OK, so, where was I? Oh, ya, Stonehenge. I woke up this morning 1 hour early coz apparently, the hotel alarm clock was 1 hour fast and I didn't know that. Anyway, better early than late I suppose. We checked out, leave the room key at the front desk coz it was still closed, no breakfast to eat coz it will only be served at 8am and left at 7am :-( Well, got a long drive to Stonehenge which is located in the vast empty tract of Salisbury Plain.
Driving in England itself is indeed a very unique experience. We drove through countless roundabouts and sometimes, it feels as if we are driving through other people's backyard as it goes through side streets and we are so used to driving from one exit to another to reach our destination, this one is exits after exits and still no sight of our destination. It was like driving through a maze. Just thank God I wasn't the one driving but Ed, hahaha. And thank goodness for GPS which we couldn't live without. It took us about 3.5 hours drive from Shrewsbury to Stonehenge. By the time I got out of the car, both legs were stiff from sitting too long, hahaha.
An adult entry per person costs GBP6.60 and this comes with an audio guide that tells you what it is all about and where the Sarsen and Blue stones comes from. Incidentally, some 7-8,000 years ago, the area was mixed pine and hazel woodland before becoming a downland. When we were there, it was very windy indeed and my hair was being blown about like a mad woman. Was so afraid of the Druids (historical ancestors???) coming to get me coz am sure the women in those ancient of days' hair would be a mess coz no combs were invented then, hahaha.
Here's some of the pics of Stonehenge:
Can you believe that the Sarsen stones were brought from the Marlborough Downs 19 miles (30 km) away and the smaller stones, known as Bluestones, are from the mystical Preseli Mountains in Wales, 240 miles (385 km) away. In those ancient of days, can you imagine the amount of work one has to do to carry/transport the stones and mind you, these stones are not light. These are 40 ton rocks. I am awestruck for sure...
After Stonehenge, we drove straight to the London Gatwick airport for our flight to Zurich, Switzerland. We arrived in good time at Gatwick without being lost at all, thanks to a good navigator like me *ahem, LOL* and although the GPS ran out of battery, I was smart enough to note down the route just before it konked out on me. I am so brilliant am I not *grins*?
We were way early coz our flight on EasyJet wasn't till 1655 hrs. We couldn't find an area where we can charge the laptop to charge our GPS that ran out of battery. The areas that had plug extension clearly says, "not for public use". I wonder why it's there to start with if not for public use??? Finally we found one and started charging the GPS coz we need it as we'll be driving in Zurich too.
Flight on EasyJet was really no frills and efficient. We arrived at 1935 hrs into Zurich airport. Zurich is 1 hour ahead of British time and we got our car rental and drove to Moevenpick Hotel which is a mere 15 mins away. Hotel was nice and spacious. After putting our baggage away, we walked out to a nearby restaurant for dinner. It was a nice stroll of about 12 mins and we wanted to sit indoors coz we noticed some people smoking outdoors and the waiter kinda gave us a funny look and must've thought we were weird coz normal people would probably want to dine outdoors esp on a beautiful day like this. Anyway, we changed our mind and sat outdoors instead.
After dinner, it was back to the hotel and an early night's sleep coz tomorrow, Ed has a business meeting with his customers and I will go on a Heidiland tour by myself (7 hours tour). Am excited as I am still on holiday but poor Ed, his holiday has somewhat ended!
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