Adventures in the UK Day 6 – Stonehenge
Today we had two fun adventures!
First stop…
Stonehenge
Near Amesbury, Wiltshire
Have that song stuck in your head now? We sure did. And it helped pass the time in the car while queuing to get in.
Queuing you say? Oh yes, there was queuing! And not just at the monument itself.
This sign on the A303 wasn’t lying ====>
We queued for almost an hour, and you know what the hold up was? Sure, there is a lane drop that made things a little hairy, but it was mostly from rubberneckers slowing down as they went by the monument (viewable from one small section of the road) that was causing the most trouble.
Once you were past this hill where the monument was no longer in view, the traffic miraculously picked up.
Here we are, sitting in the queue
When I visited Stonehenge back in the early 90’s it wasn’t like this at all. But then again, you didn’t get to go as close to the stones as you do now, so maybe that was the trade-off.
Anyway, we waited and waited and waited in traffic, inching ever closer to our final destination, slightly panicking, because Stonehenge books tickets by time slot and ours was quickly passing us by.
But, no worries. Once we got there, half an hour later than our ticket specified, we had no problem getting in and getting on the bus to drive over to the stones, so it seems the ticketing times are more a way to space people out rather than a hard and fast appointment time that you must be there for.
But I do recommend booking ahead as the website encourages you to do. You get in a faster line at the ticketing booth.
Anyway, we made it to the monument and it was spectacular.
I’d seen it before, as I mentioned, and so had my husband and in-laws who were with us, but my son hadn’t and this was his pick for what he wanted to see while on vacation. He enjoyed it very much. So, all the traffic queues were worth it. 😀
Even more fun? The sudden severe thunderstorm that hit just as we were leaving. See those big clouds gathering in the pictures? They kept gathering, the wind picked up super fast, and then there was thunder and lightening! Fortunately, we were on our way back to the car by then so we didn’t get very wet at all (or struck by lightening).
After Stonehenge, we used the handy-dandy Park-and-Ride to get into the center of Salisbury for our next adventure:
Escape the Room Salisbury
This was so much fun! Basically, we turned up and were “arrested” for stealing artwork, but a kindly inspector who believed in our innocence (while locking us in a cell) told us he’d create a diversion and the station would be empty for one hour. We had to escape our cell and gather evidence to prove who the real criminal was before the time was up.
The escape involved lots of logic puzzles, keys, locks, and more as the five of us worked as a team to move from room to room in the “police station” and get free.
Our time (as you can see in the photo below) sucked. LOL! You’re supposed to get it in under an hour, but in the last room we just could not find the last key we needed. It was really well hidden. A kindly whisper over the walkie-talkie we’d found helped us out and we did eventually get free, but not within the hour.
This was SO MUCH FUN! Everyone enjoyed it. I highly recommend this adventure to anyone who loves solving puzzles and looking for clues. It was a blast. The rooms and the props were awesome.
They change the story every October, so you have until then if you want to do the art heist escape.
Here we are in our cell, looking much too happy for a bunch of hardened criminals. My son is holding the leaf blower that played a vital role in one of the puzzles. 😀
Author Catherine Chant 