Stone Henge and beer

Not necessarily in order of priority I'll mention the beer of the week first...Stone Henge later. First we have the Ruby Red....I was hot on the heels of the perfect beer and thought you could just buy any Ruby Beer and all would be well, but apparently not. Make no mistake this beer is miles ahead of  your average VB or the 6 pack that you get cheap anad drink it to save a few bucks.....this is quite nice but I don't like a bitter after taste and there were hints of it. It's like a pretty woman who winks at you making you fell nice then walking away....so you have to open another one.

Everything else about it was great though. I was also swayed by the shape of the bottle (flat like a flask) which is a copy of the original bottle from c1770. It's from Suffolk and the water is drawn from the same deep source that it was taken from over 700 yrs ago....or so the label explains. Anyhow its 500mL of coloured beer at a moderate 4.3% alcohol .... 4 stars!

My faith somewhat restored with the following drop. Each bottle has its own unique number which you can look up on their web site to see when it was brewed. Don't know why you would though...you really want to drink it. This serious attempt with 7.2% alcohol is not a "session beer". You have one and that's enough....maybe wait a while cause it's rich...dark ....and very very nice.  Again they throw half a litre at you per bottle, and at a local price of around $2.50 its dangerously cheap....5 stars.

So our 2 weeks in Cornwall is over and we sadly depart. It has become home and the streets of Doc Martin now too familiar. Half way between Cornwall and Kent our destination is Stone Henge....a good lunch stop  over.

As you approach it, it looks small...but the stones are up to 6 m tall. When we enter this English Heritage site we are given our head set audio tour.....the stones have been sourced from many other areas...some from Cornwall where we had just been (3 hrs drive) ...others brought down the river Avon ...and all placed with symmetry that reflects the four seasons and both the summer and winter soltice. It also gave a 12 month calendar....all this and somehow the lentel stones are also lfted into place around 5000 yrs ago...why? Symbolism that includes other Counties...Nobody knows. And there is a Station stone remaining ....one of four remaining that when lines are drawn between them provide perfect symmetry that cut through the 'alter stone'....and their 'saints; are also buried in visual mounds around the base containing people, their horses and posessions.

 

So this is what is once looked like before famers took stone to fix paths, builders took stone to construct with and toursists were finally outlawed from bringing hammers to chip off a soveneir.

These can all be enlarged by clicking

So we continue on to Dover, Kent in preparation for our trip across to France. I've had 2 flat tyres, one seized back wheel, one faulty oil pressure light and now the rego is about to run out while my Rego papers have somehow been lost in the post to the DVLA for ownership transfer. Car ownership comes with its issues. Which brings me back to the beer therapy.