Avebury Henge, Longbarrow, Stonehenge, Salisbury and Lacock village May 22)

A gorgeous morning at Avebury! Avebury and Stonehenge together are a designated World Heritage Site.  Here are the best of our collective 200+ photos of sunrise this morning.

Wanting to see the circle in low light, Kristi made everyone get up at dawn and drive a mile to the circle.  It was cold and the grass was wet with dew...  

"The Avebury complex is one of the principal ceremonial sites of Neolithic Britain. It’s one of the largest and most complex of Britain’s surviving Neolithic henge monuments.”  

An aerial photo of the Circle (heisted from the web)

Dawn at the Circle was amazing and a little creepy! The circle is open 24-7; the main road actually goes through it - see photo above.  (No one was in sight that early, it was misty pre-sunrise at a henge...pretty cool!). 

Misty dawn

Then...epic sunlight on the Circle:

(We're up on the causeway here - the outer circle)

The light was incredible

Red Lion Inn (background)

St. James church of Avebury

We went back to the B&B for naps and then a full English breakfast before setting off to a burial mound nearby called Longbarrow (a guest at the B&B told us about that), then onto Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral, Lacock village, and then to our apartment in central Bath.  A full day but a amazing one.

Longbarrow burial mound (Avebury).  We discovered something new about our rental car. The doors will not lock if the engine is running. We spent some time puzzling that one out...

Stonehenge! A pretty contained site with well-organized bus drop offs for ticket-holders. The free way to see Stonehenge has you walking from the visitor center about 30+ minutes and then you're right outside the low fence of the paying folks. Great views of the henge as the fenced trail circled the henge.

Here are some school kids trying to reconstruct Stonehenge!

Salisbury Cathedral.  We stopped in Salisbury, about 15 minutes from Stonehenge to see the oldest mechanical clock in the world. We lucked upon a free historical tour of the Cathedral.  Unexpectedly beautiful.

Adjacent to Cathedral

Oldest mechanical clock in the world

The guide is checking the water table. (If this water table is ever dry, the cathedral is in trouble).

Courtyard of Salisbury Cathedral

Tea and scones!  ("Cream tea")

Lacock village.  We drove from Salsbury to Bath (bypassing Wells due to time) with a brief stop in lovely Lacock village. Some scenes in Harry Potter were filmed here.

Then, off to Bath and our apartment in the central historic district...