Almost the first thing we did was go back across the county lines to Salisbury in Wiltshire, specifically to visit the beautiful medieval cathedral.
Salisbury recently went through some tough times with the Novichok poisoning of the Skripals by Russian agents in March 2018. Father and daughter both survived, a policeman was also affected but then in July a woman died and her partner was seriously affected by picking up a found perfume bottle, thought to have been the method of administering the poison and then discarded. For a year this was a city in lockdown and living here must have been a nightmare. Police and Army everywhere, what was safe, what wasn't? It's been given the all clear and things appear to be getting back to normal, but tourism must of necessity have been affected, so a fiscal effect to add to everything. What a world we live in! Beautiful, but also very very dangerous.
So on a lovely sunny day in May we did our bit to normalise life for Salisbury citizens.
What a lovely place.
Built between 1220 and 1258, the Cathedral has had the highest spire in England since 1549 (123m).
A South African connection. We always find one.
I keep on trying to photograph stained glass windows with not a lot of success.
Man's best friend, but to put your feet on? No!
An unusual feature of the nave is a modern font, installed in 2008. Designed by the water sculptor William Pye, it is a cruciform shape and has a 10-foot-wide bowl filled to the brim with water. It is designed so that the water overflows through each corner into bronze gratings embedded in the cathedral's stone floor. It's quite lovely.
Time for tea ...
In the Charter House is one of the surviving copies of the Magna Carta - a charter of rights agreed to by King John at Runnymede, near Windsor in 1215. What? you may ask. It established the principle that everyone is subject to the law, even the king, and guarantees the rights of individuals, the right to justice and the right to a fair trial. Cornerstones of liberty and democracy and still as important today.
A good spot for wedding pics.
And now for something even older! Old Sarum (no, not Lord of the Rings), the first settlement of Salisbury and nearby to Stonehenge and Avebury. Evidence of prehistoric settlement, an iron age fort, Romans, Saxons, Vikings, Normans - this site has seen it all. A royal palace and the footprint of the original Cathedral which was then moved to it's current position. There is a definite sense of age and history.
The site is now run by English Heritage.
A freezing wind had sprung up on the hilltop so we headed back over the border to sunshine, dinner and wine.
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