07-02-09 'Winchester & Stone Henge'

This weekend we had a wonderful time driving around some of the many sights there are to be seen. On Saturday we drove out of Portsmouth and headed for Stone Henge...about 1 hour drive away. On the way we stopped on a side road to play in some snow. Everywhere, as we drove, was a white winter wonderland. The snow is just so beautiful. A little farther on we decided to take a pit stop at Winchester. Once there we realised we could visit the Winchester Cathedral as it was a small walk from where we stopped. The Winchester streets were amazing. Cobble stones line the roads between shops and the streets are really narrow and littered with the most amazing old buildings. Once at the Cathedral we walked around the grounds looking at the various tomb stones and crypts. We were absolutely amazed to find graves dating back to the 1500’s. The Cathedral is so beautiful. We went for a walk right around it and discovered that it was built on marsh land and that the very rear of the cathedral has actually sunk a little over time...so much that it is visible with the naked eye.
Once we finished admiring the scenery in Winchester we headed to the road again and drove through more snow surrounded roads to Stone Henge. We realised it’s really not a good idea to just head off on an adventure without fully researching it first as the gates were just closing as we arrived. We missed the cut off time for going through the gates. That didn’t stop us from seeing Stone Henge though. We could see everything needed from the fence line and even managed to take some amazing photographs. We will have to go back again when the weather is a little warmer and go inside the grounds to have a good close-up at this amazing sight. The bonus to us arriving late into the afternoon was that the sun was just starting to set and shone the most amazing colours over the stones....so beautiful!