had been gone. Somehow I found this Domus Mazinni on the web and it looked nice and had gotten great reviews. It was in a very nice residential district, not far from the Vatican, and had really great metro and bus links into the city (once we found the bus, that is). M was happy because it was around the corner from a fantatastic pastry shop. I must say, the cannolis there were to die for. The owner of the B&B was so nice and went out of his way to please us. He even hung around on Saturday morning (ahem, afternoon) for us to drag ourselves out of bed so we could have breakfast.

I expected Rome to be just like Athens, and in a way, it is, but I think the feel is much nicer. The colliseum and the forum kind of has the same feel as the Acropolis and the surrounding area and you get that same sense of wonder (as well as wondering what is real and what is fake or restored). And I don't know what it is about Italians and Italy but for some reason I am just really into the whole country, its culture and its products at the moment. Italian coffee, design, whatever, it all seems so glamourous to me.

We took a really interesting bus trip out to Villa Adriana, quite a ways out of the city and also a beautiful place. I guess it was a big palace for Hadrian, and it is in remarkable shape. Plus, for some reason the day we went it was free.

The Vatican of course was very impressive, although the Sistine Chapel is smaller than I imagined. I was very surprised by their collection of modern religious art, and since that was right before the Sistine Chapel, we had it all to ourselves. The rest of the Vatican was shoulder to shoulder. And unfortunately St. Peter's was closed, there was a big pope shindig going on later in the day so they had it cleared out for security. The weekend we picked was of course the one year anniversary of JPII's passing. You can still tell that he is far more popular than the new guy.

At the recommendation of one of our friends, we also went to this creepy bones church. You're not supposed to take pictures in there, but this guy did. It was really cold and clammy in the place, and the whole concept is just yuck. But it was definitely an interesting experience.

On the political front, we had very close sighting of the (now former it looks like) prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. While we were standing around waiting for the bus, he pulled up to a nearby building in his car. A bunch of people came by chanting and mobbing him, and we just stood there wondering what was going on. If that was GW, there is no way we would have been anywhere that close. We were about two weeks before the election, so there was a lot going on. There was also some kind of rally/protest (though I think that was football related somehow), over in our neighborhood and lots of election signs everywhere.

I guess the one disappointment was the food. Not that it was particularly bad, it just wasn't great, and it was all expensive. I guess we have to try harder to find good restaurants next time.

Photos from the trip are posted here.

Driving on the Left

I have several back-logged blogs to post, but this will be the first. Yes, that is me in that picture, behind the wheel of a Ford Focus, driving on the left!

It is unbelievable to me that self-respecting car rental companies here in the UK will rent a car to any yahoo who gets off the plane at Gatwick or Heathrow. We can't have guns in the UK, but they will rent two or three ton vehicles to people who have spent their entire lives driving on the right side of the road (and on the other side of the car).

On Friday, we hired a car at Gatwick, with the intention of doing a loop around the south-east part of the country, from Dover to Stonehenge, then back to London. The first part wasn't too bad, apart from the 45 minute traffic jam on the M25, because when you are on the motorway, it is just like an American freeway, just on the other side.

However, the little towns were an absolute nightmare. Roundabouts, cars parked on the left side of the road to avoid, fog, it just kept getting worse. Finally I found an oasis at the Yew and Ewe, a lovely little pub/inn in Kent. I was desperate for a place to eat and saw the sign at the first roundabout, then the second, and figured it was an omen. Otherwise I think we would still be driving on the coastal route to Hastings.

So we aborted the southern coastal route and the next day drove back up to the M25 to cut over to stonehenge. It was a much better plan.

The good news is that we found not just one, but two amazing little country pubs to visit. The Yew and Ewe served excellent food and drink, and we were the only ones there for the night Friday, so we had a fantastic breakfast all to ourselves the next day. Unfortunately, the inn will change owners at the end of the month and become the Royal Oak, which was the original name. I wonder if the sheep across the way will have anything to say about it?

See all the photos from this and from Stonehenge here.