London Day 3 - Stonehenge
On our 3rd day in London, we took a tour out to stonehenge. Our tour bus was a little mercedes minivan with comfy seets for about 15 people. Besides Mom, Mandy and I there was a family of 3 from Michigan.
We stopped in Avesbury first, where the standing stones are located. They mark out a magnetic field, which you can see using two L-Shaped metal rods. The rods cross over each other at the point where you are crossing the field. The stones weren't the only attraction, the village itself was beautiful and there were herds of sheep and cows all around as well as a crop circle. The villagers had put a 50 gallon drum covered by a lid with a slot in it for visitors to donate pounds. Our guide mentioned that the "aliens" might choose to make crop circles in fields that might not net as much profit as a tourist attraction. I'm not much for crop circles or aliens, but I found walking through the field of wheat very calming. Everything was so slow and serene. It was very soothing.
We continued on across more serene countryside. There were 2 helicopters in the sky, circling the various crop circles, filled with photographers who had payed 300 pounds each for the privilege, according to our guide. There was a horse carved into the chalk hillside in one town we passed. Apparently, the horse dates back several hundred years. Apparently someone imitated the artist who had been going around carving horses for villages. He took 50 gold coins from the town and then left after finishing the head of the horse. He was later caught and hung in the town square for his thievery and the villagers completed the horse.
We then passed a group of train spotters hanging out on a bridge in the middle of nowhere waiting for the Flying Scotsman, which was running 40 minutes late. When they talked about trains, they sounded like me talking about poker. "I remember when the Scotsman ran to hot and warped the rails back in August of 87". "I picked up a set of 7 Steam Train DVDs off ebay. Some Canadian chap was selling the lot for 30 pound." and so on. It really doesn't get much more English than this, one of the spotters told us, when he found out we were on vacation from the states.
We then went to Stonehenge, which is out in the middle of this field all by itself. There is a little tourist center and shop with a tunnel going under the road to the rocks. Despite the touristy trappings, the stones themselves still exude a certain ancient mystique. The fact that these huge rocks were hewn from sometimes hundreds of miles away and carried back to this spot for reasons that are still debated today left my mind spinning while I admired them. Why did they carry the rocks from so far away. What would motivate ancient man to complete such a herculean task which spanned several hundred years in its making. Mom and Mandy and I were able to get a few pictures taken before the rain kicked up and we had to seek shelter in the tunnel.
After stonehenge, we went to the nearby village and ate at the local pub. I had the roast again and mom and Mandy had the meat pies. The food was good and the beer was much cheaper than in London. it was only 2 pounds for a pint, where London beer regularly costs 4 pounds. Hand pumped cellar cooled ale is really tasty. I was a little skeptical about warm ale, but it is so good. The ale is flavorful enough that it works at slightly warmer temperatures. It's not as carbonated as cold lagers we're used to in America, but that also works better with the warmer serving temperature. Over lunch, we found out that the family that was taking the tour with us, was not taking the tube while in London as they were worried about the bombings. They had been taking cabs everywhere, which must have cost them a fortune. Cab rides of decent length were averaging us about 15 to 20 pounds each.
When we were finished with lunch, we went to the Salisbury Cathedral. There they have the original Magna Carta, which I finally saw in person after hearing about it in all those high school history books. There is a lot of ridiculous etcetera that accompanies the historically important precedents. Perhaps the most egregiously profane of these is the line that states that a husband may only beat his wife with a cane no larger in diameter than his pinky. Back when it was written, it was all the etcetera that people cared about more than the important precedents it set. It was more of a practical solution to what was viewed as a temporary political problem.
We hung out in the town a while and got some gelato and chocolate and then we were back on the bus to go home. The driver got a call from his company, who asked him to drop off the van somewhere far from the other families hotel so he asked them if he could drop them off near a tube station they could reach their hotel from. I don't know whether he had not heard them at lunch or was specifically forgetting to get back at them for being too scared to take the tube. Eventually he gave in and took them to their hotel, telling the rest of us afterwards that anyone who lives their life that scared is already dead. I understood the fathers concern for his family, but I also agreed with the tour guide in that you aren't living if you're living scared. The father's concerns would be proved correct the next day though.
After we got home and had some decent but not outstanding Indian food, mom and Mandy went to bed as Mandy was fighting a cold and mom's foot was bothering her after a day full of walking, so I caught a double decker bus to the Gutshot Poker Collective. There was only Pot-limit available so I set down 70 pounds and proceeded to fold a bunch of busted draws. When I was at about half my stack, I caught a flush with my suited ace and tripled up. Then I doubled up on trip 8s that survived a flush on the board. Then in the only hand that I won using any skill, I broke a player with a double backdoor Ace high flush. I had raised the pot before the flop with an Ace Jack offsuit and was called by the aggressive player who was steaming from an earlier loss to me. The flop had two hearts but didn't hit me so I checked and so did he. Figuring that he must have missed the flop as he bet every pot that was checked to him, i bet the minimum on the turn as another heart came out as a sort of defensive semi bluff, figuring to be raised if he hit his flush and he called. When another heart came out, giving me the nut flush, I quickly bet the pot to pretend like I was bluffing in the hopes he had a decent diamond and had called with a weaker flush draw on the turn. Luckily he had a queen of hearts and called all in. At this point I had nearly quintupled my stack so I decided to leave as I was getting tired and we had to leave the next day for France.
We stopped in Avesbury first, where the standing stones are located. They mark out a magnetic field, which you can see using two L-Shaped metal rods. The rods cross over each other at the point where you are crossing the field. The stones weren't the only attraction, the village itself was beautiful and there were herds of sheep and cows all around as well as a crop circle. The villagers had put a 50 gallon drum covered by a lid with a slot in it for visitors to donate pounds. Our guide mentioned that the "aliens" might choose to make crop circles in fields that might not net as much profit as a tourist attraction. I'm not much for crop circles or aliens, but I found walking through the field of wheat very calming. Everything was so slow and serene. It was very soothing.
We continued on across more serene countryside. There were 2 helicopters in the sky, circling the various crop circles, filled with photographers who had payed 300 pounds each for the privilege, according to our guide. There was a horse carved into the chalk hillside in one town we passed. Apparently, the horse dates back several hundred years. Apparently someone imitated the artist who had been going around carving horses for villages. He took 50 gold coins from the town and then left after finishing the head of the horse. He was later caught and hung in the town square for his thievery and the villagers completed the horse.
We then passed a group of train spotters hanging out on a bridge in the middle of nowhere waiting for the Flying Scotsman, which was running 40 minutes late. When they talked about trains, they sounded like me talking about poker. "I remember when the Scotsman ran to hot and warped the rails back in August of 87". "I picked up a set of 7 Steam Train DVDs off ebay. Some Canadian chap was selling the lot for 30 pound." and so on. It really doesn't get much more English than this, one of the spotters told us, when he found out we were on vacation from the states.
We then went to Stonehenge, which is out in the middle of this field all by itself. There is a little tourist center and shop with a tunnel going under the road to the rocks. Despite the touristy trappings, the stones themselves still exude a certain ancient mystique. The fact that these huge rocks were hewn from sometimes hundreds of miles away and carried back to this spot for reasons that are still debated today left my mind spinning while I admired them. Why did they carry the rocks from so far away. What would motivate ancient man to complete such a herculean task which spanned several hundred years in its making. Mom and Mandy and I were able to get a few pictures taken before the rain kicked up and we had to seek shelter in the tunnel.
After stonehenge, we went to the nearby village and ate at the local pub. I had the roast again and mom and Mandy had the meat pies. The food was good and the beer was much cheaper than in London. it was only 2 pounds for a pint, where London beer regularly costs 4 pounds. Hand pumped cellar cooled ale is really tasty. I was a little skeptical about warm ale, but it is so good. The ale is flavorful enough that it works at slightly warmer temperatures. It's not as carbonated as cold lagers we're used to in America, but that also works better with the warmer serving temperature. Over lunch, we found out that the family that was taking the tour with us, was not taking the tube while in London as they were worried about the bombings. They had been taking cabs everywhere, which must have cost them a fortune. Cab rides of decent length were averaging us about 15 to 20 pounds each.
When we were finished with lunch, we went to the Salisbury Cathedral. There they have the original Magna Carta, which I finally saw in person after hearing about it in all those high school history books. There is a lot of ridiculous etcetera that accompanies the historically important precedents. Perhaps the most egregiously profane of these is the line that states that a husband may only beat his wife with a cane no larger in diameter than his pinky. Back when it was written, it was all the etcetera that people cared about more than the important precedents it set. It was more of a practical solution to what was viewed as a temporary political problem.
We hung out in the town a while and got some gelato and chocolate and then we were back on the bus to go home. The driver got a call from his company, who asked him to drop off the van somewhere far from the other families hotel so he asked them if he could drop them off near a tube station they could reach their hotel from. I don't know whether he had not heard them at lunch or was specifically forgetting to get back at them for being too scared to take the tube. Eventually he gave in and took them to their hotel, telling the rest of us afterwards that anyone who lives their life that scared is already dead. I understood the fathers concern for his family, but I also agreed with the tour guide in that you aren't living if you're living scared. The father's concerns would be proved correct the next day though.
After we got home and had some decent but not outstanding Indian food, mom and Mandy went to bed as Mandy was fighting a cold and mom's foot was bothering her after a day full of walking, so I caught a double decker bus to the Gutshot Poker Collective. There was only Pot-limit available so I set down 70 pounds and proceeded to fold a bunch of busted draws. When I was at about half my stack, I caught a flush with my suited ace and tripled up. Then I doubled up on trip 8s that survived a flush on the board. Then in the only hand that I won using any skill, I broke a player with a double backdoor Ace high flush. I had raised the pot before the flop with an Ace Jack offsuit and was called by the aggressive player who was steaming from an earlier loss to me. The flop had two hearts but didn't hit me so I checked and so did he. Figuring that he must have missed the flop as he bet every pot that was checked to him, i bet the minimum on the turn as another heart came out as a sort of defensive semi bluff, figuring to be raised if he hit his flush and he called. When another heart came out, giving me the nut flush, I quickly bet the pot to pretend like I was bluffing in the hopes he had a decent diamond and had called with a weaker flush draw on the turn. Luckily he had a queen of hearts and called all in. At this point I had nearly quintupled my stack so I decided to leave as I was getting tired and we had to leave the next day for France.
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