This will be my last post from the UK. I'm writing this as I am sitting in the London City Airport, waiting for my flight to Florence (and can I just mention that I love how easy it has been to get around England using public transportation?).
Yesterday was a whirlwind of activity. I can't post pictures right now as I have no desire to dig through my bag to find the connecting cord, but I promise to post an update with nothing but pictures. I still have several from the British Museum I'd like to share as well. My tour group was supposed to pick me up yesterday morning at 7:50. However, due to horrendous traffic, they didn't manage to get to my youth hostel until 8:30. The rest of my group was made up of Chinese tourists who, though very talkative amongst themselves, had nothing to say to me.
Our first stop of the morning was Avebury, which is about two hours from London. Avebury is the largest stone circle in all of Europe, so large in fact that the village of Avebury is actually built inside it! Though not nearly as sophisticated as Stonehenge, Avebury is in fact more than 2000 years older (which perhaps explains the lack of sophistication).
The next stop was Stonehenge itself. I'm told that "henge" means "hanging" or "hung" making Stonehenge "hanging stones." Kinda nifty, right? Stonehenge was everything I wanted it to be. They provide free audio guides with admission, which I found incredibly helpful. They explained what I was seeing, as well as what I would see at different times through out the year. Stonehenge does in fact work as a calendar, but I have to wonder what else it was built for. The audio guide told me two myths about the building of Stonehenge, and interestingly enough, both involved the stones having been flown from Ireland. Makes you wonder right?
The last stop of the day was Glastonbury. This was something really special. The ruins of the abbey are worth seeing just for the amazing architecture (they even have part of the floor tiles saved), but the myths surrounding Glastonbury make it even more special. The abbey was destroyed during the Reformation period, when King Henry VIII's men got a little carried away collecting money from the monastery. Glastonbury is special because it is said to be where Joseph of Arimathea came after Christ's death. There is a thorn growing there that is said to be where he struck the ground with his staff. The Brits believe that Joseph of Arimathea was the great uncle of Jesus. I remember hearing in my King Arthur class last fall that this was not true, that he was a follower of Jesus, but that him being related to Jesus was part of the King Arthur legend, in which Galahad is Joseph's grandson and that is why he could achieve the Grail. (Dad maybe you could clear that up? Does Joseph of Arimathea's relationship to Jesus get mentioned in the Bible?) Glastonbury is also said to have been the resting place of Arthur and his queen, Guinevere. In the 11th century, a monk had a dream that there bodies where buried near the abbey. The next morning, he ordered and excavation and, low and behold, they found two bodies (I'm not saying I believe that these bodies were actually Arthur and Guinevere, but that is still pretty cool). They put the body of Arthur in an extravagant tomb before the high altar with the King of England present. The tomb was destroyed when the abbey was ransacked. I wonder what happened to body.
After I finished exploring the abbey, I made my way to the Chalice Well Garden. The Chalice Well is a well over a spring that has never run dry, not even during the hottest summer. According to legend, this well is where Joseph of Arimathea hid the chalice from the last supper. The pools around the well are said to have healing properties, and they also have a place with cups for people to drink the water from the well. I decided not to use one of the cups, but I did drink some of the water from my cupped hands and I dipped my feet into the pool. I'll let you all know if I feel anything special in the next couple of days.
I didn't have time to make my way to the Glastonbury Tor, which is said to be where Avalon might have been. The bus ride to the Tor took 12 minutes, and then I would have had to walk up it, and I didn't have enough time to do it. I guess this means that I have to make another trip...
The reason the tour group visits all three sites in the same trip is rather interesting. All three sites fall on ley lines, places of stron magnetic pull. Even more intriguing, all three sites lie on the same ley line.
The whole day was extraordinary. Unfortunately, the late start in the morning, coupled with the other people in the group being late getting back to the bus in Glastonbury, meant that our arrival in Lonon was much later than expected (8:15, instead of the original 6:30), and I missed getting to see Wicked (which started at 7:30). This is my only real disappointment on this trip. Other than that, I have had an amazing time in England. As I said, they have a marvelous public transportation system, which was made the whole trip incredibly easy. I may have to look into publishing houses in London after I graduate.
My flight to Florence leaves in an hour. I'll update again later.
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