We’re visited by Gabi’s sister Christine who will join us for some days. We pick her up at Heathrow Airport. Her flight from Basel has landed already but it takes some time to collect her suitcase and get through border control and customs – and Heathrow’s long walkways.

Christine has asked to visit Stonehenge, a wish we happily fulfill. It’s really warm and sunny and we look forward to a less freezy visit than our first one. On the way there, we stop at a service station to have lunch.

We soon spot the huge stones that remain from the cult place today. The visitor centre is not far now.

At the visitor centre, we learn a lot of interesting facts about stonehenge and its origins. It all startet roughly at the same time as the Pyramids of Giza were built. The famous bluestones were added later and rearranged again later. The scientists are still not completely sure how (or why!) the bluestones were brought here from the quarry that is located in Wales, several hundred miles from here.

They believe that they brought the stones first on the waterway and later on land using some kind of sledge on wooden rolls. More than a hundred people were necessary to move the stones. We try to pull on the handle, but nothing happens.

From the visitor centre, we take a shuttle bus to the mighty stone circle that stands in the otherwise flat landscape.

We walk around the stones in a wide circle and head back to the visitor centre.

Christine was stung by a local bee just after leaving the car at the visitor centre. We drive to Sailsbury to find a pharmacy and to visit the cathedral.

At the cathedral, the best conserved copy of the Magna Carta is kept, the ‘great charter of the liberties’ on which the English constitution and the Human Rights are based. It’s a pity that the exhibition has already shut down for the day when we arrive.

We head back to the hotel and let Christine get settled in her room. We meet again to have dinner at Frankie & Bennie. The food is a tad uninspired and the lights are dimmed several times to sing ‘happy birthday’ to groups celebrating here.