A seven hour detour (which took 5000 years)

Yesterday my son and I had to leave Dorset as this week I need to get ready for the next term at school. It seemed really sad to go as I love it there and it does feel like 'home' in a way that Leeds simply doesn't. The journey from back home takes about six hours and is an unremittingly dull drive (although my friend, Highwaylass would be more happy on the open road than I). So I decided to go cross-country and use my English Heritage card to the max.

The first detour was to Stonehenge which is a must-see for any person but so madly disappointing. The whole site is a national disgrace: the roads are congested, clogged and pass within a few yards of the stones. The visitor centre is worse than the average blighted urban underpass. The cafe facilities are laughable. It's cramped, untidy and crammed with people. The fencing is ugly, intrusive and looks like the stuff we put round schools in the 1970s. And you only have to go up to the stone circle and see what could be achieved 200 generations ago with desire and common purpose, to realise all the hand-wringing and excuses about cost are pointless. If 5000 years ago our forbears could build it and make it a monument of stark beauty and awe in the landscape and we, with our riches and technology, can't present it properly. Shame on us.














Afterwards, my fury with the whole set up abated and we went to Avebury which is older, larger, less-visited and far better presented by English Heritage and the National Trust than Stonehenge. En route we passed the glowering mystery that is Silbury Hill (and I took a fairly rubbish iPhone photo which makes it look like Silbury hump). I love the fact that we know virtually nothing about this site and that it is of a similar date and size to the pyramid of Saqqara. What was its purpose? Even Daphne from Eggheads doesn't know.







Then on to Avebury properly. This is well worth the visit. The site has been conserved and presented beautifully. The two museums there are the correct mixture of fact and interactivity and beautifully located in medieval barns. The scale of the achievement at Avebury beggars belief, started before Stonehenge, it had more than 170 Sarsen in the main circle alone, quite apart from the processional way and the sanctuary. The ditches are inconceivably huge considering that the technology at the time was reindeer horn. I'd like it if the roads didn't travel through the centre of the circle but the whole site is far more appropriate than Stonehenge.














Finally, we started our long route home and Pippa, my satnav, ignored the sensible M4 - A34 route and took us up a lovely road via Cirencester where we stopped for dinner. My son was really excited that we were going to a Roman & Medieval Market town as 'that's my sort of place'. It makes me furious that Cameron was blaming the riots on absent fathers AGAIN yesterday: we are a lone parent family and my son is more emotionally and culturally aware than many adults. It's not the number of parents, Mr Cameron, but the quality of the parenting that matters. But I rant and digress. We found a gorgeous Thai restaurant and had an amazing meal together. A fitting end to a wonderful day.








- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Stonehenge, Avebury and Cirencester