This evening I happened upon a Rick Steves video about the west of England, which brought back vivid memories of my one trip to the British Isles in the late 90’s.
I had a lot of Irish-Irish (as opposed to Irish-American) connections at the time and already had a deep love for the “auld country.” And as a longtime fan of both Georgette Heyer and PG Wodehouse I felt a strong affinity for England as well. Wales, however, was a revelation; I felt absolutely and completely at home there (we didn’t make it to Scotland, unfortunately).
Anyways, watching the Rick Steves video reminded me especially of being at Stonehenge (where our group had a special appointment which allowed us to actually spend time amongst the stones afterhours; we even held a brief ceremony there); Glastonbury (where we visited the Chalice Well and hiked up to the Tor); and Tintern Abbey (on the bank of the Welsh side of the River Wye).
Tintern Abbey in particular had such a powerful effect on me that I felt quite disoriented the whole time we were there. It was one of the most intensely beautiful places I had ever been, but more than that was the extremely odd sense of not feeling entirely certain of when I was (a strange way of putting it, but that’s how it felt).
I do hope I get a chance to visit the UK again some day.