Bright and early Monday morning we
hopped on the coach to head south.
As we left London, we watched the rain pour. This would continue throughout the day. But as Dr. Ryken constantly reminds us
via the bus’ mike system: “You only have a chance to experience these things
once! We will forge ahead rain or no rain! Life is 90% attitude! We are like
Bob the Builder! Can we do it? Yes we can!” Therefore, much like the Postal System we have been trooping
across countryside no matter what the weather.
Our first stop on the excursion was
Winchester Cathedral. This is the
longest Cathedral in England. It
was also built on a marsh (much like the Billy Graham Center in Wheaton. Except
the building is beautiful). Since
it was built on a marsh the building is sinking in certain parts. In medieval times a man dove beneath
the building and helped fortify it, and he is memorialized in the church
today. Today, the floor is uneven
in certain parts, but I thought it added to the overall charm of the
building. It was fun to ramble
around and explore the endless nooks and crannies of the cathedral. I think out of all the ones we have
visited it is my favorite.
Winchester is also the site of Jane
Austen’s grave. She was in
Winchester seeking treatment from the doctors when she succumbed to her
mysterious illness. A number of us
girls on the trip lingered around her grave for several minutes paying our
respects to one of the greatest authors of English literature. I would partly credit her as one of the
reasons I am an English major today. 
After exploring the cathedral we
had the option of going on a water meadow walk with Dr. Ryken. The goal was to retrace Keats’ path
that he took when he composed his poem “To Autumn”. Of course as Dr. Ryken reminded us, the path would look
different on a rainy summer day compared to a sunny autumn day. Only a handful of us gathered to brave
the rain to the water meadow. Dr.
Ryken was prepared for the walk in head to toe rain gear (including his rain
pants), and he rallied our spirits by quoting Shakespeare’s Henry V’s speech to his troops: “We
happy few! We band of brothers”!
The “happy few” splashed after Dr. Ryken until we arrived at the water
meadow. It was worth the walk in
the rain: it was unbelievably green and the stream was flowing. I actually think the rain made the
experience more beautiful.
Next, we all gathered on the bus to
head to our next stop: Stonehenge.
No one knows what the rocks are for or how they got there. They date back to before Christ and
were probably used in pagan rituals.
Today, the Druids are allowed to use them once a year for Summer
Solstice. My personal favorite
story about the stones is from Geoffrey’s tales of Arthur: Merlin decides that
England needs these stones and in classic British Imperialistic style goes to
Ireland to take them. The king of
Ireland says there is no way Merlin can move them. Of course, being a wizard he can do whatever he wants, so he
uses his magic to assist the strong knights he has brought with him, and they
float the stones back to England where they now stand today.
Stonehenge was beautiful, even in
the rain. I actually think the
rain added to the overall mystery surrounding the stones as it was dark and
mist surrounded the area. I
half-expected Merlin and Arthur to appear out of the distance. You can no longer walk through the stones;
instead you walk around them in a huge circle that takes about fifteen to
twenty minutes.
At Stonehenge, there were an abundance
of sheep nearby since this is the countryside and sheep are everywhere. Dr. Ryken notoriously hates sheep (he
apparently had a traumatic encounter with one as a child), and some students
mischievously bought him a beanie hat that was in the shape of a sheep and
presented it to him on the coach while reading a poem about sheep. Dr. Ryken was a good sport about it and
put the hat on, although he promptly removed it after the poem was read and
muttered something about giving it to his wife.
Our next stop was Salisbury, which
is also where we stayed for the night in a youth hostel. We saw the Salisbury Cathedral first,
which is the tallest Cathedral because of its spire. It is also one of the most architecturally perfect
Cathedrals. It was beautiful and
had some of the most gorgeous stained glass I’ve seen on this trip. The Cathedral also holds one of the
original copies of the Magna Carta,
which was cool to see. Dr.
Coolidge pointed out some medieval friezes in the chapter house, which had
several Bible stories carved in them.
These stories were for the illiterate peasants, so they could learn the
Bible.
Afterwards, we saw the smallest
church I have ever seen. It was
the church where the poet George Herbert was rector in Salisbury. He is now buried there. Our entire group (almost forty of us)
filled the entire church. We sang
one of Herbert’s hymns. It was a
nice change of pace after seeing multiple cathedrals to sit down and worship
God together as a group.
After singing, we ventured to
another water meadow. I really
enjoy seeing this around England.
Looking at the stream and overhanging canopy of green vegetation, made
me wish I had a canoe to explore the area with.
That night I slept well in
my first-ever youth hostel, which was very nice. It was a busy but good first day of traveling.
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