45 lines
3.3 KiB
Markdown
45 lines
3.3 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: 'Day 14: Swindon to Folkestone'
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date: 2013-06-21T15:04:04+02:00
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Tags: []
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Categories: []
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---
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## Summer solstice
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For quite a few years already, summer solstice has been happening on either June 20th or June 21st (usually the 21st). In fact, it is
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believed that somewhere between 4000 and 5000 years ago people already knew about this event (see also our post about the Newgrange and
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Knowth visit, a couple of days ago). Not too long after Newgrange and Knowth were constructed, some ancient guys in prehistoric England
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built this other thing we now know as Stonehenge, to celebrate the longest day of the year.
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Unbeknownst to us, however, this celebration is still (or more likely: again) happening in modern days. And to this end, a gazillion hippies
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show up in Amesbury, pitch up their tents and crowd the site. Of course, full is full, so if you show up at 10 am on a cloudy Friday morning
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after driving for 3500 miles to get there, you're waaay too late: access is blocked by local police. On the one day that we decide to visit
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Stonehenge, they close off the site! Just our luck...
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We rethink our approach: the stones can be seen from the road, the Merc has a sunroof, our little Canon camera has a 12x optical zoom and
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traffic along the A303 is pretty slow because of the police blockades. Righto! As Pim slowly drives along Stonehenge I stand on the
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passenger seat and shoot as many pictures as I can. Fixed :) For good measure, we also drive up to Woodhenge (not as interesting, sadly) and
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then we're off.
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Our next stop is London! Of course, it's quite busy in the city but we arrive without any damage to the car and go to the Google office for
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some lunch and to catch up with a couple of Dutch Googlers. Then we're off, on foot, to check out the various highlights London has to
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offer. We first see Trafalgar Square. Next up are Buckingham palace, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, St Paul's
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Cathedral (no Whispering Gallery, as access was blocked for some event), The Tower and Tower bridge. We walked quite a bit, and are not
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looking forward to walking back. Next London experience: the tube!
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We take the District line from Tower Hill to Victoria station (where we parked the car). Hungry as we are by now, we're looking for some
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good food. Eventually we end up at Ristorante Santini. Pim has the Vitello Tonato and I have the Proscuito for starters. We both have a
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Filetto Santini. Very nice! Some cheese to finish a great meal and we're ready to get driving again. We have one less pleasing surprise
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waiting for us as we get back to the parking lot. All in all, we left the car in the car park for 7 hours and 5 minutes. At 5 pounds an
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hour, that comes down to 40 pounds please. That beats Amsterdam!
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Anyway... We get going and program the satnav for Folkestone: we have an early train to catch. The drive is pretty uneventful, except for
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crossing the Prime Meridian pretty early on (although nobody else on the road seems to care; quaint!). We once again make good time and get
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to our hotel just after 10. The hotel is a bit shady, but it'll have to do. We're not here for long anyway. So tomorrow is at least my last
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day of roadtripping, when we drive back to The Netherlands. We'll have some dinner and then Pim will continue to his parents so he has a
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little head start for the drive back to Zurich on Sunday. It has been epic!
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**Posted by Paul de Weerd at 3:52 PM**
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