Stonehenge overrun by tourists, but worth the wait

Updated: January 23, 2012, 12:13 AM

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Students studying abroad through the Padnos International Center blog about their experiences for the Grand Valley Lanthorn.

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Layla West visited Stonehenge with a group of friends while studying abroad in England.

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By Layla West

Last minute, a group of us booked an all-day student tour to visit Windsor, Bath, and
Stonehenge. Of course, the reason I booked it was for the very last destination. We were
told by the tour guide that we needed to leave Bath by 3:30 and if we didn’t, we wouldn’t
be able to get into Stonehenge since it would be closed. My friend next to me verbally
shared our feelings with the people surrounding us on the coach by saying “heads will roll” if anyone was late.

Thankfully, everyone showed up and we left Bath on time. The journey to Stonehenge
seemed to drag as we had been up since 6 in the morning to get ready. We were on our
last leg of the journey and I was determined not to feel sleepy yet. We came over a hill and
just like that, there it was – Stonehenge! Sitting not far off to the right of the road were the
giant rocks that have occupied Window’s PCs for many years.

Instantly, I was happy. When I had first decided to go to England, seeing Stonehenge was
the first thing I put on my list of things to see. Some want to see where Kate Middleton
went shopping or Emma Watson lived but me – I wanted to see thousands of years of
history, no matter how unsure of it people were (some people think that Stonehenge is a
landing area and are predicting that’s where the aliens will land in 2012).

As we got closer, my happiness was slowly replaced with hesitation. I started to see all the
imperfections the years of tourism had done to this historic monument. Everywhere, there
were man-made signs, ropes, and torn up ground, revealing ugly brown earth instead of
green grass.

None-the-less, we marched on. We were given an audio device in the entrance area and
it figures mine would be the dead one. I pouted until one of my friends who were less
enthused about the pile of rocks traded with me.

We finally emerged from the tunnel we had to take that passed underneath the road.
There, in all its glory, stood Stonehenge. To me, it seemed unreal. Unfortunately, from
what I’ve heard, there didn’t used to be designated paths, signage, and pulled up earth.
Before, people could literally go right up and touch the stones but after so much vandalism
of people chipping off pieces of the stones, they had to keep the public at bay.

We were able to walk around the entire area, though parts of the path were far away while
others were close but you better believe we still took tons of pictures. We were only there
for about 45 minutes and that was all the time you really needed. You can’t interact with
them and that is the only attraction there, unless you count the gift shop. After all, they are
just a pile of rocks, aren’t they?

Published January 16, 2012 in Notes from Abroad