It was early in the morning at Bayswater. We woke up early in the morning to catch the tube to Earl's court station where our tour bus gonna pick us up for a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath. The day trip was operated by the Anderson Tours. We never really heard of it before but so happen that we found them out when we were surfing the internet. It is among the cheapest tour operators offering budget day trips from London :).

It was some 2 weeks ago that my mates started to talk about day trip in London to Stonehenge, Winsor Castle and Bath. I was not really interested at first and later I found out that since there is no particular destination that I would like to visit, so I joined them up for the trip as I think Stonehenge is worth visitign as it is one of the World Heritage site.

We arrived at Earl's court 8 in the morning to find out that most of the shops were not opened yet. As the pick up time was 9 am, we just walked around places nearby the station and grabbed a quick breakfast sandwich at the convenience store in the station. The coach arrived at around 8:50am and we boarded the coach welcoming by our very friendly tour manager - Alley. We then started our journey to Amesbury, where Stonehenge site is located at. Along the way, Alley explained to us some history about the Stonehenge. The journey took around 2:30 hours from London.

Destination:

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At the entrance to the Stonehenge, it was so crowded and I heard from Alley saying that there are thousands of visitors coming to the site everyweek!







Let me start with a little bit of history on Stonehenge. Stonehenge consists of a series of large rocks which were arranged in a circular format known as a henge (and where we get the name Stonehenge from). The first structure to be built at the site of Stonehenge was the circular ditch and outer bank round 3,000 BC. The first stones were brought here around 2,500 BC fro the Preseli Mountains in the southwest of Wales, around 220 km away from the site. The outer circle was completed around 1,500 BC and consists of the largest stones in the monument.



These stones weigh up to 50 tons each and it is estimated that at least 600 men were required just to move one of these stones. What you see of Stonehenge in the picture is just the remains of what would have stood here thousands of years ago. It is the most outstanding prehistoric monument in the British Isles and is a World Heritage Site.



Some 7-8,000 years ago the area was mixed pine and hazel woodland before becoming downland. The ancient people built the stone monument on the site to map the course of the sun and moon. It is the center of one of the world's earliest cultures. Being a World Heritage site, Stonehenge is protected for the benefit of future generations. Visitors are not allowed to go near the stones monument. This is to prevent further damage on the monument as thousands of visitors come to visit the site every week.









The heel stone.


It was kinda like out of my expectation that the Stonehenge is rather small. I always think that it is something very big in the size as most of the monuments would be. But that is it, nothing much I can complain about as pre-historic men created it with their primitive tools which will make the project a really grand one!

I am not surprised on how well the site was being managed. Given that it is one of the World Heritage sites, attention was all focus on how to preserve the monuments for the benefit of future generations. This is something that we should learn from them. Given that Penang's George town and Malacca were listed as the new World Heritage sites too, we should put in the same amount of effort to protect the historical buildings before they are all gone.

It was a really nice weather that morning other than with a little bit wind. Some random shots of the grassland at the Stonehenge site which I find it kinda mesmerizing :).