Got up early and headed out without breakfast to make it to Stonehenge by 8am for the stone circle access tour. Which, after Dave and Di got up my expectations, they say that you can NOT in fact touch the stones. So that was a bit of a bummer. Not that it would have been that exciting, I mean they're just stones right? But it was pretty cool to walk around in the middle of the circle that you can't do normally. After the access finished (ours went from 8am to 9am), we waited for the ordinary access to open at 9:30 so we could go round on the audio tour (and actually take better photos of the outer ring without all the other stone circle access people in the way). It's true what I read somewhere - either pay to go on a stone circle access thingie, or just look in from the fence on the road. The audio tour isn't that great, (face it you can read about it on the internet) and the best view (with all the horizontal plinths) is from the road anyway.
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
So it was nearly 10:30 before we headed for our next stop - Longleat Maze, in the grounds of Longleat House. £3 for just the maze. I decided before I came away that I wanted to do a maze, and why not pick the biggest? :) Well it was fun for about 3/4 hour before I kept ending up in the same place no matter where I turned and walked around and around in circles (meeting up over and over again with another couple who were equally frustrated). After an hour and a half I went out and bought the postcard with a picture of the maze to see what I was doing wrong. Only took one turn from the picture to get me to the place I wanted to be an hour ago, and solved the thing (this was after standing on the bridge and directing at least two couples to the right place that I couldn't get to). The other couple went a different way, and we ended up solving the thing at the same time.
Tank Crossing
Longleat
Longleat Maze. The objective is to get to that tower in the middle
It's looking a long way from here..
Made it!
Longleat House
So after nearly two hours in the maze we headed off again. Drove by the Westbury white horse. Got very frustrated with UK signage that thought the best way to see the thing would be to take you to the top of the hill which it's on - ie, so you can't really see it at all. Bumheads. So drove all the way back down to find a better view of it.
Westbury White Horse
Next stop was Lacock - because they used Lacock Abbey and a house in Lacock for Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets. As a location it was a bit disappointing (and £10 entry which is a bit pricey too). Especially since so many things I'd seen about the place were just plain wrong. Even the abbey itself put up the wrong information - they put up pictures of Durham cathedral cloisters, and said it was filmed at Lacock. Well ok yes it might have been filmed there, but not the shots you posted. Dumb. The Sacristy and the Chapter room were the only things that were recognisably correct. Took a bunch of photos anyway. What was actually more interesting was the rooms upstairs that had been converted to a private residence with the dissolution of the monastries by Henry VIII.
Entering Lacock Abbey
Lacock Abbey
Sacristy of Lacock Abbey
Sacristy of Lacock Abbey. This room was used in Philosopher's Stone as Snape's potions room
Corridor in Lacock Abbey
Chapter House of Lacock Abbey. This was the study room in Chamber of Secrets
Info board about the movie. Showing shots from Gloucester and Durham cathedrals
This was in the Warming House. I don't think it was used in the movies, but the cauldron looks pretty cool
There's a shot of Harry in this corridor in Chamber of Secrets
Lacock Abbey
Chaplain's Room, Lacock Abbey
Corridor upstairs in Lacock Abbey
Lacock Abbey rooms
Lacock Abbey rooms
House in Lacock used in Philosopher's Stone as James & Lily's house
House in Lacock used in Philosopher's Stone as James & Lily's house
And then we headed for the hotel. Had to get past peak hour traffic in Bath. What a pain. I think noone lives in Bath, they all live in Bristol, and we had to share a road with them all the way to our hotel :/ Hotel is the closest to a real B&B we've had. I didn't really have to check in at all, the dude just gave me a key. Very odd. Went across the road for a couple of pints and some food, then back here to try and book hotels and figure itineraries...
Oh yes, and we finally had a clear night that I could go out and look for stars. After much peering through sodium (?) vapour lights I finally saw what I thought was the Big Dipper and North Star. The time on the EEE PC must have been wrong, cause it actually put the thing upside down so took longer to find it. Had a stone fence to mount the camera on, and it was low enough in the sky that I actually got some semi decent photos of it...!
The Big Dipper. Loses something in the resizing!
Geotagging - Day 24
Photos on the Canon: 469
Photos on the Sony: 8
Videos on the Sony: 1
Photos on the iPhone: 1
Photos on the Olympus: 75
Photos on the Blackberry: 1
Photos on the Video: 13
Videos on the Video: 14
Steps walked: 17139
Pounds Spent: ?
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