On our last day in London we bought tickets for a trip out into the Southern English countryside. Our first stop was Avebury. I'd never heard of it before, but our guide, Tom, talked a lot about how he thought Avebury was way better than Stonehenge.
Whereas Stonehenge is a fenced off site in the middle of a n empty field, Avebury has a town build right through it. The stones are much older and less manipulated than at Stonehenge.
Believe it or not, this is the actual henge. Tom informed us that the rocks don't make the henge, but instead it's the ditch that's important.
Pagans tie ribbons to this tree for some reason. I just like its roots.
The town of Avebury was off the charts in the quaintness scale, as illustrated by this adorable old man.
The tour bus driver was on his second day at his new job, and as a result he had no idea how to get to Avebury, Stonehenge, or Glastonbury. He also got lost coming home. As a result, our tour guide Tom had to pay more attention to giving the driver directions than he did to tour-guiding us while we were in the bus. This photo is the result of Tom remembering at the last moment to point out a giant chalk horse in the side of a hill and me rushing to photograph it before it was out of view.
Our second stop was Stonehenge. This is as close as we got to it.
Stonehenge! Where the demons dwell. Where the banshees live and they do live well!
Stonehenge! Where a man's a man and the children dance to the Pipes of Pan.
There are a surprising number of sheep at Stonehenge. But if you ask them, they'll tell you that there are a surprising number of stones at Sheephenge.
It was absurdly windy there, and you can see how cold we were after 5 minutes outside.
On the way back to the bus, we found this rock that looks like it has a funny face.
Our final stop of the day was Glastonbury. This is Glastonbury Tor. A big hill.
Getting to the top of the tor definitely involved feeling some sort of burn in the region of the quads.
Just before we got to the top, you can see the rest of our tour group: Judy, Jordy, and Tom. Yes, our entire group was just 4 of us and the guide!
When we got to the top, Tom went on one of his many rants about how all the old pagan traditions had been stolen centuries ago by the Christians and bastardized in a systematic eradication of the pagan and celtic culture. I felt like I was listening to a reading of Amon Amarth lyrics, but Tom lacked a bull's horn filled with mead.
The descent to the town of Glastonbury. I loved how lumpy the countryside was around here.
After the tor, we walked to the Glastonbury Chalice Well Gardens. It was an extremely floral place.
Maggie took plenty of pictures of the flora here. We thought this first one looked like a muppet plant.
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO LIMIT THE NOISINESS OF MY REFLECTION, GLASTONBURY.
This was the actual chalice well, and it served as another place for Tom to rant about Christians ruining fine Pagan traditions. Then he made us drink from it, and it tasted like pennies.
And now you can see why this water tastes like pennies.
Chalice is one of the funniest words in the English language, if you ask me.
Our last stop in Glastonbury was at the old Glastonbury Abbey.
This rather drab plot is the alleged grave of King Arthur. That's not how I remember it. In the King Arthur story I know, he gets arrested before he can get the grail from the taunting Frenchmen at the Castle Aaarrrrrrgggghhhh.
This was... some other part of the destroyed Abbey. I don't remember. Henry the 8th destroyed it to steal its precious lead.