Salisbury Cathedral
The first place we stopped was Salisbury Cathedral. Living in New England has conditioned me to expect places called Salisbury to include Sal's Pizza and a sub par beach...this was not the case. First off, the Cathedral was massive! The inside of the Cathedral was beautiful and housed many amazing things as well. In the Chapter House there was an original copy of the Magna Carta. Even though I would not consider myself to be a history buff, it was still quite exciting to see such a historic document. (Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures of the document itself.) As a part of our field trip we were taken on a tour of the Cathedral's bell tower. Few people know this, but I am terrified of heights. (Disclaimer: Spinning roller coasters/thrill rides that take me hundreds of feet in the air and then plunge me to what seems like my death = totally fine. Bell towers with outlooks = totally not fine. Riddle me this Batman...) The inside of the tower was filled with many terrifyingly tall spiral staircases and each level had wooden floors with small gaps between the boards. If you peered closely enough through said gaps you could see just how far you would fall if the floor happened to break. Needless to say, this was not an ideal situation. However, the view from the top of the tower was incredible. I also watching the bells. The sound up close was even more amazing (and much louder) than what you could here from below. The large bell continued to ring for another 30 seconds after it was initially struck. While perusing the cathedral after our tour I was struck by how some people received elaborate tombs and others were buried under the cathedral floor to be trampled. (I would say be trampled to death, but as the worst has already befallen these poor souls...) I have also decided that my new favorite architectural features are cloisters. The cloisters of Salisbury Cathedral opened out into a beautiful courtyard similar to those at New College (where parts of Harry Potter were filmed).
 |
| The north side of the Cathedral |
 |
| The western entrance |
 |
| Inside the Cathedral |
 |
| View from the second level of the Cathedral. |
 |
| What lies above the beautiful ceilings |
 |
| Inside the tower! |
 |
| The bells |
 |
| The inside of the spire. Thankfully we did not climb up there! |
 |
| More views! |
 |
| The view from the top! |
 |
| Looking down upon the Cathedral. |
 |
| One of the views through a larger crack in the floor |
 |
| Important tombs... |
 |
| Not so important tombs. |
 |
| The cloisters |
 |
| The bell tower as seen from the cloisters |
Old Sarum
Old Sarum is an old fortress dating back as early as 400 BC. It was built on a hill and then a giant moat was dug around the city. Inside of the fortress was yet another moat to protect the castle. Though the water has long dried up a large ditch is still quite visible around the property. Many of the people who lived in Old Sarum eventually moved down to Salisbury when the Cathedral was brought down there. (Yes, they did move pieces of the Cathedral from Old Sarum to Salisbury to help build the new Cathedral) It was quite impressive to walk around this old hill fort. Only bits and pieces remain of the castle, but the views from the hill itself were spectacular. The foundations of the Cathedral were also visible.
 |
| The outer moat |
 |
| Crossing the inner moat |
 |
| Castle remnants |
 |
| More castle remnants |
 |
| An Iron Age loo |
 |
| The cathedral foundations can be seen in the grass |
 |
| The views |
 |
| Walking through the old Cathedral |
 |
| The bridge into the inner part of the fort |
Stonehenge
I knew the stones would be large, but I didn't realize quite how large they actually were. I do not have much to say about this sight, besides the fact that I was utterly amazed. This was one moment where I realized that I am actually living in England :)
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| What the people who built Stonhenges' huts could have looked like |
The cathedral photos are stunning!
ReplyDelete