Taking your family to Stonehenge from central London

In this post:  How to get to those famous stones dating some 5,000 years old? And more importantly, is it worth it?

Back in September we crossed another item off of our long "to-do" list of things to accomplish while here in London:  visit that mysterious, historic, magnificent place called Stonehenge. 

When we told the kids we were going to go see some huge rocks, their interest was immediately sparked.
"Cool!  Can we climb on them?" asked the 8-year-old.
"Wow...can we rock climb and jump off?" asked the 13-year-old. 
"Rocks? What else is there to see?" asked the 11-year old.

As the responses came forth - "No, you cannot climb on them, or jump on them, or even touch them for that matter.  And no, there's nothing there but the rocks...."  The sparky looks on their faces quickly faded.

Lengthly explanations of the amazing significance and mystery behind the rocks didn't seem to help either.

But it was going to be a small outing, really.  Only an afternoon.  And Grandpa and Grandma were with us to add to the fun.

Again, all of this exploring was to be done with no car - relying solely on public transport!

Following my fool-proof guidebook "Best Day Trips from London" (Frommers), we took the train to Salisbury.  We left London Waterloo at 13:15 and arrived in Salisbury at 14:45.  Then we simply walked a few steps outside the rail station to find "The Stonehenge Tour" (www.thestonehengetour.info) bus right where it said it would be.  We paid the entrance fee (60 pounds for a family) and boarded...easy easy!  The bus embarked at 3:00 and we were on our way.  Enjoying the views of Salisbury's medieval streets, glimpses of the largest spire in England atop the Gothic masterpiece which is Salisbury's Cathedral, then onto picturesque countryside fields, all the while enjoying a nice commentary played through the bus speakers, we eventually came to what felt like the middle of nowhere in particular, but yes, indeed, there in the middle of farming fields, standing there like giants, were the massive, famous stones.  It's almost bizarre to come across them like that, so forlorn and abandoned-like.  And yet they are certainly not lonely, the masses were there as always, buses streaming in, people piling up in proper British queue for the entrance...

Another reason to take the Stonehenge Bus tour is the bypassing of all those people waiting in the entrance line once you get to Stonehenge.  Yes we just walked right in, no lines, no paying - because our bus tour included the price of admission.  Now you can take a bus from London, but let's face it, it takes hours just to get OUT of the city in a bus, whereas the train bolts you high-speed to Salisbury.  

Once past the admission, you tunnel under the local road to the opposite side where the magnificent rocks stand.  Listening to the audioguide (included in admission), slowly encircling the rocks, learning about their mysterious history and background, wondering how the gigantic stones made it from over 100 miles away, this eerie, quiet experience with a group of complete strangers who are the other tourists also pondering the site can be somewhat underwhelming or somewhat profound - it depends on your personal response.  What prompted the people to build this place?  and what for?  Astronomical observations?  A burial ground?  Religious rituals?  As you strangely and silently visit this prehistoric site with the throes of other tourists, it's not hard to comprehend why it is one of the most famous sites in the entire world.

I believe we were there for about an hour.  The opportunities for photography are amazing, as long as the British weather is in your favor!  Boarding the tour bus for the return, the commentary continues and you are brought through some very lovely countryside areas of Salisbury on the way to Sarum, an ancient earthwork dating to 500BC and later occupied by Romans, Saxons and Normans, once the site of a busy town and castle but now ruins.  Unfortunately we missed the entrance cut-off (17h) so we were unable to visit the site, but it looked interesting and worth 30-60 minutes of exploring.  We were not disappointed however because we had hoped to make our last stop of the day the magnificent Salisbury Cathedral.  The Gothic beauty with its piercing spire reaching 404 ft holds one of the four original copies of the Magna Carta.  The city is worth exploring on foot.  Flowers frame many of the city's medieval streets which are lined with pubs, antique shops, restaurants, half-timbered inns and residences. 

Returning back to the rail station, we easily made a 18:30 train which landed us back in London at 20:00, an hour earlier than expected.  I would have loved to stay and linger in that beautiful city, but on a Sunday evening, work and school days are creeping into the thoughts and the dreamy afternoon spent in a fairy-tale historic visit needed to come to a close.

First glimpses of the massive prehistoric rocks from our tour bus

Photographs and ponderings with the other tourists

the beautifully flowered streets in Salisbury

the tallest spire in England

Another beautiful sight in Salisbury

Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma for suggesting this great outing!

Safari near London

 Whipsnade Zoo

In this post:  you don't have to travel to Africa to take a safari!!

May 7th, 2012 Bank Holiday Day Trip

Enjoying the elephants - this was the first time in my life that I had ever seen elephants roaming - really cool!

Although the zoo animals captured our attention, so did the "local" animals of the area - the zoo is home to many maras who run around wild, and fascinated our kids who had never seen these minature deer-like animals before

The seal show is spectacular!

Near the pygmy hippo enclosure, these rare little hippos were quite fun to observe

Included in our membership to the ZSL London Zoo is Whipsnade ZSL, an expansive area where elephants, rhinos, cheetas, lions, chimpanzees, hippos and other exciting animals have wide open spaces to roam.  Not to pass up on any aspect of my membership in any organization, I put it on the list of "to-dos" for our family, because we had become members at ZSL London.  One big obstacle:  how to get there?? We don't have a car, so public transportation needed to be our method of travel.   On a lovely Bank Holiday Monday in early May, we set off on our adventure.  And we were not disappointed.  Well, maybe a bit by the rain, but not by the outing itself.

Okay it wasn't a real safari....
Excerpt from the website:

"As the Zoo has such expansive grounds, visitors have occasionally been known to think it is a safari park. However, visitors are allowed to bring their cars into the grounds, which are allowed into the one large drive through area, ‘Passage through Asia’. Alternatively you can take the free Safari bus around the zoo which stops at all the main exhibits.

The Zoo does offer another impressive way of seeing its animals: The Jumbo Express. Visitors can take a ride our two steam engines, Excelsior and Superior. These trains weave their way through the territories of some of the Zoo’s most impressive and inspiring animals, such as the elephants, rhino and camels.
Whilst most of the Zoo’s inhabitants are kept in specially designed enclosures, a few species are allowed to roam freely around the grounds. These include Patagonian mara, Chinese water deer, wallabies and peafowl."

Want to go to the UK's biggest zoo?  Home to more than 2,500 animals, many of which are endangered in the wild, the Zoo’s impressive 600 acre (2.4 km2) site can be found on the Chiltern Hills, near Dunstable, Bedfordshire.

Day trip details!
Took the tube to St Pancras, got a 9:00 train to Luton, arriving 9:20.  Wandered trying to find the proper bus stop for a 9:55 bus to Whipsnade.
Arrived at Whipsnade at 10:45.
Tried to take the 3:00 bus back to the Luton Rail station, but we were on the wrong side of the road =(
The bus zoomed past.  We didn't realize we needed to be at the same spot in which we got off the bus to return to Luton.  I guess it's like a circular route.  
You'd think we take taxis all the time, living in London.  Surprisingly we hail a cab infrequently.  Times we do are like this, where we really have no other options.  Therefore we called a taxi and paid 18 pounds to get to the station.  Got on a 4:00 train to London, arriving at 4:30 at St Pancras.