Saturday 1st August Salisbury

We packed up and started off on our drive from Maidstone to Salisbury. Most of the trip was on motorways but part of the A30 was being extended and although we had three lanes going our way the car in front of us only had about 600mm on either side before going into the adjacent lane. You had to concentrate somewhat as even at 50 mph it was somewhat concerning as the three lanes were packed with cars, trucks and a few caravans being towed. We stopped for a coffee and a break after about an hour as the little man that popped up on the dash screen told us to take a break.

There are some cute names of towns along the way and eventually we got to within about 5 miles from Salisbury and the traffic slowed to a stop start arrangement. Still we got to our hotel at about midday but were too early to check in but we left our bags and went and parked the car in a parking building back and across the road. We had to do a U turn in the narrow little street to get back there.

Got out the map and walked through the narrow streets with shops all along the way. A bit of brousing but no buying and we headed for the Salisbury Cathedral. We had been here briefly on a previous trip to Britain. We paid our donation of £13 and were told that there was to be a wedding at 2.30pm and that perhaps to start at the far end also no photos in the Magna Carta area. They are celebrating 800 years since the signing of the Magna Carta in a couple of months time. The copy that Salisbury Cathedral owns is only one of 4 left. The hand writing is soo small and it seems that the reason for it being soo small is because the velum that it was written on was hugely expensive in those days. The actual document is probably about A3 size and has 3500 words, 63 clauses and took 50 hours to be written.

The Cathedral is huge and dates back to Norman times and it took 38 year to build. The spire is the tallest spire in all Britain and weighs 6,500 tonnes. In 1991 the cathedral was the first to include girls in the choir. There is a medieval clock that was installed in 1386 and is the oldest working mechanical clock in the world.

We left the Cathedral and wandered our way back to have lunch and came across a huge market and fairground that had 2 amusement thingys that went round at terrible speed and the chairs also went round. Sickening just to watch. We will head out to dinner at a pub later on.