Saturday, October 17, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
STONEHENGE, England
Stonehenge: Up Close and Personal ( Shared by my friend Chris in UK)
it has always been my dream to see the stonehenge in person and that dream was realized 3 weeks ago. a week before that, my friends and i were already busy checking for the train times and train fare, trying to figure out how we can spend less, planning our itenerary and of course checking on the weather for saturday, 9th july, the big day! everything was set. the 4 of us were excited. and then came thursday, 7th july, the atrocities in central london…
we had to make a decision. the decision was unanimous. no terror attack can stop us, we thought. we thought it was a clever idea not to inform our relatives that we’re on a "field trip" 2 days after the attacks as well. just show them the pictures later. hehehe…
we met at clapham junction, britain’s busiest railway station, at 8 am to catch the train to salisbury. nothing unusual in the train. thank god! it was an hour and 15 minutes train ride. we had to hurry up to catch the wilts and dorset number 3 bus going to stonehenge as buses run every hour, on the hour. we stopped at the tourist information centre to get our bus tickets and to collect "souvenir items" like leaflets, etc.
salisbury to stonehenge is a 30-minute bus ride. the bus stopped at amesbury bus station for a couple of minutes to collect other passengers. finally, the stonehenge, towering over the salisbury plain!
after paying for our tickets (£5.50/adult) and a short walk, the stonehenge stood there, infront of us. the feeling was indescribable (well, at least for me). others may find it boring (they’re just stones!). unfortunately, it is not allowed to touch the stones. it is enclosed with a rope, and mind you, there are lookouts everywhere so there is no chance to get inside the barrier. well, maybe it depends on how adventurous you are. you might fancy trying. hehehe. audio tours help you learn about it’s history and surroundings.
i would like to believe that there are 7 stations of the tour. the thing was, the 4 of us didn’t actually use the audio tour during the tour but after the tour! so obviously, we don’t know where exactly on earth the stations are and i personally just imagined which part of the stonehenge the recording was talking about! hahaha! as far as i can recall, i only used mine until the 2nd station, huh! we just can’t be bothered! we were just absolutely smitten by the mystery of the stones, i think. so what did we do for the rest of the tour then? well, you guessed it right! we’re a bunch of photophiliacs (is there such a word? what do you reckon?), posing here and there! blimey! we have pictures on every angle of the stonehenge!
we spent 2 1/2 hours admiring the 4,000-year-old monument. we visited the gift shop and i bought loads of postcards (which i’m planning to keep and definitely not for posting!
it has always been my dream to see the stonehenge in person and that dream was realized 3 weeks ago. a week before that, my friends and i were already busy checking for the train times and train fare, trying to figure out how we can spend less, planning our itenerary and of course checking on the weather for saturday, 9th july, the big day! everything was set. the 4 of us were excited. and then came thursday, 7th july, the atrocities in central london…
we had to make a decision. the decision was unanimous. no terror attack can stop us, we thought. we thought it was a clever idea not to inform our relatives that we’re on a "field trip" 2 days after the attacks as well. just show them the pictures later. hehehe…
we met at clapham junction, britain’s busiest railway station, at 8 am to catch the train to salisbury. nothing unusual in the train. thank god! it was an hour and 15 minutes train ride. we had to hurry up to catch the wilts and dorset number 3 bus going to stonehenge as buses run every hour, on the hour. we stopped at the tourist information centre to get our bus tickets and to collect "souvenir items" like leaflets, etc.
salisbury to stonehenge is a 30-minute bus ride. the bus stopped at amesbury bus station for a couple of minutes to collect other passengers. finally, the stonehenge, towering over the salisbury plain!
after paying for our tickets (£5.50/adult) and a short walk, the stonehenge stood there, infront of us. the feeling was indescribable (well, at least for me). others may find it boring (they’re just stones!). unfortunately, it is not allowed to touch the stones. it is enclosed with a rope, and mind you, there are lookouts everywhere so there is no chance to get inside the barrier. well, maybe it depends on how adventurous you are. you might fancy trying. hehehe. audio tours help you learn about it’s history and surroundings.
i would like to believe that there are 7 stations of the tour. the thing was, the 4 of us didn’t actually use the audio tour during the tour but after the tour! so obviously, we don’t know where exactly on earth the stations are and i personally just imagined which part of the stonehenge the recording was talking about! hahaha! as far as i can recall, i only used mine until the 2nd station, huh! we just can’t be bothered! we were just absolutely smitten by the mystery of the stones, i think. so what did we do for the rest of the tour then? well, you guessed it right! we’re a bunch of photophiliacs (is there such a word? what do you reckon?), posing here and there! blimey! we have pictures on every angle of the stonehenge!
we spent 2 1/2 hours admiring the 4,000-year-old monument. we visited the gift shop and i bought loads of postcards (which i’m planning to keep and definitely not for posting!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Saturday, May 9, 2009
MOUNT BULLER in Victoria,Australia
Kathy and I had our snowy trip on Mount Buller last
July 2008. Our first time in snow. We survived the -4 degrees.
We tried "Tobogan" (mini sleigh ride) and enjoyed the snowy scenery while riding on a chair lift. This year we plan to experience skiing.
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