Today was our last day off before jumping back into work. We
woke up at six in the morning and were ready to leave by six thirty. We all
hopped on a bus and a little over two hours later we arrived at Stonehenge. It
was pretty cool to see in person, but also somewhat disappointing. Some things,
like the Grand Canyon, you have to see in person. You see photos, and in person
it’s so much better, Stonehenge isn’t really like that. I feel as though it is
as impressive in photographs as it is in real life. I’m still very glad I got
to see it, but it was a bunch of big rocks. I’m sure there are those that would
staunchly disagree with me, however.
After Stonehenge we went to Salisbury Cathedral. So very
good. This is a cathedral I have literally studied before. I’ve studied photos
and even paintings of this cathedral for years now. It was so amazing to see it
in person. I would compare my experience of Salisbury Cathedral to that of the
Grand Canyon, it is better in real life. The spire is so tall it’s ridiculous.
The size of the cathedral as a whole is extremely impressive. Another thing
that is so impressive about this particular cathedral is that it was built in
thirty-eight years, so unlike many other cathedrals, it only has the elements of
one architectural movement; and now I feel like a nerd.
For lunch I tried some authentic English fish and chips, not
my favorite thing about the day. To salvage my lunch I stopped by a bakery and
everything was all right in the end. From there we went to Lacock Abbey and Fox
Talbot Museum. It was an abbey that is fairly rich in history, but the main
attraction is the fact that this is where William Henry Fox Talbot created the
first photographic negative. Another distinguishing factor about the abbey is that
parts of several of the Harry Potter movies were filmed there. And just down
the street in the small town is where Harry Potter’s house from Godric’s Hollow
is. So that small little town definitely has its claim to fame in a couple
different ways.
We ended the day with dinner in downtown Harpenden. It was a
long day and the bus made me sleepy every time I was on it. With all of the
busyness and running around of the day, it was easy to get lost in it all, but
one of my favorite moments of the day didn’t involve grand ornate architecture,
or mysterious stone structures. One of my favorite moments of the day came from
listening to Beirut and Alexi Murdoch while watching the English countryside
roll past with all of the green and yellow. It rains here quite a bit, or so
I’ve heard, so everything is green, and there are also fields and fields of
what seems like endless yellow flowers. The flowers are grown for rapeseed to
make cooking oil. It is one of the most beautiful things I have ever had the
blessing of seeing. It’s funny that at the end of the day, I saw centuries of
man made buildings, some of which are so grand and beautiful it left me in awe.
But the grand works of man aren’t what I remember best; it was the simple
beauty of yellow as far as the eye can see. It wasn’t in the exciting and grand
commotion; it was the calm and subtle beauty that caught my eye the most.
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