Stonehenge and Winchester

Last Saturday, November 14, I accomplished one of my life goals that I never thought I'd actually get to accomplish until I was really old and actually saved up some money: I went to Stonehenge! I went with an international student group at the university and after Stonehenge we went to Winchester, the capital of England for part of the Middle Ages starting when King Alfred defeated a Viking invasion in the 900's.

Stonehenge sits on a hill and is very open with no trees in the immediate area, so it gets very, very windy. It happened that we went during a big storm that lasted a few days. I couldn't really keep my eyes open facing the wind and rain that felt like needles (even with my glasses) so this was the best picture I got of me:


And here are a few other pictures of Stonehenge from when the rain cleared a little but was still pretty windy:






After Stonehenge we headed to Winchester, which was nearby. It was originally a Roman walled city, and although we didn't see any Roman walls, the medieval walls were built directly where the original Roman walls had been and the medieval walls still remain in some parts:


The city has the ruins of two castles. This one, Wolvesey Castle, built in 1110 AD, was the home of the Bishop of nearby Winchester Cathedral and the medieval wall picture just before this one is right next to it:


Very close to Wolvesey Castle is Winchester Cathedral, the longest Gothic Cathedral in Europe and overall one of the biggest:


This is only part of the Cathedral, there's a lot more on the other side:


It was pretty impressive inside too:


One room was blocked off but they left an opening to take pictures through because it's pretty amazing. It's a small room with a few pews and has a few medieval wall drawings:




And the choir was practicing while I was there, so I got some video:


Not far away one of the medieval gates still stands:


And another gate still stands as well:


I mentioned that there are the ruins of two castles, and this is the other one, Winchester Castle, built in 1067 by William the Conqueror. This is all that remains of the castle that housed the monarchy:


And, you can walk a little ways inside:


The only medieval building not in ruins within this ancient walled city is the Great Hall, built (well, rebuilt) in 1222-1235 (Max is pictured as well):


Hanging on the wall is a replica of King Arthur's legendary Round Table, with the names of each of his knights on it and is built to the specifications of the myths. It was built in about 1275, but Henry VIII had it repainted in the 1500's and that is how it looks now:

King Arthur, if he actually existed, would have lived in the 500's.