What have we been up to lately? With the move, broadband wars, the TV guy who (apparently) doesn’t want to do the job (or at least at 4:15 on Friday he wasn’t up to the challenge) and the day to day stuff it suddenly became May! It’s all been good (British telecom/Skye TV aside) but I haven’t really thought much about blogging. Or else have simply been too tired. Oh the days of hotel living when someone else cleaned the floor…

Last week Claire and I had a delightful day – she had Thurs. free so we went to the Natural History Museum to check out 1) dinosaurs 2) mammals and 3) some human biology. In that order per Claire. (Glad we didn’t get too in depth on the latter; I’m not ready for some of those conversations, and some of the exhibits were pretty clear.)

The museum is IMMENSE and even if we are here for three years I doubt if we’ll see all of it (something like 15 miles worth of exhibits). The dinosaur exhibit is way cool, mammal stuff we enjoyed too – though having recently been to the zoo we weren’t as captivated. And Claire enjoyed the video of baby growing in utero. We finished w/ pasties and shepherd’s pie for lunch (so British, right?).

Friday evening Joe and I wandered Piccadilly Circus; it was a gorgeous day so tons of people were out and about, some pig flu activists (?) looking for an audience, among other things. We landed on an inviting Mediterranean café for dinner – great lamb. I must say that’s my meat of choice here; beef has been a bit of a disappointment. Save that for the good old USA!

Eggs here are great too – big, brown and yolks are golden. The real thing. (Why don’t they refrigerate them, though? I don’t get that. I got it in India…refrigeration is hit and miss for meat, let alone anything that might have a shelf life of its own for awhile.)

Scones of course rock. Kidney pie and other internal organs haven’t grabbed me yet. Don’t hold your breath on any reviews from me on that stuff. Let’s focus though; I’ll eat raw fish (sushi rocks) but a cooked kidney: NO Way. Now does that make any sense?!?

Suffice it to say plenty of great food options in this town…I could go on all day about the cheese and bread alone. Each time I buy cheese I get a different type. I’m most impressed w/ the kids; they’ve found a goat cheese they love.

Over the weekend we headed off to Stonehenge with my Ancient Britain class. Saturday was a gorgeous day, we got an early start and were whisked out of London via ASL school bus into gorgeous green rolling countryside. A stark contrast to busy London and absolutely gorgeous.

Our trip was a family friendly event with kids of a variety of ages – Ava up to teenagers. The girls hit it off with another girl on the trip, and we all spent lots of time outside, so kids had fun running wild around monuments that date to 3000 B.C. (Let’s focus; 3000 B.C. And I think of the medieval ages as long ago.)

Stonehenge itself is roped off so you can’t get as up close and personal as you used to (first time I was there in high school we leaned on the stones and had photos taken). Apparently after bits of the stone were being ratcheted off, some security measures were put in place. No, the class from Dillon, Montana, didn’t make off w/ pieces of Stonehenge, though I wonder what they’d go for on ebay?

However, when we went to Avebury, another ancient monument with big stones carefully positioned, much like Stonehenge in terms of size of stones and deliberate “presentation,” sheep are grazing near the big stones (so we judiciously dodged the doo doo) and we could touch and examine them (the stones, the sheep not so much).

We did the audio tour of Stonehenge, listened to much conjecture about the site, some of the old myths surrounding it and pondered over its meaning, how it came to be and why, and why then did its use fizzle…

Any ideas?

From Stonehenge we headed to the Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes, founded in 1853. It is housed in the old Victorian Devizes Grammar School and two Georgian houses on either side, housing artefacts from famous excavations on Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Downs.

After checking out the Bronze and Iron age exhibits, we checked into The Bear Hotel, just up the street in Devizes, a small market town in the heart of the English county of Wiltshire, southern UK.

Across the street from the Bear Hotel was a market so lots of activity on a Saturday morning.

And with regard to the Bear Hotel, it too has a historical past it's been in business for 3 centuries. Not only have famous patrons such as ourselves stayed there, King George III and Queen Charlotte were guests a while back. (Apparently she noted – in 1817 – that she had an “elegant repast” at the Bear and that the landlord put at her disposal “10 pairs of horses as fine as any were put to harness.”

We had lunch at the hotel (bright green mashed peas, among other things), then headed off to see West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill. The former is one of the most well-preserved burial chambers in Britain. It extends 10 meters into a mound, consists of five separate chambers and is thought to have been constructed around 3500 B.C. It was used for 1,000 years, then sealed with chalk rubble and huge sarcen boulders (sarcen being a very hard rock).

Excavation revealed that 50 people were buried within the tomb.

Nearby is Silbury Hill, another prehistoric monument: a 130-ft. high man-made chalk mound. Archaeologists calculate that it was built about 4750 years ago and that it took 18 million man-hours, or 500 men working 15 years to deposit and shape 8.75 million feet of earth and fill on top of a natural hill.

Phew. Makes me tired even thinking about it.

From there we crashed at the hotel, wandered the town and had dinner at the George and Dragon, a nearby Gastropub. Good food, good company!

On Saturday after breakfast at The Bear we piled on the bus, this time to Avebury, the largest known stone ring in the world. Like Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments in Britain, Avebury was added to and altered during several periods. It is estimated that Avebury was used for around 2300 years and may have been the most significant sacred site in all of Britain, if not Europe.

We spent some time at two museums in Avebury – the Barn Gallery (great exhibit, very kid friendly) and the Alexander Keiller Museum – then wandered some nearby gardens and had lunch at the National Trust restaurant.

Our last prehistoric chapter was a walk through Avebury with Mike Pitts, editor of British Archeology (and expert in all things Avebury).

He provided great insight which frankly I’m too tired to regurgitate at the moment. Suffice it to say he brought the Ancient Britain class material alive with his expertise and obvious passion for his work. With him we traipsed the hills past ancient stones as they wound their way toward the two circles, where sheep roam and through which a village sits. Again, a lovely setting.

After quick tea we headed back to London with a bit deeper understanding of Britain B.C. (or with more questions about what really did take place around these stones so long ago...).