The Exchange Experience: Destination 6 : Salisbury (Stonehenge), United Kingdom

Date of Visit : 28 August 2011

From London, we took a 1.5hr train ride to Salisbury for a half day trip to visit the Stonehenge. It was a pretty easy journey, and once we reached the Salisbury train station, we just walked outside to sign up for a tour to Stonehenge (GBP 15).

The tour bus was a double decker bus, and they provide audio clips along the way to explain the history of the town of Bath and the Stonehenge.

The stonehenge was located in the countryside, thus the journey took us through many miles of English countryside. Looking out of the window, all we could see is endless grasslands, farms, and hills, with the occasional building. It is so much different from the cities. The air is fresher, pace of life is slower. So chill... so carefree it seems...

The scenery was fantastic. You get rolling hills, winding roads, nice cool breeze through the window. You just get such a chill-lax feeling!

It took about 30 minutes before we manage to catch a glimpse of the famous stones. It seems as though it appeared just out of nowhere!

The history and building of the stones are very interesting. For those who are interested, here is the Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge. Basically, the whole monument is not built at a single time, but slowly added across eras of time. The stones were hauled from hundreds of miles away to this site, how the ancient people did it is still a mystery.

As we walked around the stones, a rainbow appeared and it made an extraordinary photo opportunity.

The purpose of the Stonehenge is still debatable and largely unknown. It is thought to have followed the movement of the sun. Jianhui thinks that it's a giant clock. Personally, i think it's an abandoned alien spaceship launchpad. It's a platform for the spaceships to take off and land.

Nonetheless, the entire Stonehenge is mesmerizing. It has to be my favorite site thus far. I was sitting on the grass looking at the stones, wondering it's purpose and the amount of time it has spent standing there. Dating back to 3000BC, it has outlived many civilization, and could very well outlive ours too. Why is it here at this particular spot, what's it's purpose, how they did it? All these questions may never be answered, but let your imagination run wild, and imagine what went on in the ancient times.