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.
