Avebury and Stonehenge

It was approximately a two and a half-hour bus ride to Avebury. The first thing that caught my attention when we crossed the bridge between Wales and England was that the signs weren't bilingual anymore.

Avebury is a very small village. Initially, I think all of the students were more excited by the sheep roaming the fields freely than the rock circles, despite the fact that Avebury is an older and larger site than Stonehenge. It was like a continuous game trying to avoid sheep droppings while navigating the site. On their part, the sheep seemed generally disinterested in the few humans wandering through their territory.

It's difficult to get a true sense of the size of the Avebury stone circle, partly because some of the stones were torn down by early Christians or otherwise removed, partly because there are roads that cut between the stones, and partly because it's so large that only an overhead view would give you a good representational image. Nevertheless, unlike Stonehenge, you can touch the stones and traverse the area to your heart's content. Also unlike Stonehenge, Avebury allows pagans and other spiritual groups to perform rituals at the site.

We spent two hours at Avebury, one touring the site and the other exploring the village. However, considering the size of the village, I finished that part quickly and spent the rest of the last hour experimenting with my camera's colour filters.

It was another hour from Avebury to Stonehenge. One of the notable things about the countryside around Avebury was that there are several white horses (like this) carved into hills around the area; the bedrock is white chalk.

Stonehenge was far most touristy than Avebury. Whereas you could pay extra for an audio tour at some of the places I visited in London, the audio tour was included in the admission fee at Stonehenge. (Avebury didn't have an admission fee, but did have a parking fee for non-buses.)

Stonehenge was rather disappointing, especially since I'd wanted to visit it on some level ever I saw Mighty Max's series finale during my elementary school years. It was much smaller than I had expected and the actual site is completely roped off from public access. I think I took more photos than necessary, most of which look the same, in the vain hope that it would suddenly come together and emulate all of the mystical and romantic notions that have been ascribed to it.

We had two hours at Stonehenge. The audio tour took about one hour if you listened to every bit of information. After than, I stood in line to buy some shortcake and hot chocolate and then caught up with some of the London pre-sessional students.

The three hour bus ride back was rather horrid; despite being a coach, it had some of the most uncomfortable seats I've ever sat in. Despite that, I accidentally ended up being one of the few students who didn't have to share a seat, which mean that I could at least spread out. It was also very warm in the bus, but considering that both Avebury and Stonehenge were cooler than I had expected, it was actually sort of nice.


Avebury photos are here, Stonehenge photos are here, and some photos from around campus are here. One photo has also been added to the Swansea Room gallery; I bought this poster on the last day of the university poster fair because I was amazed at how much it resembled Vampire: The Masquerade's artwork. Finally, all UK photos, including the London photos, have now been moved into one UK central gallery.