The Most Beautiful Church in the World...oh, and Stonehenge

Yesterday (Saturday), I went to the most beautiful church in the world. Now I realize that I may be slightly biased, and surely I have not seen all the churches in the world, but this must be up there. Salisbury Cathedral is a-mazing. It was built in 1220 over the course of 38 years, and it has Britain's tallest spire (404 feet). It has a copy of the Magna Carta. It contains the oldest working clock in Europe (from 1386), and it's just beautiful. I debated over whether or not to post a picture of the inside or outside -- the outside completely dwarfs you, it's so huge. The inside completely awes you -- the Gothic arches, the colors on the ceiling, the brilliant stained windows. And it never hurts when you are visiting while the Salisbury Musical Society is practicing for their Choir and Orchestra concert that very night while you are in the cathedral. I was transfixed. The acoustics are like nothing you would ever hear in the States, simply because we don't have churches of this magnitude, and a concert hall is just not the same as ancient stone arches that tower over you. Between the choir, orchestra, and spectators, there were probably about 300 people in the cathedral, and you would never have known it -- the space we took up was maybe a quarter of the church, maybe less. It was easy to imagine that you were sitting in a church hundreds of years ago, or that maybe you were listening to an angelic heavenly host sing as instruments soared. Pardon my seeming exaggeration, but truly I LOVE cathedrals, I love music, and I love feeling completely small in the grand scheme of history. And that is what I experienced -- there is nothing like it.

On the other hand, we visited Stonehenge, which I know many might say, "Why on earth did you title this post what you did? Wouldn't Stonehenge be the main attraction?" I love Stonehenge, and its history is fascinating, simply because no one really knows what it is and everyone tries to guess. I truly enjoyed being there in a good, staunch English rain in the middle of the countryside, with the wind gusting about, blowing everyone's umbrellas inside out (including mine -- we have some very entertaining pictures). It seemed to be the right mood, rather than sunshine and roses.....Stonehenge is so mysterious. However, it loses a little bit of something when it is roped off and you walk around it with a large crowd (not unlike a herd of cattle....slightly less moo-ing :0) on a guided path. It's difficult to get a picture without a LOT of other people being in the background.....or a sign that says, "Keep off the grass" in the foreground. And it tends to be smaller than your imagination would suppose. But I still enjoy the visit -- I would love to know how those stones made it from the Welsh countryside to the middle of England that many years ago. On a funny note, we saw a man who called himself a Druid priest (and his girlfriend) posing behind a protest sign that said, "Return Stonehenge to its natural environs." I am curious about a couple of things -- 1) does that mean you want to tote the 50-ton stones back to Wales where they came from?, 2) I'm just a little bit curious about his motives for saving nature, especially when his girlfriend was wearing a black leather coat, and he's puffing away on a cigarette while talking on a cellphone in the middle of the meadow with his Druidic garb on (he kind of looked like he was dressed up for a King Arthur movie). It doesn't seem very....Druid. Just wondering. We also saw a man who was using dowsing rods to harness the "magical energy" under the ground there at Stonehenge -- he did a "demonstration" for us, holding these little rods in his hands, and when they crossed each other, he said had found the magical energy. I don't know where people get some of their ideas. A little too strange for me.

I apologize for there not being any spaces between paragraphs -- sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't :0)