North Sea Serenade – Stonehenge and Great Fosters

This morning they shoved us off the ship but they did give us a great breakfast. So we get off the ship and find out that in order to get to our rental car company we have to get a cab ride of all of about five minutes.  And the cab driver yelled at us the entire way about how the cruise ships hire all the coaches and drive the passengers away from Southampton so they can make all the money and now the locals are making no money even though all these cruise ships are docking.  A very pleasant ride.

So we finally get to the rental car company and get our car whereupon I immediately go to the wrong side to get in.  I did that twice.  Tom did a great job driving and we had our GPS but it took us a little while to get the hang of the roundabouts.  This country is so green and lush – it’s beautiful.

So we get to Stonehenge and the first thing we see I think meh it’s okay but as we started to walk around it turned to ooooh and then to whoa.  Surprising facts:  no druids, no human sacrifice, no mystical significance to the stones.  The prevailing legend is that Merlin magicked them from Ireland for a burial place for Uther Pendragon.  Stonehenge was constructed about the time that they built the pyramids but they don’t know why it was built or why they stopped every couple of hundred years and then took it up again.  I was really glad we went.

Then we drove to our hotel for the next two nights.  We drove up to the hotel and there is a giant tour bus sitting in the driveway – nooooooooo!  But it turned out luckily for us it was leaving.  It is called Great Fosters and the building is ancient although the inside of the rooms is quite modern.  Our room is on the third floor and I will leave it to you to guess if there was an elevator or not.  Everything is watch your head – watch your step.  There are a zillion bees on this property and it turns out that they have a hive and make their own honey.  I don’t know if we will get any or not.    They have a hedge garden out in the back and it is very popular with people getting married and in fact there is a wedding here today.  There is allegedly a moat around the property but I didn’t feel like walking any more today so we will have to take their word for it.

We had an absolutely scrumptious tea (I had a raspberry macaron with fresh raspberries and clotted cream – so good) and will have dinner in a few hours – the menu looks lovely.  The dining room is called the Oak Room and the ceiling has flying buttresses although Tom and I don’t know if that is an exterior or interior construction.  It is beautiful and we had dinner while the sun set behind our building.  I had an amuse bouche of pork cheeks with pickled mushrooms.  The waitress said you Americans eat so fast.  LOL.  Then I had tandoori monk fish followed by lamb two ways.  Tom had foie gras which was delicious and halibut with cauliflower and mushrooms.  Then I had a banana macaron with banana ice cream and pop corn.  It was amazing.  Tomorrow . . . WINCANTON!!