Stonehenge on the Winter Solstice

By ~Erin~ - February 12, 2015

The day of the Winter Solstice we got up before the sun and drove out to Stonehenge. I had read on the internet that the solstices are the only days that Stonehenge is opened up to the public because it's a place of religious significance. This meant that instead of walking around the stones behind ropes, we could actually walk up to the stones, walk among them, and touch them. I was like "sign me up!"

I told Porter and our friends that it wouldn't be muddy, so they didn't need to worry about what they wore. Ha! The joke was on me. Apparently, the visitor center was torn down and is being rebuilt further away in order to return the site to a more natural state, but this meant we had to park a mile a away and tromp through a sheep pasture to get there. Sheep pasture = lots of sheep poop, you do the math. It was not a pretty site, especially for my new pair of chucks.

It was crazy!!! There were so many people. Lots of music, and people dancing. Also there were lots of spectators, like us, just there to be apart of a cool event. In the picture below there was a big drum circle happening. It's pretty crowded, but there is a guy with a deer head dress on and some dancers dress up in the middle of everyone.

I absolutely loved touching these ancient stones. I was imagining that they held magic and that by touching both at the same time I would complete the circle and absorb their power. I don't think I got any power, but I did get a fun picture.

These two kids were crazy enough to come with us.

This whirling dervish behind me was playing an accordion while dancing all around.

Stonehenge was only our first stop that morning. I'm sure you already know this from our trips, but when we travel, we travel hard. We were on our way to Cardiff, but needed to stop for breakfast. We found the cutest little town and with the most quaint British tea room you can imagine. The waitresses work the long ruffle aprons. It felt very Downtown Abbey. The town is Bradford-upon-Avon. I highly recommend stopping. The door was tiny! If felt like a little British hobbit hole. I loved it!

We had the special Christmas Tea. The Best tea ever! We decided to make a side trip later that weekend to Bath just to buy some more. This was Brendan and Tiffany's first proper British Tea and Full English Breakfast.

I think they liked it! Did I mention that this place had a real fire going in the real fire place. You can see it behind me. After tromping around in the field for a couple hours with the stones and sheep this little shop was a welcomed relief and perfect place to warm up.