Being old does not make you unhenged.

Wednesday

After another filling breakfast we were packed and ready to check out when a call came to say the hotel room had already been booked and we couldn't have it.

We headed off on the same route as planned with the idea of staying overnight in Marlborough. Since this was closer we spent more time site seeing on the way.

The first place was the village of Lacock. this charming village has been used for Harry Potter, Pride and Prejudice amongst other movie and TV shows. There are no visible TV aerials and the village does indeed look like it could be the setting for a period drama.

From there we planned to head across to Calne but the scale of the map had us miss a turn off and we finished back on the same main road we started from. Still got there but went a bit further north before heading south again.

We then visited Avebury, the site of the largest and oldest stone henge in Britain. The stones themselves are not as big as the famous Stonehenge but the rings are much bigger and encircle the village. It is apparently the only henge with both a pub and a church inside it and is about 6000 years old.

We walked around the first sector of the rings, crossed the road to the inner rings and then walked the ramparts outside the trench till the half way point, where we took the road back into the village for a lunch at the pub.

On the way out we visited the farm which has a couple of museums, saw the manor house which was closed for viewing and finally through the church and graveyard.

The road from there to Malborough then passed 3 further Neolithic sites. Silbury Hill is a huge mound. Nobody knows why it was built but is was a multigenerational effort.

Next was the long Barrow, which had 36 bodies buried in it. This was a 1/2 mile hike up the hillside.

A bit further along there was the Sanctuary. There were a dozen or so of smaller mounds in the area in groups of 2-5. and the remnants of a wood and stone henge. Nothing much remained but the re were markers showing where the wooden posts and stone pillars had stood. This was quite small not much more than 20 or 30 metres in diameter.

Marlborough is another charming market town and we found a park, connected to the free wifi and picked up a guide book. we then spent the better part of an hour trying to find accommodation.  Between phones not being answered, websites showing  no vacancies and places with unsuitable, we were getting frustrated and worried and eventually decide to try either Newbury or Swindon. Sylvia was on  a website for a place in Swindon and I was on the phone to a booking agent, who said that hotel was full, as did their website. none the less Sylvia was trying ti snag a room that was available through one of the web booking services.

My agent offered us a few choices before saying she found a twin room at a B&B in Marlborough for 75 pounds, which I then booked. Turns out is was some way out of town but it is another spacious room.The B&B is part of a farm and we walked up the hill to the stables eating blackberries from the bushes and looking at the horses.

The village is quite narrow with only a few cul de sacs off the main road, where lorries and cars hirtle along. It seems to be an upper class place with large houses and lots of BMWs Audis and Mercs in the driveways.

We had dinner at the local pub.