Wonders; man made and natural

Our unplanned trip to England has allowed us to visit two sites we've longed to see.  First was

Stonehenge

To get to Stonehenge we took a train north to neighboring town of Salisbury, a small town famous for the Salisbury Cathedral with the tallest church spire in the UK, and having one the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta.  From there a bus took us to the Stonehenge site.  From the visitor's site the options were to take a shuttle out to the Stonehenge or 25 minute walk, we chose to walk.  Past a grove a trees, thru a field of cows grazing on ancient burial mounds and trenches which are part of the overall acres of architectural history of the site.


Finally, past the cows, you could see the Stones.  Stonehenge is incredible, although the image is familiar, seeing it in person from all different angles was spellbinding. It is an engineering marvel, especially for someone who has trouble assembling an Ikea cabinet.

It was hilarious though, that we approached it walking through a bucolic setting, yet just on the other side of Stonehenge was a busy road a hundred yards away with a full view of Stonehenge.  Lots of rubber-necking causing traffic to back up significantly just like the LA freeways when there's a ruin on the road.

On the way back the the bus dropped us off at the Old Sarum site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury and ruins of a castle dating back to the 400's.
We didn't make the connection until that night reading the news, that Salisbury was the town where the two Russian agents went in March and poisoned the Skirpals, the former Russian spy and his daughter.  Crazy! Someone told us the next day that tourism to the area has been down since the incident.




The Severn Bore
Something we've wanted to see for years and the timing was perfect.  From wikipedia- A tidal bore, often simply given as bore in context, is a tidal phenomenon in which the leading edge of the incoming ocean tide forms a wave (or waves) of water that travels up a river or narrow bay against the direction of the river or bay's current. 

It happens about 10 times a year on the River Severn in Gloucester.  There are multiple places where you can view it along the river, and somehow we chose the most dangerous and difficult to approach on foot at Overbridge.  Basically, we had to walk across, on and along a freeway to an overpass bridge.  It would be similar to walking the 101 freeway in hopes of seeing a portion of the LA River.

We assumed it would be popular and crowded, although none of locals at the hotel we spoke to the night before has heard of it.  The popularity of our spot was confirmed when we noted we were first to arrive and were eventually joined by just two other senior couples, one local and the other from Scotland.  Two more couples eventually stopped by, although one may have been just walking their dog.  
But, it was well worth it, just an incredible natural occurrence to witness.

We walked back to town, finding a seemingly safer and quieter wooded route but then we had to pass some unfriendly looking cows, forcing us to hop a barbed wire fence to avoid them.
The bore happens twice a day for a couple days, but the night viewings are described as more night hearing. We saw it again the next morning this time we took a bus to the Severn Bore Inn to view and enjoy a cup of tea.  Novel for us to consider seeing something  in a civilized fashion. 
This was a much more pleasant setting, on a patio with a cup of tea.  A proper English bore.  Joining us for tea and breakfast was a little larger crowd about 15 people , including the couple with the dog. This one was also a tamer less wild bore; perhaps because the river was wider at this portion (?).  If lucky a surfer can ride the waves for miles (the record is 12 miles).  A couple of surfers washed up at the Severn Inn shore, one joking that he was able to ride it for miles, before admitting he made it about 15 meters.  Then they were off in a van to try to catch the wave further up the road.

Gloucester is a mid sized city,  with quaint but slightly worn shopping lanes, and a Cathedral but otherwise indistinct.

The Cathedral, however was impressive and they really made an effort to highlight how it was made, the craftsman who made and maintain it; the plaster, the stones and the stained glass.

And a bonus were the special tour groups of Harry Potter fans, since parts of the movies were filmed in the cathedral's historic cloisters.
After Gloucester, we are still trying to decide where to go in the next few weeks.  It seems every British town has a hook to bring in tourists; cathedral, medieval walls, thatched huts, TV show locations, oldest pub, etc,  although, all are pretty darn nice on their own.  Someone suggested we visit a village in Wales because it is the smallest town/village to have a cathedral.  Oookay.
The problem with getting advice from locals regarding places to visit is that everyone recommends somewhere different.  There are so many good places to see.  Which is amazing for considering the size of the UK.  United Kingdom is about the same size as Wyoming, and sorry Cowboys, but I don't think there are as many places worth visiting in Wyoming.

The best part about getting advice is listening to the English accent.  No matter what people say, even the most inane snippet we hear on the street sounds either very intelligent or very funny.  Possibly a product of growing up on Masterpiece Theater and Monty Python.  Out of curiosity we searched online to see if Europeans like American accents-the answer was a resounding "No" maybe with the exception of southern accents to some extent.  Part of the dislike mentioned was also just the loudness and general rudeness of Americans.  So, we try to be polite and keep our mouths shut.