Stonehenge

I had visited Stonehenge 33 years ago and you could drive right up to it.  Now there is a huge interactive Exhibition Centre, large restaurant and reconstructed Neolithic village.  The place hosts more than one million visitors each year.  Fortunately then that it is well protected.

It was a beautiful day but very windy and chilly.  Beanie to the rescue.

This is the Exhibition Centre.

It very cleverly explains the changes that the Salisbury Plain has undergone over the past 5000 years.

Neolithic burial excavated near Stonehenge.

Fantastic way to show how they think the huge sarsen blocks were transported here.

A great reconstruction of some of the village excavated nearby which existed at the time Stonehenge was erected.

Not as comfy as my bed.

A view over the Salisbury Plain, showing some of the barrows (burial mounds).

We rode a shuttle bus the mile to the actual monument.

And here it is, just so impressive.  It is roped off to visitors but we did the audio tour and walked right around it.  Just mind boggling that ancient people could do this 4,000 years ago.  And we don't know why.

Here I am, a little windswept!

Some of the largest stones are 7 metres tall and were buried another 2 or more metres into the ground.

We got pretty close here, even windier.

Love it.