7/30 (Thursday) – Stonehenge, Stourhead Garden, St. Mawes

Today we woke to a gorgeous morning with blue, blue skies and some light fluffy clouds.  It is still a bit chilly but it certainly beats the rain that followed us on our cruise. 

First stop today was Stonehenge.  There is a very modern looking visitor’s center from which you catch a bus out to the site. 

The area is covered with many barrows (Stone Age earth works, usually with burial chambers), stones and other archeological features. 


Three Barrows in the distance.

One could spend an entire day walking the paths and viewing the open sites. 

After circling Stonehenge circle we toured the excellent exhibition at the tourist center. The timeline for activity showed the starting dates to be from about 5000BC with most of the ring construction occurring around 2500BC.  The exhibition provided excellent timeline information and also had some great models showing the site over time.  This was followed by a trip through the gift shop with everything Stonehenge (including chocolates shaped like the stones). 

After leaving windy Stonehenge we headed west across the Salisbury Plains to Stourhead Gardens, only about a half hour away.  We got there in time for lunch (important things first) and then headed to the garden.  The main garden focal point was a large manmade lake with gorgeous vistas no matter which way you look.

The path around the lake was about a mile long with constantly changing views

and took us by the Temple of Flora and the Pantheon (a very small one similar to the one in Rome) complete with statuary...

a grotto, and the Temple of Apollo. 

The setting was gorgeous with massive trees (including a 150 year old California Redwood), and dozens of rhododendron bushes/trees.  Most of the rhodies were no longer in bloom but we found a few tucked away that still looked pretty good. 

We may have to come back again just to see the rhododendrons in bloom.  Probably May/Early June. 

There seemed to be no end of interesting little buildings, blooming flowers and even a water wheel.

And of course there was the usual interesting little church.

Then we were off on a three+ hour drive down Cornwall to St. Mawes.  St. Mawes is a small fishing (and tourist) village right on the ocean.  And our hotel was right on the waterfront with our rooms on the third floor overlooking the water and harbor.  It’s in a really great location, except for the very loud boat horn that the yacht club next door blew every time a boat in some race pulled in to the harbor.  Fortunately the noise didn’t last too late.

And the view at night was spectacular.