A Visit to the In-Laws

Carol's parents live in Bournemouth. We see them infrequently. It's a good three-hour drive there and then back and usually, it's on the same day. We have been to Bournemouth and stayed in a hotel, but that was a few years ago. We last saw them in Southampton during the Easter holidays. We had planned to visit them when we had our holiday down near Petworth which was then abandoned when the weather became really bad. (see earlier post.) So, this time, we organised things so we met up with them in Salisbury, which is about a two-hour car journey from Milton Keynes. They would come up by bus from Bournemouth and arrive in Salisbury at 11.30. We left home at around 8.45 and decided we'd stop on the journey down and choose to visit Avebury, as we were interested in seeing the stone circle. I set the SatNav and we set off, getting to Avebury a little after 10.15. We had coffee and cake in the National Trust café on the site. We weren't expecting the place to be so extensive. We visited the Rollrights stone circle in the Cotswolds a few years ago (see earlier post.) and had seen an item about Avebury on television a week or two ago and then realised that they were close to Salisbury and would make a good place to stop on our journey down. The landscape around that area of Wiltshire is really amazing. We have visited Stonehenge a few years ago and when we went down to Chloe and Steve's wedding in Devon three years ago we stopped at Woodhenge, which is a few miles up the road from Stonehenge and was a good place to break that journey. We weren't at Avebury very long as we needed to be at Salisbury by 11.30.  As our visit to Avebury was brief and also the fact that my Canon camera died whilst I was attempting to take photographs, basically because I hadn't charged the battery fully, we quite intend revisiting at a later date to explore the area fully. We had intended texting Carol's mum to let them know we were on our way, but when I attempted to text, using my mobile, I couldn't find a signal. On several more occasions I attempted to text, as we drove on, having left Avebury, there was no mobile signal. I'm surprised by this situation, considering how mobile technology has advanced, but perhaps it's because it's a relatively sparse area of the country, population-wise. Then we got held up by traffic and especially farm traffic, spending some considerable time stuck behind a tractor and trailer drawing a load of straw which got caught under trees and brought down leaves and twigs and bits of branch as it brushed below overhanging trees.

We arrived at the Salisbury Park-and-Ride carpark. We got there just as a bus was leaving but the next one wasn't much later so we boarded it. I don't have to pay as I have a card which means I get free journeys. I was never sure whether this could be used outside Milton Keynes, but I soon discovered that it can which saves quite a lot in travel costs. We were to meet Carol's parents outside Debenhams, but we got off too early and then had to find where Debenhams was. It seemed that every time we asked someone we met they had no idea, but it was in the Market Square. We saw both Carol's mum and dad, but on the other side of the road and crossed over. We then made for a Wetherspoons pub, the King's Head, to have coffee.

I wanted to visit the cathedral. For one thing, it's so full of history. There is a copy of Magna Carta in there. And possibly the oldest clock in either this country or the world. Or something. And what's wrong with just being awed by the sheer magnificence of such a building? How can you not be, when you think how old it is and how incredible to imagine how they built something that size without the aid of modern technology such as cranes. Also, getting great slabs of stone up to the top of the tower without our modern lifting machinery, safety standards etc.

If you want further information about Magna Carta, here's a link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta. There are apparently four surviving copies of this document in this country, one being Salisbury Cathedral, the other Lincoln and another in the British Library.

We sat on a bench in a park near the cathedral. Carol had made up a really nice mixture of rolls and fruit which we ate. The water meadows could be seen across the river and then I realised that the painter, John Constable, had executed several paintings of this very view, but seen from the opposite side. I have found the painting on the Tate gallery website.

Salisbury Cathedral, John Constable, 1820

We wandered the town, looking in stores and then made our way back, as if by some magnetic force, to the Wetherspoons we'd been to earlier and had tea. Unfortunately, it wasn't very nice. I make tea at home, but I can control the various elements such as boiling the water, the brand of teabag used, sugar etc etc but what we had here, or at least, what I drank, was unpleasant. 

Time was ticking on. Carol's mum and dad had come from Bournemouth on a bus and the next one was due to leave to return there shortly. We ambled back towards the bus stop outside Debenham's. We went into Marks and Spencers on the way as Carol wanted to see if they had a knitted top she had seen in their Milton Keynes store. There was a sale on, and, after hunting through the racks of clothes on sale, actually found the same item and bought it. 

The bus was standing at the bus stop on the Market Square near Debenhams, so Carol's parents boarded and the bus left. Soon our bus came in, and we returned to the park-and-ride car park to begin our journey home, directed by the SatNav. It had certainly been a strange day, long and tiring. We arrived back in Milton Keynes at around 6.30.

I am currently reading a book by Bill Bryson. It's called "The Road To Little Dribbling: More Notes from A Small Island." The subtitle refers to his earlier book, which was published 20 years ago. I read it then and enjoyed it enormously. He wanders around Great Britain and mentions many places and makes comments about them. An American who has an obvious affection for the quirks and idiosyncracies of this country. By sheer coincidence I have read his piece in chapter 11 where he mentions Avebury and discusses how it is managed by the National Trust.

Outing to The Cotswolds and Rollrights Stones

Yesterday morning we didn't get up until quite late. It was a reasonably good evening on television, with "Strictly Come Dancing", the finale to the current series of  "Doctor Who", followed by the first in a new series of "Merlin."  We didn't get to bed until fairly late.
The last week or so has been very warm, temperatures reaching heights not normally reached in late September/Early October. We decided to make the most of the sunshine and have an afternoon out. Carol has wanted to visit the Rollright Stones out the other side of Oxford, near Chipping Norton, so we made a sort of picnic up and took the cameras and set out. I have to say that the Cotswolds are my favourite places to visit in this country. Having worked in Cheltenham in the late '60's as a Student A.S.M. at the Everyman Theatre, I know the area well. My mother had relatives around the Cotswolds, and visiting them was always a pleasure. We would have taken the dogs, but it would have meant them spending a lot of time in the car, and Alfie, in particular, doesn't travel well, and he is very susceptible to heat. We went to the Shell petrol station along Grafton Street and then towards the A5 and out towards Towcester. It was a real joy to be getting out of the house and to be out in the countryside. We have found, when travelling west from Milton Keynes, there is (or was) a problem with the M40. It seems to get in the way. It is difficult to cross. This may sound odd, but you try it. We have more recently discovered that you need to go through the village of Aynho and find a bridge that goes UNDER the motorway. We were trying to get to a National Trust property (Hidcote) and spent around 2 hours trying to avoid the motorway and get through Banbury. We have found this route thrrough Aynho and it makes the westerly journey so much easier. Anyway, we had to go through Banbury to get to Chipping Norton and then find the Rollrights Stones (having looked on Google Maps and a print driving atlas we have.) Attempting to get through Banbury and finding the correct road was something of a problem and this happened on the way home. Why can't local authorities do something about signage? It wasn't very good. Neither was signage approaching the Rollright Stones, you had to really concentrate to see where the turning was to get there and then there was a tiny parking space near the stones.There is definitely something mysterious about this place. It has a strange atmosphere, somehow, very similar to that at Stonehenge, which we have also visited. Together with the spectacular scenery, it makes an interesting afternoon. We visited the single stone which is set within it's own field over the road from the ring of stones. We sat on the rocks and ate our picnic. We had to get something to drink when we stopped for petrol at the Shell service station. The heat made us very thirsty. I took photographs of the scenery (and hope to upload them onto this blog later this week after I have sorted out the iMac which has no further space on it's hard-drive, due mainly to having around 12,500 digital photographs on it. We have an external hard drive ordered from Amazon and should arrive by Wednesday.)

Rollright Stone Circle

There are three areas to visit at the Rollright Stones. The first area we went to was opposite the main area of the 'complex' (as you are supposed to term it, apparently, having read the little handbook we later purchased at the near-by garden centre.)  This is called the 'King Stone' and stands within a fenced area. This is, apparently, to disuade people from chipping of chunks of it, as it's supposed to be lucky this stone.) It has all the appearance, from a distance, of a stooping figure, probably covered in material or something. As the legend which surrounds these stones is that a witch turned a king and his nights to stone. That figures.  It really does look like a person. This is where we sat and ate our picnic. Then we walked over the road to the main site, where we came across the ring of stone, 'some 40 strides across' as it says in the handbook.) A legend states that if you count the stones, on each following attempt, the number of the stones will change! We did not immediately take up the challenge, but as we were taking photographs, two couples appeared and one of them began to count the stones. The second couple had a go. Both came up with different totals. Then we had a go. We made the total 81. Who knows the correct number? To the east, at the far edge of a field, are the ruins of a so-called 'Portal-dolemen' called the Whispering Knights. We didn't attempt to walk to this site, as it was some distance from the main site. Having taken enough photographs, we decided to leave. We knew, from reading a sign near the lay-by where we parked the car, that there was a garden centre nearby which sold the handbook and other Rollright-Stone related items, and where we could get a cup of tea. So we left and made for this garden centre. Having had our cup of tea we left, making our way home back through Banbury towards Towcester and onto the A5 and home to Milton Keynes.

I have since learned that the Rollright Stones were used as a location for the filming of a "Doctor Who" story in the '70's, which makes our trip there all the more interesting. The story was called "The Stones Of Blood" and it was quite a good story. Being a "Doctor Who" fan I am more than interested. I do remember the story quite clearly. It was a Tom Baker story, and apparently the 100th serial.