Salisbury

Or lets move down the hill....

Well after the bad news from yesterday we figured it would be a good idea to get out of the house for the day. It also helped that the weather was fantastic and we were due to top 20 degrees today.

About twenty miles from Southampton is a place called Salisbury. It is an old market town and apparently one of the few planned medieval cities. We stopped for lunch at a pub before starting our walk. Today we were going to walk up to Old Sarum and then back down the hill to the Cathedral. Old Sarum was where Salisbury was originally based (about 2 miles from where it is now) but a fight between the king and the Bishop of Salisbury and problems with the water supply caused the city to be moved down the hill about 800 years ago.

So the walk took us out of Salisbury proper and through the country side before we had to climb the hill to get to the old city. The change in weather meant that there were heaps of people out and about which was a nice change (and the fact that I was not freezing). For the most part of the walk to Old Sarum we were beside the river Avon (apparently not the same one that goes through Stratford). Jules ooed and aahhhed at all the baby ducks and birds and all the little animals, she seems more clucky towards these then human babies!

Anyway Old Sarum itself was pretty much a ruin. We got to see where the cathedral was and got a general feel for the place but we did not have enough time to go into the fort to see what it was like in there. So we walked back down to Salisbury to see the Cathedral.

Not sure if any of you have seen it but it is pretty amazing. Building started in 1220 (when the New Sarum or Salisbury was first founded) and finished about forty year later. It is currently undergoing restoration which started in 1986 and it is expected to last another 15 years! There was a concert inside which meant we could not go in, but we were content to just walk around and soak up the atmosphere. All around it was this lovely green grass which was full of people playing and reading and relaxing. It was a nice site.

Following this we decided it was time for a drink, so we headed to a pub, grabbed a quick drink and then drove home.



Salisbury town and the river Avon



More town and river



A funky tree house!



More river



The obligatory shot of me.



Old Sarum Fort



Where the old Cathedral use to be (in Old Sarum)



Down the Hill!



A funky hedge



The (new) Cathedral



And again....



The attached cloister



More Cathedral