Sunday 30 August 2015

Summer Hols - the back home edition.

Well, we set off from our little holiday hideaway just before 9am. 
Bye bye gorgeous part of the world! 
We are English Heritage members and frankly, thought it rude of us, if we didn't manage a cheeky 125 mile detour to nip and see some 4000 year old stones. 
You have to pre book your ticket - the website said. I'm glad we did. Because the rest of the world was there too. The only other English people were the English Heritage people. Tons of Americans ( quite literally ), hundreds of Australians, and the Chinese financial crisis was probably caused by the majority of the population being over here with their selfie sticks and paper masks over their faces. I heard German, French, Spanish and Italian languages. Japanese were there too and Indians by the coach load. It truly was a world heritage site. 
The view from just off the bus - look at all the people! 

The people who pissed me off the most were the young Brits. Not my two, who were asked dozens of times to take photos of people- one couple in particular being very demanding if my girl * take it landscape, no, we want the stones to our left etc* 
But the worst was a real little knobhead who was just showing off in front of his silly mare girlfriend -he was mimicking the Americans then he was really rude about me - I was stood looking at the stones - as one does when one goes to Stonehenge, along with the trillion other people, but apparantly I was in his photograph -err just either move along a bit or wait till I've moved - as he moved right across my path he then got himself tangled up in my floaty skirt because he was being a little idiot. I sniggered as he tripped forwards and as he looked at me I smiled and said it served him right! His mother must be so proud of the little ignorant twit she raised. 
We've used our EH cards to the max, but the Stones just didn't *do* it for me. Yes once up close, or as close as the path made out of Hamba beads would take us 
It was pretty awesome to think they'd been there 4000 years, but I wanted to TOUCH them. Not be roped off. I wanted the peace and quiet and solitude we get at our normal site visits. Not thousands of people. 

If we were not members, then we would not have gone. It would have been an eye watering £17.50 each!! The buses to and from the stones were a welcome 'freebie'. The ladies toilets were AMAZING! You would not want to be sat on the loo and accidentally press the flush button, as there wasn't a flush as such, it was a super vacuum hyper fast suck all the contents away with a whoooop sound!!! You'd get your bum sealed onto the seat!!! The sinks were beautiful marble and they had those mega fast hand dryers that shine a blue light on your hands as the jets of air distort the skin! Loved them! 
The exhibition centre was really good although fascinating, I felt a bit uncomfortable about the human remains on show. I'm not squeamish, but I felt the same about the mummies in the Eyptian exhibition in Manchester. I couldn't not look, if you know what I mean- I was drawn to look at them for ages..but it was in the back of my mind that these were people, real people. Odd feeling. 

Anyway, we had a brilliant week away, sad it's over, we've seen and done ( and eaten ) a lot! Seasides,countrysides,castles, towns,pasties or parsties, ice cream and cream teas! 
We strayed into Cornwall a couple of times. We met Tracey again, along with MW, GD AND the babies. Her Granddaughter is totally adorable, she declared she loved me! Well that's ok because I love her too! Her little babyGrandson  gave me the sweetest of grins showing off all four of his little toothy pegs! He was a darling!
We met in Tavistock - utterly charmed the pants off me!! Plus two quid to park for THE DAY! It was very sad to say goodbye :-(

Back home to a nice tidy house ( I cleaned it for the burglars as you do ) and it was so lovely to climb into my own bed! Ahhhhh it's good to be home x 

Lots of love from 
Rachel *yet to unpack* Radiostar xxx

27 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Meeting you all topped off a brilliant week! In fact you were the topping - the best bit!

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  2. Stonehenge is a beautiful place, we drive by regularly on the A303 on trips to Somerset. As a child mum would take us every summer, and we would walk through and touch the stones, photo here (http://poppypatchwork.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/happy-birthday-mum.html), glad you enjoyed your break.

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    1. I went and looked at your photo. It's just charmingly sweet x

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  3. Sounds like you had a brilliant time. And now for the washing.....oh the washing, mountains of it, that's what I loathe the most when we get back from hols.

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    1. Actually, I've done it all, only three loads!

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  4. Welcome home, lovely lady. I'm glad you've had such a wonderful time. :-)
    J x

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  5. I agree about the Stones. They suffer from all the people I think. So glad you had a lovely hols. Coming home is always fab too xx

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    1. Am definitely glad I can now say I've seen them, but I'm glad I'm not going back!

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  6. Glad you had such a good time, enjoy the rest of your time at home.

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  7. Sounds like you've had a wonderful time. We are hoping to go on holiday somewhere down there next summer. Thinking that we won't bother with Stonehenge. I went as a child and there were only a few visitors and you could touch the stones. Enjoy the rest of the school holidays.
    Carolx

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    1. I'd hate to think I've put you off!! Read Bovey Belle's comment below.

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    2. No you didn't put us off. BB comment sounds interesting. I shall put it on the wish list. Thanks Rachel and BB.
      Carolx

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  8. I love archaeology (have a degree in it) but Stonehenge is ruined by people and the organization of those people. If you are ever in Wiltshire again, go instead of Avebury (t'other side of Salisbury Plain). A fair few people go there too but you are free to wander, and touch, and experience, and as far as stone circles go it is ENORMOUS - as you probably know, there is a village in the middle of the complex. It's a very special place and makes Stonehenge look pathetic, to my mind . . .

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  9. I think I will BB, had we not been journeying home, I think we might have gone to Avebury x

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  10. I'm glad you had a wonderful time on your holidays. I've been wanting to visit stonehenge for a while now but the thought of all those people is a little offputting. I might just stick to knitting fried eggs. :-) x

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    1. I suppose we did go peak season bank holiday weekend...bet they are good in bleak January!

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  11. I went to Stonehenge way, way, back in the early 70's and at that time you could wander round the stones,up close and really get a feel of magic from the place - it's a shame that the stones are now 'untouchable' and such a well known attraction. Glad you had a good holiday xxx

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    1. Thank you Trudie, I'm still glad I've seen them though

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  12. Good to get away, but really good to get home again. I'd love to visit Stonehenge, but not so sure now, too may peeps for me I think xx

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  13. So glad you had a lovely time. The only down side to our holiday in Whitby was the crowds of tourists...but then I suppose we were tourists too...lol!!!! And we didn't pay to go into the abbey ruins when we could see them pretty well from the road running around the site. Even though we live in Dover we only ever visit the castle if we can afford to renew our English Heritage membership for that year. The regular entry fee is £18. And I can't remember the last time I went to Canterbury Cathedral. It's not EH and with its £10 entrance it's not on my list of must-visit places. BTW, some of your comment to my last blog post was lost before I got to see it, so don't know if you want to bother trying to rewrite or whether it wasn't important. Are you all ready for the new term or have I mentioned the unmentionable? Enjoy the remainder of the holidays, Love Helen xx

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    1. Hi Helen, I'm so happy to see you in blogland again xx

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  14. Have just sat down for half an hour with a brew and caught up with your blog. Sounds like you had a wonderful time and those scones are just delicious aren't they. It's lovely that what started out as a virtual friendship has turned into a 'proper' one and to finally meet Tracey must have been the icing on the cake. I'm a reader of her blog as well and love her down to earth everyday posts. I went to Stonehenge back in the 80's. In all honestly I can't remember whether we were allowed to touch the stones or not (maybe not as it doesn't seem that memorable a visit for me). I do like the sound of Avebury though. That will definitely be something I'll be looking into. xxx PS - I'm still ironing :(

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    1. I think we will do Avebury next year x Tracey and I meeting - I will treasure it forever

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