Thursday, January 17, 2008

Avebury

I was thinking about Avebury recently so I thought I'd share some photos with you. We took this trip in July of 2006, originally to see Pavarotti at Warwick Castle, but then he took ill and the concert was cancelled and you know the rest of that story. But we went anyway and had a great time visiting the Lord of the Manor's relatives.

Here is the tiny little Yaris we rented at Heathrow. It was brand new, clean and shiny (what were they thinking?) and it got a zillion miles to the gallon and kept up on the motorway. Great little car.

We hopped in and with my map on my lap, I directed the LOM towards Avebury. After peering at Stonehenge from behind the ropes, I'd always wanted to see a henge up close and personal.
And we certainly did that. We stayed at the Lodge, the white house in the photo below. You can also see it just above the large stone in the photo above.

Being within the stones allowed us early access the next morning. It was only us and the sheep, lots of sheep, at 0700 hrs. We walked around the whole thing marveling at the size of the stones and the precision of their arrangement. And avoiding sheep poo.





The henge is surrounded by this huge ditch. Quite a massive project and all very fascinating, but finally we said "Cheerio" to the sheep and went back for breakfast.

We also explored the village. Here's the pub; it's said to be haunted so we didn't go inside.



Here's the church through the lynch gate.



And here are some charming little cottages.


I'm glad you joined us on our visit to Avebury. I hope you can continue on to Silbury Hill and beyond with us tomorrow.
Ring me up or post me a letter some time, won't you?

2 comments:

Pippajo said...

Oooh, Avebury was one of those places we wanted to go but had to scratch off the list. Now I see we should have left it in.

So loving these photos!

Gretel said...

Ah, you should have gone in the Red Lion, it does nice food and is really homey. We live nearby in the next county, so Avebury is a must-do summer trip every year. If you have a multi-region DVD player, and can play region 2 (European) dvds, there is a brilliant 1970's childrens series (only seven episodes) made over here, called Children of the Stones (google the title and you will find all kinds of fan sites) It was all shot in Avebury and the story is a thriller/fantasy story with the best weird soundtrack that still sends shivers up my spine. And although it was made for children (and scared the beejabers out of me when I saw it as a kid) it is still great to watch as an adult and it is also a great way of seeing Avebury! (although they have re-named it)