revised: 5000 Years of Spiritualness
5000 years of Spiritualness:
Stonehenge to Salisbury Cathedral
That is what made up my day yesterday and all morning today.
I left Stratford on an English train system journey early in the morning from Stratford-on-Avon.
My first train to Reading arrived over 30 minutes
late on another track. I grabbed my two bags
and ran down stairs, then along
the tunnel to the next platform and back up another
set of stairs to get to about 6 feet from the train
and it started moving with the doors closed.
Two or three seconds do make a difference.
Another late train came along about 20 minutes later.
Eventually I arrived in Salisbury to be picked up by a new
Cyberspace Creativity friend, John Thomas, a retired
teacher who lives in Salisbury. We met through a creativity chat group about a year ago and shared back and forth often chatting about our mutual topic: The Development of Creative Thinking. When I began planning my trip I told John about my plans to return to Stonehenge once again. This time I would spend more time in Salisbury.
John was waiting for me at the train station. He had recommended that I stay at one of the pubs near the station when we had chatted on email.
John joined me as I walked from pub to pub seeking a room for the night.
After a short search of a mix of pubs I found a room in the Kings Arms two blocks from the Salisbury train station. After I dropped off my bags in my room we drove to Stonehenge.
I visited Stonehenge twice in 1977 and once in 1978.
The first time in 1977 I was able to wander around and touch the stones. The end of the summer of 1977 there was a fence 100 yards away surrounding the stones keeping modern people away from the sacred site. In 1978 when Merry and I visited Stonehenge it was even more a typical tourist trap with guidelines at the edge of sidewalks that controlled where visitors were allowed to walk and ear phones available in a variety of languages in the gift shop.
Now the British Heritage Foundation runs the site and
it is very professionally handled. You arrive at a
car park and enter through ticket gates that cost $4.50 per adult and you are handed a remote electronic guide to use at your own pace.
This time John and I wandered slowly around
the prescribed path that lets visitors to reach at one
point about 50 feet and the furthest about 75 feet.
Remember in 1977 I freely walk around the stones and sadly saw a tourist butt a cigarette on one.
The earphone guide is in your control. You simply program in the point you are located and the message begins describing much of the known knowledge and
speculations about the site.
After we walked around the overall controlled course we were off to pick up John's son and son-in-law.
After a brief stay at their home, John and I went off to his favorite local pub for drinks, dinner and talk.
Much of each was enjoyed over the next few hours.
John has written two books about creativity. One that
was published in 1999: TAKE CHARGE OF TOMORROW & CHANGE IT!
and his most recent which he published on his
website relating the Songs of Solomon to creativity and creative thinking. Seeing a email post about his Solomon book opened our cyberspace discussions and caused me to contact him about meeting while I was traveling around England during my 2001 trip around the Earth.
We returned to "my pub" around 9:30 pm after saying goodbye I walked to view the Salisbury Cathedral at night and to experience the medieval and Elizabethan streets and architecture of the town.
The cathedral is utterly beautiful in the night
lighting and very peaceful.
I returned to my room to turn on the television to
watch an episode of FRASIER, "Frasier Crane Day in
Seattle"; a little touch of home. Then to sleep to
rise at 6:00 and wander again.
This morning I wandered off to see the Cathedral in
the sunrise and morning light. The sculptures are
very dramatic in the uplighting at night and even more amazing in the orange and red light of the sunrise. I wandered around the cathedral and towards the entrance. Just as I approached the doors out came a squirrel running very fast with a man behind it
encouraging him to leave.
I said to him, "they pray early too". He laughed.
To describe a medieval to gothic cathedral in a
paragraph is a true disservice to the beauty and
wonder of the craftsmanship of so many people who
worked on it in the 1300 to 1600's.
The carvings of the saints, the stories so clearly
shown through the craftsman's hands in stone, wood and glass: the carvings, the stained glass windows, the
woodwork of the doors, pews, alters and tombstones.
The space is so peaceful, much like Stonehenge when I visited it at sunrise in 1977. A different spiritual
and magical space.
The squirrel chaser outer, turned out to be one of the
priests of the Cathedral who invited me to stay and
attend the 7:30 service.
I left the 6 or so worshipers and wandered off to see
more of the town's streets and buildings.
Returning to my pub I picked up my luggage, left my
key on the bar and wandered off to the Cappacino Cafe to have an English Breakfast. I chose the Mucho
Lordies' breakfast:
2 delicious, though salty pieces of English bacon
(ham)
2 wonderful sausages
toast
tomatoes
mushrooms
two small deep fried waffles (2" square with jelly)
a potato wedge
a fried egg
orange juice
That's a Mucho English Breakfast
Then I jumped on the train to London, Waterloo Station to begin my search for a room for the weekend. Only thing I saw by Waterloo, where I will board the Euro Star train for Paris on Sunday, was a very old pub with rooms upstairs. The building reminded me of scenes from the "EL" in Chicago with elevated train tracks go past the upper floors of the little 4 story building on two sides. I rolled my luggage for a couple blocks, not liking the rundown, old, old hippy looking street folk and went back to the Waterloo Underground station to buy a day and weekend pass for the Underground and then back to Paddington where I knew there were several nice modest priced and good hotel rooms.
Viola! I am sitting again at the computer I used a couple days ago to write to each of you.
Off to buy theatre tickets, hopefully for Les Mis and
Phantom.
Ciao y'all
Wandering Alan
Comments
Stonehenge to Salisbury Cathedral
That is what made up my day yesterday and all morning today.
I left Stratford on an English train system journey early in the morning from Stratford-on-Avon.
My first train to Reading arrived over 30 minutes
late on another track. I grabbed my two bags
and ran down stairs, then along
the tunnel to the next platform and back up another
set of stairs to get to about 6 feet from the train
and it started moving with the doors closed.
Two or three seconds do make a difference.
Another late train came along about 20 minutes later.
Eventually I arrived in Salisbury to be picked up by a new
Cyberspace Creativity friend, John Thomas, a retired
teacher who lives in Salisbury. We met through a creativity chat group about a year ago and shared back and forth often chatting about our mutual topic: The Development of Creative Thinking. When I began planning my trip I told John about my plans to return to Stonehenge once again. This time I would spend more time in Salisbury.
John was waiting for me at the train station. He had recommended that I stay at one of the pubs near the station when we had chatted on email.
John joined me as I walked from pub to pub seeking a room for the night.
After a short search of a mix of pubs I found a room in the Kings Arms two blocks from the Salisbury train station. After I dropped off my bags in my room we drove to Stonehenge.
I visited Stonehenge twice in 1977 and once in 1978.
The first time in 1977 I was able to wander around and touch the stones. The end of the summer of 1977 there was a fence 100 yards away surrounding the stones keeping modern people away from the sacred site. In 1978 when Merry and I visited Stonehenge it was even more a typical tourist trap with guidelines at the edge of sidewalks that controlled where visitors were allowed to walk and ear phones available in a variety of languages in the gift shop.
Now the British Heritage Foundation runs the site and
it is very professionally handled. You arrive at a
car park and enter through ticket gates that cost $4.50 per adult and you are handed a remote electronic guide to use at your own pace.
This time John and I wandered slowly around
the prescribed path that lets visitors to reach at one
point about 50 feet and the furthest about 75 feet.
Remember in 1977 I freely walk around the stones and sadly saw a tourist butt a cigarette on one.
The earphone guide is in your control. You simply program in the point you are located and the message begins describing much of the known knowledge and
speculations about the site.
After we walked around the overall controlled course we were off to pick up John's son and son-in-law.
After a brief stay at their home, John and I went off to his favorite local pub for drinks, dinner and talk.
Much of each was enjoyed over the next few hours.
John has written two books about creativity. One that
was published in 1999: TAKE CHARGE OF TOMORROW & CHANGE IT!
and his most recent which he published on his
website relating the Songs of Solomon to creativity and creative thinking. Seeing a email post about his Solomon book opened our cyberspace discussions and caused me to contact him about meeting while I was traveling around England during my 2001 trip around the Earth.
We returned to "my pub" around 9:30 pm after saying goodbye I walked to view the Salisbury Cathedral at night and to experience the medieval and Elizabethan streets and architecture of the town.
The cathedral is utterly beautiful in the night
lighting and very peaceful.
I returned to my room to turn on the television to
watch an episode of FRASIER, "Frasier Crane Day in
Seattle"; a little touch of home. Then to sleep to
rise at 6:00 and wander again.
This morning I wandered off to see the Cathedral in
the sunrise and morning light. The sculptures are
very dramatic in the uplighting at night and even more amazing in the orange and red light of the sunrise. I wandered around the cathedral and towards the entrance. Just as I approached the doors out came a squirrel running very fast with a man behind it
encouraging him to leave.
I said to him, "they pray early too". He laughed.
To describe a medieval to gothic cathedral in a
paragraph is a true disservice to the beauty and
wonder of the craftsmanship of so many people who
worked on it in the 1300 to 1600's.
The carvings of the saints, the stories so clearly
shown through the craftsman's hands in stone, wood and glass: the carvings, the stained glass windows, the
woodwork of the doors, pews, alters and tombstones.
The space is so peaceful, much like Stonehenge when I visited it at sunrise in 1977. A different spiritual
and magical space.
The squirrel chaser outer, turned out to be one of the
priests of the Cathedral who invited me to stay and
attend the 7:30 service.
I left the 6 or so worshipers and wandered off to see
more of the town's streets and buildings.
Returning to my pub I picked up my luggage, left my
key on the bar and wandered off to the Cappacino Cafe to have an English Breakfast. I chose the Mucho
Lordies' breakfast:
2 delicious, though salty pieces of English bacon
(ham)
2 wonderful sausages
toast
tomatoes
mushrooms
two small deep fried waffles (2" square with jelly)
a potato wedge
a fried egg
orange juice
That's a Mucho English Breakfast
Then I jumped on the train to London, Waterloo Station to begin my search for a room for the weekend. Only thing I saw by Waterloo, where I will board the Euro Star train for Paris on Sunday, was a very old pub with rooms upstairs. The building reminded me of scenes from the "EL" in Chicago with elevated train tracks go past the upper floors of the little 4 story building on two sides. I rolled my luggage for a couple blocks, not liking the rundown, old, old hippy looking street folk and went back to the Waterloo Underground station to buy a day and weekend pass for the Underground and then back to Paddington where I knew there were several nice modest priced and good hotel rooms.
Viola! I am sitting again at the computer I used a couple days ago to write to each of you.
Off to buy theatre tickets, hopefully for Les Mis and
Phantom.
Ciao y'all
Wandering Alan
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