Avebury

One of my favorite places in England is Wiltshire and to the occasion of Finley's Christening I managed to take some of my family members to the prehistoric landscape of Avebury where ancient stone circles form one of the most important megalithic monument in Europe.

I am not trying to spoil the story, but the Christening did not actually take place amongst the ancient stones or the 5000 year old burial ground and we did not in fact indulge in some pageant rituals...would have been interesting though. The trip was merely a day out with great people and the day could not have been more perfect.
As so often in England, the clouds where really low that day and at times I thought I had to duck as to not bump my head on the grey mass.
It was a mild day, rain was in the air and we were greeted by Silbury Hill,a 40meter high artificial mound that is said to have been built 2660BC. Legend has it that the devil was meant to drop a huge sack of earth on the town of Marlborough, but failed his target - just goes to show...nobody is perfect!!
This is just one of the many legends that have been attached to Silbury Hill and I am sure there are other sites with lots of stories to tell.
Anyway, as I was looking for a place to park my car, somewhere in the little village, I almost crashed into a motorbike, which happened to drive straight towards me. After a lot of cursing it occurred to me that it may have actually been me who was on the wrong side of the road. Those silly habits of the Brits...right is good enough for everybody else!!
With shaky knees but very happy that I was not there 2 1/2 thousand years ago (it could have been a sack of dirt on top of me instead of a bike!!) we parked our car at the National Trust car park and paid 5 Pound (exploitation of God's natural wonders??? or whoever put those stones there a long time ago) to leave the car in a field in the middle of nowhere;-)) By the way, I'd pay 50 Pounds just to be able to experience the feeling you get when you enter into the county of Wiltshire with all its chalk horses, stone circles, ancient burial grounds and a past of Celtic traditions and myths.
Avebury is nowhere near as busy as Stonehenge and a thousand times prettier and not commercial at all. To the contrary, it seems like a sleepy little village with a pub and a couple of souvenir shops. In fact since last time I was there, which is now quite a few years ago, nothing has changed at all apart from the menu at the Led Lion. There are quite a few of our four legged woolly friends scattered around the ancient stone circles and one has to watch very carefully where to place the foot.
However, I have attached some photos of the place, which to a certain extent portray the mystic aura that surrounds Avebury. With this as background some of our photos seem unrealistic and staged...probably because they are;-))))