Stonehenge and the Demolitionless Derby: November, 2005

Stonehenge, of course, is a remarkable site.

What is it?

Who built it?

Why did they build it out in the middle of nowhere?

(Editor's note 4/2/17: Because we had no guide, those questions remained unanswered.  Then again, at best the guide could have only hazarded guesses based on incomplete information, much like Al Gore.  Years later, I read a novel about the area, "Sarum" by Edward Rutherford, and if you're going to this region, it would be a good book to read on your trip.)

A beautiful sunset enhanced our experience of this strange place (though it is hard to tell from my pictures).

Although backtracking to the Cotswalds to find a B & B appealed to me, I was outvoted, and we headed toward London.

As we drove north from Stonehenge, we intended to find a quaint B& B about thirty miles south of London, from which we could easily approach the city in the morning.

Since we would be going against the traffic flooding out of London in the evening, we weren't concerned about rush hour.

We failed to consider the effect of rush hour on round-abouts, which in the U.K. replace our familiar freeway onramps and offramps.

In addition, the Brits don't seem to believe overhead lighting to be necessary on their motorways, so we essentially found ourselves surrounded by blinding headlights in a pitch black world where waves of cars go screaming through circular deathtraps.

To keep it all interesting, we were in a right hand drive car with a stick shift going clockwise around these mini-race tracks, trying to guess which exit from the roundabout had our name on it.

After finding ourselves more in the suburbs than the countryside, and not having particularly good luck in finding a B & B, we decided to go back to the Holiday Inn in Maidenhead where we comfortably spent our first night in England.

Since this was now Monday night, however, business travelers had filled the hotel by the time we arrived, and somewhat less dramatically than Mary and Joseph, we were turned away from the Inn.

On our way out of Maidenhead the previous morning, we had spotted a couple of likely prospects.

The better of the two, a mid-sized hotel, was also filled with business travelers, so we opted for a small B & B hotel, the Clifton Guest House, at 60 pounds per double occupancy room (about $102).

After a couple of hours of hard driving that followed a long day of touring fascinating places, we gratefully accepted the rooms available, which were clean and had fresh sheets.

We walked into Maidenhead where, after leaving several pubs deemed too smoky by the ladies, we dined on American cuisine at McDonald's.We passed on breakfast at the B& B, which had an odd smell in the breakfast room.