June 25

We slept in after a BIG walking day yesterday.  We had breakfast at the hotel and, since we didn’t have to check out until noon, we ventured into Hyde Park.  Hyde Park has been around since Henry VIII. In 1536 (!), he took some land from Westminster Abbey to use a s hunting ground--even the parks are old here!  It was opened up as a public park by James I in 1637.  

What a lovely “escape” from the constant hustle and bustle of London town.  There were quite a few people out and about...running, admiring the Italian Water Gardens which are believed to have been created as a gift from Prince Albert to his beloved Queen Victoria a little over 150 years ago, walking dogs or pushing strollers, sitting on the benches, you name it.

Further up the trail we heard the twitter of birds but they didn’t sound like mourning doves or pigeons or any bird we were familiar with. Coming around a corner we spotted what looked like giant parakeets!  We weren’t far off.  Apparently Kingston parakeets have been making London and nearby areas home for quite awhile.  There were first reports in the middle 1800s already but they apparently have been adapting very well as their population has grown leaps and bounds over the last 20 years or so. They are big and will land on your arm or hand if you happen to have bread or bird seed in it. We found it fascinating that they were "winter" hardy!

We ended our morning journey at the Princess Diana Memorial.  It is actually a beautiful testament to her.  It was designed to be “open” and represent her spirit and love for children.  Children of all ages were splashing and walking through the bubbling water and some adults, us included, took off our shoes and just put our feet in for a bit.  It felt great after our big walking day yesterday (Did we mention we walked a LOT yesterday!) but it was really cold!  Some of the kids were in their bathing suits, so it had to be cold for them as well! Perhaps since they are used to London weather, it was perfectly fine for them!

Off to the cemetery.  Andrew wanted to see the final resting place of Keith Moon.  His ashes were scattered over the grounds at Golders Green Crematorium in London and a plaque affixed to the wall commemorated his presence there.   Golders Green is a wonderful and peaceful place.  A person’s ashes can be planted along with a rose bush, and MANY people have done that with their departed ones based on the fact that there were rose gardens everywhere--all different colors and sizes and scents!  Oh, my, it was gorgeous!  After we were back in the car and getting ready to head on, we discovered that Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, and Sigmund Freud and his family were all interred here.

We do have a general “direction” for our travels but the days are flexible.  We’ve not done some things deliberately due to time and lines, and done some just random things hoping we'd be lucky to get in. To luck we researched Stonehenge while driving to her.  They now require tickets to go see her!  You can get them there but it looked like it was better to book ahead, so we did for the 17:30 time slot, basically the last of the day.  They close at 20:00 on Sundays.  Well, we forgot to reset the clock in the car when we crossed into England and, since England is an hour behind where we’ve been thus far, we go there early!  Yes, a first for us!!  BUT they  said that really didn't matter except if we were part of a large group and we were free to go through the exhibition center and then either grab a shuttle or walk to the actual site.  Since we hadn’t had too many steps in yet today we opted for the walk.  It was only 1 ½ miles so easy peasy in comparison to our past days.  We had two options, the road or through a field.  We chose the field as Cheryl’s feet developed a few blisters from the sidewalk hiking that still needed some softer surfaces.  The field was actually a cow pasture!  There were signs that said to be careful and not bother the cows.  We avoided the cow patties, the cows avoided us, and we enjoyed the walk.  

Stonehenge is such a fascinating place!  For one, the stones aren’t nearly as big as they look in pictures. The upright stones average about 13 feet tall and some have rocks perched on top of them so maybe add another 2 feet or so.  But the history!!  It is hard to think about how OLD things are here.  The friend we made in line while waiting to get into the Paris Catacombs made the comment that to learn US history should not be as complicated as the USA doesn't have a very long history compared to most places in Europe.  Think about that… a few hundred years of recorded history vs thousands of years!  

Back to Stonehenge:  before there were rocks strategically placed in a circle, there was more.  Archaeologists have discovered post holes that date about 8000 BC (BC!).  They’ve found burial mounds and some stone and wooden structures that date back 4000 BC.  They believe that those that built Stonehenge lived there for a LONG time before they actually built it, and they built it over a long period of time, starting with circular ditches and mounds (several hundred burial mounds!), and they have found evidence of celebrations twice yearly (How they can tell all this is really amazing!).  

This original timber was eventually replaced by stones, really large ones that aren’t even found locally.  They believe that the bluestones (round 1) were transported from nearly 150 miles away! Some of the larger stones we see today were from an area about 50 miles away.  What is amazing about the large stones we see today is that they were fashioned with mortise and tenon joints, like you’d see with wood.  The were fitted to one another deliberately.  Stonehenge has been legally protected as an ancient monument since 1882.  It was definitely worth the the time to see this famous piece of history.

We decided to call it a day a little earlier to update the blog, but there wasn’t Internet at our campsite (Yes, we get to camp again!), and the cell service isn’t stellar, so no uploading anything, AGAIN! Sorry, really we are.

We did opt for supper at the local pub (one of two in the small town and the only one open!).  Cheryl opted for an “English” pie with mash which turned out to be mashed potatoes and beef pot pie!  Yummy.  Andrew had a breakfast platter with eggs and ham and sausage but included French fries and pork and beans.  Interesting combo, but also very good.

Nighty night!