Salisbury, England

On September 18, we left London and traveled by train to Salisbury. I loved Salisbury! This was more my kind of place, and moved at my preferred pace. Surrounded by rolling green hills and countryside, more of a village than a city, somewhere I could take a breath and relax after the hustle and bustle of London. The most stressful thing about being in Salisbury was driving a car. Dan had this dubious honor, and had to negotiate driving on the left side of the road, using a stick shift with his left hand, and the steering wheel on the right. My job as navigator wasn’t easy either, as the roads weren’t always marked appropriately, and the on-board GPS wasn’t always clear. It was a test, but I think we passed!

We stayed in a charming little pub called The Five Bells, named so because five churches used to stand in close proximity to this location. There are only two rooms available for visitors, on the second floor above the pub, and the owners also stay on the premises, evidently a legal requirement for establishments such as this. Breakfast, cooked to order, was included with the stay, along with conversation with Linda, one of the owners. We were there two days, during which time we visited Salisbury Cathedral, Old Sarum Castle, Stonehenge, a local Farmer’s Market, and got a couple loads of laundry washed at the local launderette. (Stonehenge will be a separate post).

Salisbury Cathedral is the most prominent structure in the entire town, and can be seen from many different vantage points. The spire is 404 feet fall, and has been the tallest church spire in the United Kingdom since 1549. It contains the world’s oldest working clock, dated from 1386, and has the best surviving of the four original copies of Magna Carta.  The formal name is the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral, as opposed to Catholic, and is one of the leading examples of early English architecture. The main body of the cathedral was completed in only 38 years, from 1220 to 1258. We were so happy that entry into the cathedral was not only free, we were allowed to take pictures, unlike the London churches that not only charged a lot of money to enter, would often disallow photography.

Next stop was Old Sarum, the site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury, and appears in some of the earliest records in the country. Unlike the very busy and tourist filled Stonehenge, Old Sarum was almost deserted. Although historically significant, and the site of a castle that underwent many changes of power and rule, today there is almost nothing left of any of the original structures. There are remnants of crumbling walls and foundations, and beautiful expanses of green, and from the top of the hill you have a fantastic view of Salisbury, with the Cathedral spire towering over all. That was worth the (very low) cost of admission alone.

Here is a glimpse of what we saw during our brief stay in Salisbury.