Brighton, Winchester, Stonehenge and Southampton

We caught the train to Brighton on Wednesday to have a look around Britain's most polular seaside town. We headed down to the waterfront to see the world-famous pier, which stretches hundreds of metres out into the water, and is complete with a theme park at the end. After this we went to the old part of Brighton, called 'The Lanes', lots of small lanes filled with old buildings, now housing shops and restaurants. We saw the Royal Pavilion, a huge Taj Mahal-type building on an immense scale, which was built in the late 19th Century by the Prince of Wales. We also visited the Art Gallery and Museum.

On Thursday we hopped on the train again, this time to Winchester. This is a very historic town, which used to be the capital of England. We first visited The Great Hall, the only remaining part of Winchester Castle. Hanging on the wall inside is King Arthur's Round Table, which is huge, about 18 feet in diameter, and weighing over 1.5 tonnes! We then went to Wolvesey Castle, which is the ruins of a medieval castle built nearly a thousand years ago. We then headed along the river, to find a very large statue of King Alfred the Great, the King attributed with creating monarchal Britain and driving out the Vikings. We visited Winchester Cathedral, which is over a thousand years old and very impressive.

On Friday, David and Christine were kind enough to take us on a tour of areas in Southern England that we couldn't reach by train. To add to the excitement, we were chauffeured around in a 1950 ex-bridal vehicle, which made us feel like celebrities. We first headed to Old Sarum, an old hill fort just out of Salisbury, which had been in use for over 3000 years. Now after excavation in the early 20th Century the ruins of the old castle, keep and walls can be seen quite clearly. The dug-out hill defences have stood the test of time and are still very impressive. We then headed into Salisbury to visit Salisbury Cathedral, which has the highest spire in Britain and many amazing stained glass windows.

We then continued north to the main destination of the day, Stonehenge. Equipped with a very informative audio guide, we marvelled at the still-unexplained phenomenon of Stonehenge. The first henge was begun over 5000 years ago, however this consisted only of a ditch and bank enclosing a ring of 56 pits. The 2nd henge was created 300 years later, in a horseshoe inside a circle shape, made of rocks weighing over 1 tonne each, tranported all the way from the north of Wales. The 3rd, and most impressive henge, was completed 300 years later, and mimicked the shape of the 2nd henge. However these rocks weighed up to 45 tonnes. The sheer magnitude of getting the rocks there and standing them up is incredible, and also the fact that for over 1000 years and many generations people worked to complete the same project, for a reason still unknown today.

We then went in search of a horse on a hillside, which after a few wrong turns and nearly giving up, we found. It was amazing, a huge white horse (due to the chalk in the hillside) carved with amazing detail and precision on an immense scale, over 100 feet high and 150 feet long. We then raced against the impending sunset to see our next hillside masterpiece, the Regimental Badges. This included 7 different badges carved into the hillside. We then enjoyed a meal in a traditional English pub, and headed home.

On Saturday we explored Southampton, and walked along the ancient wall that used to encircle the city and was once the foreshore. We visited a Titanic Memorial in one of the many parks, as the Titanic sailed from Southampton. We also visited the Museum of Archeology, housed in a tower that used to be part of the ancient wall. We saw a church that was destroyed in the 1940's Blitz, but the remaining outer walls have been left as a memorial.


We then managed to find a walkabout pub which was playing the ab's game which was good to see, and great to notch up a victory even with Ruben Thorne on the field. However we were not fortunate enough to find a pub playing the Warriors, this did nothing to dampen the spirits and what a result!Good to see Ropati back where he belongs.

Ps. Go the Warriors

Shaun & Julia