Stonehenge and Windsor Castle

I had a short visit back to to states which was great seeing family and friends! Had a wonderful time, but now I'm back in England and ready for adventures! I have a couple lined up so maybe I'll do better about posting more blogs!

Anyways, my first adventure was visiting Stonehenge and Windsor Castle. I got up SUPER early, or rather, I didn't even go to bed! My trip to Stonehenge started at 12am in order to get to experience the Inner Circle at sunrise, well shortly after. We arrived about 5:30am, all bright eyed and bushy-tailed, or as bright eyed as one can be at 5:30 in the A.M. Well, if we weren't awake, we certainly were when we exited the vehicle and the cool morning breeze hit, 54 degree! And here I dressed for the 90 degree weather we had just the day before..

Nevertheless, we were shuttled to the sacred rocks, and when we disembarked, we saw... NOTHING! The morning was typical of England weather, the good kind that I enjoy, a beautiful morning blanketed in dew; that light dew that just hovers over the ground and the early light just bounces off before burning it off. Now imagine that and being at Stonehenge, it just made the place look fantastical and even more mysterious.

As we started walking up the pathway to the stones, anticipation was building until we were close enough to see the stones through the fog. I, personally, thought the site was breathtaking. Maybe it's that Stonehenge is so well known you're in awe at finally being at one of the greatest wonders of the world, or maybe it was because I was on a private tour, and not subjected to being surrounded by thousands of visitors during the normal hours.

I didn't witness any druids, time travel gaps, Dr. Who, or any human sacrifices to my dismay, but I was able to get some pretty neat pictures. But first, some information on Stonehenge:

Stonehenge is estimated to be from about 3100 B.C. from the Neolithic era and consists of three different types of stones: Bluestone, Sarsen, and Welsh Sandstone. Construction is believed to have happened in three different phases and is estimated to have required the work of more than 30,000,000 labor hours! Stonehenge is not the only henge, yes, there are many more henge earthworks nearby. Speculation as to why Stonehenge and others were built range from human sacrifice to astronomy.

For some more history, check out these podcasts (you can get podcast on the Iphone, I highly recommend the following subscriptions, though I like the Stuff You Should Know best):

Stuff You Should Know: http://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/how-stonehenge-works/
Stuff You Missed in History Class: http://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/unearthed-stonehenge/

After our visit to Stonehenge, we stopped on our way home at Windsor Castle. 

Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world and has been the home of British Kings an Queens for nearly 1000 years!Windsor is still a working palace and is used for ceremonial occasions as well as hosting important foreign figures. 

William the Conqueror chose the sight of Windsor and began construction 1070 A.D. which was completed 16 years later. In 1100s Henry I, II, and III made substantial changes by adding on two sets of royal apartments as well as began replacing the outer timber fortifications with stone. The original Norman keep was rebuilt around 1170 as the Round Tower and a chapel was added. 

Edward III spent more than any other king, some £50,000 in the 1300s converting the castle to gothic. Queen Elizabeth I oversaw the major improvements of repair in the 1550s, and in 1660s, Charles II modernized the apartments to the become grandest apartments in England (probably didn't have much competition). George the IV added to the Round Tower as well as constructed the Waterloo Chamber in celebration of the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte around the 1820s. Recently, in 1992, a fire broke out in the Queen Victoria's private chapel and restorations were completed exactly 5 years after the fire. 

I was a little disappointed with the tour, NOT the castle. The grounds were beautiful and spectacular and all the historical undertakings have been carefully preserved. You can see the different improvements and additions as you wonder about. What I was disappointed about was that there wasn't anyone giving out this information, and I'm not overly fond of the audio headsets, maybe this information was on the audio recordings. I was also disappointed that the personnel on site was mainly concerned with moving people along, herding us like cattle through the inside staterooms (which are spectacular). There were so many people, I understand the need for constant movement, but it made it difficult to take everything in and you couldn't always stop and look at something because either people were crowded around the object or they were shoving you along. 

The Queen's Ball Room was by far my favorite and most exquisite! Chandeliers made of gold, gold foil (or maybe real gold) lining the walls. It was just beautiful. I wish I could have taken pictures, but they were not allowed :( The castle and grounds outside were very nice though. What was once the moat is now gardens. We also got to see the changing of the guard which was neat, but rather lengthy process.