Treasure London’s Blog
Did anybody else just feel an Earthquake? Just a slight shaking here in North London for a matter of seconds… my housemate stood next to me didn’t even notice.
According to technorati, it was felt (and stronger) as far away as Sheffield. That must be a massive quake by UK standards, wonder where the epicentre was and what scale it was? Guess the news will tell us in the morning, meanwhile I’m going to read some blogs.
Answer: Lincoln! Magnitude 4.7
I spent the weekend out of London. It’s always nice to leave London - not only do you get a new experience, but you appreciate the city comforts all the more.
We visited a classic British tourist attraction - Stonehenge. I’ve heard bad things about Stonehenge… most people I’ve spoken to have said it is a disappointing experience: it topped a poll of worst UK tourist attractions. I’ve heard the nearby circle at Avebury is better, but I guess they’re much the same.
I didn’t find Stonehenge itself so bad. I was, after all, expecting to see a pile of stones near a main road. It served as a pleasant break to our journey, I daydreamed a bit about the romance of the stones.
But I was very annoyed with the information provided. An attendant claimed that only one stone had been righted in modern times (whereas the internet confirms that all the stones have been carefully positioned within the last 50 years - see also Constable) and there seemed to be no available information about religious groups’ use of Stonehenge. Pictures of a closed circle as a “complete” Stonehenge with no evidence were offered as though they were realistic depictions of what it would have genuinely looked like.
The modern history of Stonehenge is where the interest lies for me - what exactly do neo-Druids find interesting or spiritual about a pile of rocks? How exactly has its look changed over the years? Why has this arrangement of stones been chosen as most authentic?
English Heritage deserve the title of worst tourist attraction if only because there is so much more they could be offering beyond souvenir pencils. Oh well.
More on my holiday will follow later in the week…
Ronald - Treasure London
