Brian May and Kerry Ellis announced a few tour dates to raise awareness of the Born Free foundation and I quickly concluded I could do with a little break like this. So I checked which of their dates happened at a weekend, followed by looking up where exactly Salisbury is. At this point I didn’t know yet that the silly* English lot pronounce the name of this place with more ‘soul’, sort of. And I only just found out that the famous Stonehenge would be around the corner of the gig! Of all the times I’ve been to England, I’ve never seen this prehistoric monument and besides the plans of being a proper tourist, it also happened to be the place where an astronomy buddy of mine lives. So this is just to show (off) what a wonderful time I had that weekend…
Heerlen > Hook of Holland > Harwich > London > Salisbury
It was the Saturday Saint Nicolas would arrive in the Netherlands, in my county even, but I really didn’t want to miss Brian and Kerry on stage together. I don’t really know Kerry, but I loved her ever since I saw her in We Will Rock You. And ’39 – my favourite song of all time really – was on their set list. I had also already downloaded their new single, Born Free, so I could listen to them while on my way. I love travelling, the looking forward to the destination and the experiences in between (‘cause after all, it’s just as much about the journey eh).
And I love trains. They’re fast and cosy and warm and they get you to places. Trains, really, I love you. On the first one, there were two boys – probably half my age. Believe it or not, they were talking about Paul McCartney, Deep Purple and: how rad Brian May is! I just sat there smiling and thinking I’d see him tomorrow. On the ferry-boat it was crowded and I already had so much fun – with just these strangers and myself – that I sighed on twitter how great life is, before I fell asleep in my cabin. Upon arrival in the harbour, there was a replacement bus to London. A very comfy coach I should add, even though we were driving on the wrong* side of the road, as they roll here.
* I should probably make clear I only say this stuff to wind up my British friends, so no offence. In fact, England is very dear to me. Which is why it is kind of remarkable I only now noticed that the handles in Central line trains are red and the Bakerloo line ones are brown. Genius! From Liverpool Street to Waterloo I wondered why people often complain about foggy weather. It’s pretty. At Waterloo station, I took the so-manieth picture of the We Will Rock You sign (which had been a while), before I went on, still Salisbury-bound. They had said Salisbury wouldn’t be sunny, but the Sun seemed to have followed me here. Did I mention life is great?
How lovely Brian and Born Free led me here! I dropped my backpack off at my hotel and took a picture of the view. Then I found the tour bus, which stopped at Old Sarum and Stonehenge. A lovely lady there offered to take my picture outside of the monument even, where you could feel the differences between the different stones. I took many pictures myself as I walked around this impressive ancient monument. One of the World Heritage Sites. I did read a bit about it and how it might have an astronomical origin. But most of all, the idea that those impressive stones were put there all those thousands of years ago, left me in awe.
And an interesting biological fact: there live about 90 (!) different kinds of lichen on these stones. The crows didn’t care about any of this as they flew from one stone to another, I concluded with one last glance before I got on the bus back to my hotel. In the bar I met up with Nick Howes, a.k.a. Nick Astronomer, who turned out an excellent tour guide. He showed me around the beautiful Cathedral, before we sat down for tea at a perfect place called (!) The Mill. We had a bite to eat and some interesting astronomical discussions, before we parted ways again. My way went to the City Hall…
3 Comments
Great pictures. I was trying to work out where you took the one across the rooftops from – did you stay at the Cathedral Hotel? What was it like?
Thank you. Yes I did and it was lovely!
Lovely, I like the blanket of autumn leaves under the tree!