London! Day 2/5

Day 2:
A new day of adventures! Abel and I had booked the Camelot and Stonehenge tour for day 2 and we were to meet at Victoria Coach Station at 745 the next day! But we only reached back at 5am!! from the previous night's roaming! We were going to be so stoned looking at stonehenge! We made do with 1.5hrs of sleep and managed to wake up at 630am to take the train.

But the station entrance was locked. It finally opened at 715 and though we were near Victoria, it was a mad rush to reach there and find the meeting place to board the bus. But we made it just on time! phew! Yuanshuo had arrived the previous night and now we were 3! yay!

Our first stop for the day was Stonehenge! But not before a 2 hour bus ride to the outskits of London! Abel and I were so thankful! We slept like logs. And I think the bus driver/tour guide was deeply puzzled as to why his explanations of the sights were so boring.

But before long, we reached! Everyone was given a audio set and off we went to start the audio tour! There are numbers along the route that correspond to numbers on the audio set and there was a recording we could listen to for each number. The recording started with grand medivial drums. ba-bum-ba-bum...

Lo and Behold! Stonehenge! See for yourself just how large the stones are! Now imagine how the ancient builders managed to move the stones over 25 miles from the nearest stone quary to their present location. Mind you, each of the stones weighed up to 50 tonnes! There were certainly no mechanical lorries at 2500 BC! And worse still, Flintstones technology could no longer be used as the dinosaurs were already extinct!

And notice some of the stones have a horizontal piece resting above it? The horizontal piece is called a lintel. Just how on earth did they manage to place the lintels above the vertical stones? The exact method is still a mystery, but scholars believe the moving was achieved using a mix of horses, and ramps and the lintels was placed using pulleys and scaffoldings.

Stonehenge was initially built for pagan worship. And throughout the centuries, the pagans expanded the structure. It is thought that construction took place over 2000 years, but that the stones were erected around 2500BC. It was simply amazing staring at such this 5000 year old stucture and thinking how many hundreds of thousands of people had been involved in the construction and had been at this same site during their pagan rituals throughout the years. wow~


After we completed the route, it was back to the bus and towards Glastonbury Tor! The rest of the tour was to cover sites that were relevant to the legend of King Arthur! Glasonbury Tor is a hill that rises abruptly among the flat plains. It looks man-made, but is actually all-natural. According many scholars, Glastonbury Tor corresponds to Avalon in the King Arthur story. Avalon was the place where King Arthur was brought after his defeat at the Battle of Camlann.

Actually, the existence of King Arthur in Camelot with his knights of the round table as written in the great classic has yet to be proved factually, but many believe he was based on a great warrior leader in the 5th century. But who cares! The legend paints such a rich picture of the knight's code of chivalry and adventure; and of romance and righteousness! To me, King Arthur lives on!

At the top of the tor stands St Michael's tower, which is all that is left of St Michael's Church. The church had fallen into neglect during the Reformation years. This was also the site of the execution of a prolific figure long ago - The Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey. More on that in a while. In England, it seems that many stories and places involve some execution or other.
We took another path down the Tor and reached the Chalice Well. The Chalice Well is thought by some to be the location where King Arthur was miraculously healed after being mortally wounded during his final fight at the Battle of Camlann. In some versions, King Arthur was buried in Avalon. But in other traditions, people cannot bear to have the mightly King Arthur killed off. Instead, they believe King Arthur was healed and is now sleeping, waiting for the right moment to wake up.
Others claim the Chalice Well is the location where Joseph of Arithmathea hid the Holy Chalice used in the Last Supper, hence the name Chalice Well. Many believe the water to possess magical healing powers and there is scientific proof that the water magically gushes at a constant rate even during drought. The water of the spring is brownish-red and some say it symbolises the rusty iron nails used during the cruxifiction of Christ.
Next on the list is Glastonbury Abbey, just a short drive down the road. This was once a great Benedictine monastary, built in 712. But during the reign of big baddie Henry Vlll, many monastaries were looted and destroyed during the suppression of monastaries, including the great Glastonbury Abbey.

To put things into context, Henry Vlll had married Catherine of Aragon but Catherine was unable to give Henry a male heir. Henry intended to divorce Catherine and requested an annulment of his marriage from the Pope. But this was refused as the Catholic church believes marriage is very sacred and cannot be so easily annuled. Henry then made himself the Supreme Ruler of the Church of England. However, this changed the course of religion in England, which is now mostly Anglican instead of Catholic.

To prevent uprisings, Henry went about formally dissolving monastries where his greatest threats - the abbots and monks lived. He confiscated the land and sold off everything he could, destroying many religous relics and sculptures in the process. This is known as the Suppression of the Monastries. A great pity!

The Abbot of Glastonbury refused to hand over his abbey and was executed at st. Michael's church. Several other abbots met with the same end, but others had no choice but to relent. With the monastry dissolved, the Abbey fell into neglect. Now all that remains is its ruins. Wandering around, I cannot help but feel a tinge of sadness that such a majestic abbey had to be destroyed. It could very well have been like a St Paul's Cathedral!

Here's a site that purportedly marks the grave of where King Arthur and his wife Queen Guinevere were buried. The Glastonbury monks had claimed to have found their bodies in Glastonbury and relocated their tomb into the Abbey. For many years, this was a site of religious pilgrmage. But the tomb was destroyed and lost during the Reformation.

After that, we headed down to the town of Glastonbury for a walk. It was a small town and there were many new age religion shops along the streets - not surprising considering its past affiliation with King Arthur and Avalon.
Last on the itinery was a trip to see the Avebury Stones. This is a ring of huge stones that is similiar to Stonehenge. But it is slightly older than Stonehenge, but it is coarser made. The stones used were not finely chiselled into rectangular blocks but were simply chosen for their size and moved into location.

The stones were huge, some larger than the largest in Stonehenge. And the circle is also wider than that of Stonehenge. But many of the stones were already missing after so many thousands of years and in some places, a man-made stone structure is planted to mark where the original stone is supposed to lie.

Also, some of us tried our hands at dousing. With an L shaped metal rod in each hand, the douser would walk around in search of secret energies. Apparently, the rods would mysterious swing around to point towards the source of such energies. But nothing happened when they tried - the rods pointed straight and did not move. But I was standing in front of them. Does that mean???

That was the last stop of the tour. We had such a fun time! Actually, it started even before the tour - I was King Arthur, Abel was Lancelot and Yuanshuo was Gallahad. Oh, and my Excalibur is the longest and hardest around. Dinner was at Victoria Station, where Deep Pan Pizza had a pizza buffet for 5.99 pounds. It was ok. There were lots of pizzas available. And also a salad spread!

We headed back after that. And as luck would have it, we met our roommates at the Village! Just as we were getting ready to check-in! This time round, the girls were early! And we were all ready to party! We decided it was not a good idea to wander far away and shiver in the cold. So why not stay at home - The Village! The Village has a nice bar that serves lots of alcohol. And add good company to that mix and we've got the best cocktail ever!

We crapped and joked and had a whole lot of fun. It's just amazing how we managed to connect so well! All of us - Abel and I, 4 Swedish girls (Maria, Emma, Sara), an Italian (Marco), a French (Raphael) and we had another Italian tonight - Simon!
Here's some of the gang from the night! From left: Marco, Abel, Sara, Simon, Maria and me!

The bar sold something new - the B52! It was just like a normal shot, except it was sold in a small plastic cup. To consume, just open the metal wrap and drink! They were going for 1 pound (S$3) each.
And apparently 3 of our Swedish friends like the B52! From left: Maria, Emma and Sara!

After the bar had closed, we went to the Chill Out Room. The Village had this room with a big projector and nice comfy sofas. And there we chatted some more!

At 4am, there was only Maria, Sarah, Marco, Simon and I left. We passed by the bar and met the staff there who were having a round of drinks. And before long, we had joined them! Everyone's so friendly! There was Dave (the Aussie manager of the Village), the big-sized Michael (who works at a bar across the street) his pal, Roger (the heavily tatooed but very friendly Londoner) and several others. Too bad I didn't get a photo with all of them!

What a night! I only reached my room at 6am. Another day full of adventure. And breakfast would be served at 830am. wow!

The adventures continue in day 3!! Stay tuned!