England 14: hanging out at the Barge in The England Chronicles - June 2013

Oct. 31, 2013, 8:15 p.m.
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Since I have approximately 789,124 pictures of our trip, and we didn't really range very far once we were in Wiltshire (well, except that one day), I'm going to do these entries more by place than by day. We spent a lot of time in Marlborough of course, since we were staying about two miles outside town. And we went to The Barge nearly every day, as well as to Avebury. Due to, ummmmm, unforeseen circumstances, we didn't do nearly all the sightseeing we intended to do. We wanted to go to Glastonbury, but would have had to go Monday since the Glastonbury Festival started later in the week, and it attracts millions and millions of music fans. (In looking to see how many people were there, I've just seen that tickets for 2014 went on sale October 6... and sold completely out in an hour an a half. That's what a big deal the festival is. Back when I was young and resilient and didn't mind crowds and mud and outdoor toilets, I'd have loved to go. Radiohead has performed there. Along with every other UK band, I think, just for starters. ) I don't see attendance numbers for 2013, but 2011 had 135,000 people. There wasn't one in 2012, oddly. ANYHOW, we decided it was Monday or not at all, and ended up not going at all. Kim and I went last trip and walked up to the Tor but didn't seen the town itself and I really wanted to. Next time. SIGH.

Also didn't make it to Salisbury, again, and didn't go to Stonehenge although Kim and I did last time and Baker B got to experience the Solstice sunrise with the druids and his landlord, so that was okay. Avebury is where you want to go to mingle with mysterious stones. We also planned to go to Bath several times. We DID make it to Bath once, at least. And of course we had wild dreams of motoring over to Cornwall, or maybe even to Wales..... it's just seriously difficult to get used to UK Time, which operates in a totally different way than US time, and everything takes much MUCH longer than you would expect.

And then there was that crisis/catastrophe/disaster that sucked up pretty much two entire days.

BUT. More about that later.

First, I'll post pictures of the Barge! We went to the Barge nearly every day, and Baker B went by himself nearly every day while we were in London and he was in Devizes. The Barge is really great. It's a 200 year old pub on the Kennet and Avon canal near Pewsey (I thought it was Alton Barnes, but the address says Pewsey and I'm sure they know where they are). It has been Crop Circle Pub of the Year for, like ever and really plays on its UFO Hotspot reputation. It's got a view of the Alton Barnes White Horse and is Crop Circle Central. And their beer is GREAT. So's the food. I highly recommend the Vegetable Lasagna, the fish and chips, and the locally brewed Croppie and 1810 beers. The food was a little pricey - ten pounds for the lasagna and the fish & chips-- but it was very good and was generous portions. And we'd generally just eat one real meal a day so it was worth it.

I was really excited about getting to go inside the Barge. When Kim and I were there three years ago, and went to Avebury and Stonehenge and drove around looking at white horses, we went by the Barge at Baker B's insistence from afar (he didn't go with us that trip but had lots of suggestions for things we HAD to do in Wiltshire) and... it was closed. And no hours were posted so we didn't know if they were opening later or what. And we had to get back up to Sawley (near Nottingham) that evening so had a long drive ahead.

Something had happened right before Kim and I got there on that first trip. There was a pile of rubble beside the building, with a chain-length fence around it. It was smoldering a bit (weirdly, I did not notice that until I saw Kim's pictures much later). Months afterwards, when I was writing OD entries for that trip, I went to the Barge's website and found out that the night before we were there, something had hit the 200 year old outbuilding that was attached to the main building -- and it burnt to the ground. Naturally, a UFO crash was suspected.

Anyhow. It's a really great place.

Hahahaha, I see I have a bit of Baker B's face in that shot. Oh, well!

You can sit and look out at the canal. And at the Alton Barnes White Horse, unless it's hidden behind a tree like it is at the right side of that long hill in this picture.

This is the white horse not hidden behind trees:

Crop Circle Sightings map:

Even the pool table has a crop circle motif:

We did a lot of walking up and down the canal, too. It's absolutely beautiful. Baker B walked all the way back to his room in Devizes one night when he was still alone. It's about seven miles.

I loved seeing all the canal boats, especially since on our first trip, Kim and I stayed in a canal boat. In Sawley. Because that's all we could get through her timeshare. And we did not take it out-- but it was really fun to sleep on it. It was interesting to see all the canal boats being lived on.