We were hengin'!
Henging means hanging. Stonehenge means hanging stones. This is just one of little fun facts about Stonehenge. I can't lie, this morning I wasn't excited about seeing some stones, yeah big ones but still stones. I had seen pictures before from others or in schoolbooks, as I am sure everyone learns about this mysterious creation, but I had never been impressed. So to my surprise, the first thing I learned about Stonehenge is that is it something you have to see for your self to really grasp its impressiveness. (Understand that every time I write Stonehenge I hear triumph music that respectively parallels its glory in my mind.) At the site we received a guided audio tour device, which proved to look incredibly similar to a Television remote. The tour led us in a large circle around the site, which extended about 40 feet from the stones. The highest stone towers at 18ft and the heaviest weights about 5 tons. Although the means of transporting the stones is a mystery, it is known that some of the stones were retrieved from southwest Wales. The stones created two circles, one in side the other and were connected by top stones, creating arches. What is currently left are two horseshoes of the circles and various completed arch ways. During a time when Stonehenge was in its complete glory, there were 12 great arch ways and this design could track the months of the year. The sun would cast a shadow onto a center stone through an arch way, thus each shadow represented a month. The stone in the center is a kind of sandstone that came from over forty-five miles away. Beside, not knowing how the stones were transported to this area it is unknown how exactly they were set upright. About one third of each stone is buried beneath ground. I wished I could have gotten to walk closer to the stones or even through the middle but I was still intrigued by Stonehenge. I believe that half of my interest comes from the lack of solid information that we know about it. So many idea have been thrown around about its purpose, there was even ones about aliens. The facts, hypothesizes, and unbelievable tales were all a part of audio tour. One of my favorite parts of Stonehenge was leaving the site and on the stairs to the gift shop was a mural of what Stonehenge would have looked liked when it was first created. It was a good finality to the tour. If you can't tell I was very impressed with it and hope that I caught some of its marvel in my pictures. I think everyone in the class was fairly awed by (say it grandly) Stonehenge because everyone was in the gift shop buying multiple postcards, posters, and even mouse pads.

After a 20 minute coach ride back to Salisbury we had time to wonder the city and find lunch. A group of us had sandwiches and walked through town, checking out the shops and markets. Salisbury had wonderful shores from little boutiques to brand name favorites, and the sidewalks were packed with people. But now onto Salisbury Cathedral, it is known for having the tallest spire in United Kingdom. Instead of accompanying the rest of our class on the regular tour a few of us (5) opted for a tour of the spire, which would end about 2/3rds the way up for an overview of the city limits, a 300 foot climb. Our guide was incredibly funny and good natured about a bunch of Iowans. Or tourist from the 'breadbasket' as it became referred to when he would introduce us to other tour guides and groups. (You could say it was an inside joke with our guide) We ascended our first set of concrete stairs and found ourselves crossing the Naïve at the base of the stain glass window at the west end. These windows are very beautiful and the detail is even more apparent this close-up. You could see all the way across the Naïve to the East end of the cathedral, and this is not common in many cathedrals. Again we climb a shaft of concrete stairs and find ourselves atop the Naïve ceiling, where our guide spoke of the construction of the roof, which still has some of its original wood planks of Irish Oak. After seeing many cathedrals from the bottom up it was pretty neat to walk on the top of the point arches of the naïve. There was even a dime size hole we could look through to see the floor of the cathedral. There is also an extensive water system in the wells the point arches make incase the roof catches fire. At this point we are wondering which tour was safer. Our tour speeds up because the guide wants us to be in the bell tower as it strikes 3 o'clock. So at 3 minutes to 3 o'clock we were standing exactly 10 feet from the bells and as each bell was tolled it rung in our ears from 30 seconds. For many years this was the top of the building, the bell tower. Until people in Salisbury wanted to be closer to God to prove their faith, or the closest to God. At this time the Clergy took a pay cut and a foundation was created called the Friends of Salisbury who donated the rest of the money need to complete the spire. There is in fact, a certificate from the Guinness Book of World Records that highlights their accomplishments. You can not climb all the way to the top because at some point the spire gets to small for even a person to fit into. So Salisbury has the tallest cathedral spire at 404 feet, and at the peak is a red light which shines continuously. This is the second cathedral build after the first was taken in a great fire and is of gothic design. The bell tower was created in 1240-1260, and the spire added shortly after. There is a point in which the tour stops because the rest of the way is laid with ladders, ropes and pulleys. This part is called the room of 8 doors because there are 8 doors (crazy how the English worked that one out). The room is eight sided and each side has a pair of doors. We are allowed to look out each side of the building, each side directly faces a direction, and we began on the North side. All four sides had an amazing view and our guide would point out important parts of Salisbury. We took tons of pictures at this point of each other on the outside, wind blowing our hair around like crazy and of the view. After spending 30 minutes checking out every side we begin the trip down. This was one of the best tours I had been on, it was so different from the rest but about something we were also very familiar with (cathedrals).

The night begins in a local bar in Salisbury where Jassica, Nicole, Becca, Tiff, Shelby, Maggie, Krystal, Kristen and I have a pint or two. I discover that my favorite beer is Strongbow, a cider beer. We began to get to know each other before the drinks even arrive and spend almost two hours drinking a little, writing in our daily journals and telling classic Cornell stories. The night ends at the Grasmere House Hotel sitting room with our professors, a few others in the class, and its 20 questions among us all of the success of the trip thus far and what we have in store. Over all the night was a blast, getting to know each other, seeing the town and it capitalized a great day of touring some of England's greatest (or tallest) sites. All and all we were having a good time in Salisbury and hangin' out, or in light of today we were hengin'.