We only had time for one major trip out of London and at the top of everyone’s wish list was Stonehenge. It is theoretically not far from London – about a 2 hour drive – but traffic can change that timing dramatically.
We hired a car to get to Stonehenge and found that the best place to pick one up from was Avis at the international station at St Pancras. We tried to find a car hire outside of the congestion zone so that we didn’t have to pay the heavy tax but it wasn’t worth it. St Pancras is just within the congestion zone so we paid the charge as part of our rental fee and Avis processed it on our behalf. It was just one of those things that I accepted because wasting the day travelling another hour or two to get to a car hire company outside the zone was not a practical option.
travelling to stonehenge
We left our apartment around 7.30am to take the tube to St Pancras. The international station is just a few minutes’ walk from there and Avis was very easy to find. We had hired a Mercedes-Benz C-class (not exactly a luxury car in the UK and Europe like it is in Australia) but it didn’t have its GPS working. We were offered another vehicle or a removable GPS and opted for the latter. Unfortunately that took some time to locate and our busy day was frustratingly delayed. We ended up arriving late for our allotted booking time at Stonehenge.
When you book your tickets online for Stonehenge as we did, it asks you to book a time for your visit. I was very concerned as we were running very late and their website didn’t exactly make it look like missing your booking time wasn’t a problem. In the end however, it wasn’t a problem at all. The lady at the ticket office very happily amended our time and it wasn’t long before we were taking the shuttle bus to the ring of ancient stones. FYI, tickets for Stonehenge were 16.50 pounds for adults and 14.90 pounds for students – definitely worth the cost.
I had looked into a special tour of Stonehenge to enable us to go inside the ring rather than view from outside the rope. When I was a child, there wasn’t any restriction on where we could go – we could go right up to the stones and even on them! Today, you need to do a tour before or after the public opening so it is either a very early or very late visit. From our base in London, that wasn’t really an option so we did the typical visit and viewed the stones from behind the ropes.
In reality, the viewing from behind the ropes is excellent and doesn’t diminish the experience. Stonehenge is a really mystical experience. This prehistoric monument was started 5000 years ago, beginning as an early henge monument and then having the unique stone circle erected around 2500BC. In the early Bronze age, many burial mounds were built nearby – it is really something special to see all the mounds in the hillsides surrounding Stonehenge.
When you consider how Stonehenge was constructed, it is pretty awe-inspiring. The stones were brought from very long distances – the bluestones from the Preseli Hills over 150 miles away, and the sarsens probably from the Marlborough Downs, 19 miles to the north. The stones were dressed using sophisticated techniques and erected using precisely interlocking joints, unseen at any other prehistoric monument. It is quite remarkable and a source of wonder as to the skills of our prehistoric ancesters.
A word of warning about visiting Stonehenge – it can be very cold and windy! We went in September but the wind was already bitter. Hoods, scarves and gloves are definitely recommended!
After our slow circumnavigation of Stonehenge we returned by bus to the visitor centre and were delighted with the Neolithic houses outside the visitor centre that were built using authentic materials and techniques. A fire was burning which provided some very welcome warmth as we watched a man demonstrate flint knapping. Very interesting indeed.
There is also a museum and a great shop where Nick bought himself the first of his hats – a woolly hat with pigtails. He wore it quite happily on the tube, caring nothing for the bemused looks of the conservative English.
We could have easily spent more time at Stonehenge. As it was, we took around 2 hours and after arriving late, decided that we didn’t have time for a trip to Bath and instead headed straight for the Cotswolds.
bourton-on-the-water
I wanted to catch up with a university friend who lives in Kenilworth near Coventry so decided to meet in Bourton-on-the-Water. We had taken our older boys Alex and Nick there in 1998 and remembered it as such a pretty place with old stone buildings, a lovely river and quaint shops and pubs. It is often known as the ‘Venice of the Cotswolds’ because of all the little bridges that cross the river.
The biggest drawcard for Sam however was the Cotswolds Motoring Museum which is home to Brum, the little yellow car from the children’s TV series. Sam must have very fond memories of watching Brum as a child as it was high on his wishlist for his holiday attractions!
The Motoring Museum is actually lovely (cost 5.25 pounds each). It is full of vintage cars, old toys and memorabilia. The building itself is a 17th century converted watermill. It’s an interesting place for old and young – and even teenagers, it seems! Some of us had our photos taken in the little Brum replica although I am sure it was really meant for youngsters…
other cotswolds attractions
There are other attractions in Bourton-on-the-Water if you have time – the Model Village, Dragonfly Maze and the Cotswolds Perfumery to name a few. We were too busy eating and drinking in a delightful old pub we chose to catch up in – The Old Manse Hotel. It was nothing flashy but felt like an authentic, old stone pub with decent comfort food. If you read the reviews on Tripadvisor, you won’t hear a lot of good but I think most of the reviewers have missed the point – this is an authentic old inn with creaky timber floorboards, basic timber tables, typical food and ale in an old stone building. It is not 5 star but it is real. We loved our lunch and went back for another drink or two after seeing Brum. Possibly I had a few more than I should, catching up with my friend and her daughter, but Karl was driving so I was allowed to let my hair down.
We all really loved our trip to the Cotswolds and wished we could have spent more time there. The drive from Stonehenge passed through gorgeous villages with stunning, old houses like nothing you would ever see in Australia. Nick loved it so much, he eventually named it as his second favourite place to live. It was his first until we got to Switzerland where it was reluctantly replaced in his rankings…
That night we got home late after dropping the car off and catching the tube back to Bloomsbury so didn’t eat out. We had one more day in London so it was early to bed for once after an absolutely spectacular day.