Salisbury, England

Salisbury is an hour and a half each way from Waterloo, consisting of an historic cathedral with a 404 foot tower, good atmosphere in an ancient town, and enough creeky pubs to fill your belly, it has turned out to be a obvious choice for taking one of our best english day trips. 

We started our trip a little unprepared, forgetting to charge our battery. But with some negotiating at a local camera store for a charge and a cornish pasty later, we were back on track, heading to the cathedral with is not only the tallest in the united kingdom, but its also the tallest 14th century structure ever built! You can see the tallest church in the world on the link, which also includes all buildings, still standing or destroyed all make the list.

They also have a newer feature that doesn't date to the 14th century, a really cool holy water (fountain:-/). It Produced some really cool reflection photos!

We opted for the eight pound tower tour that is 90 minutes of behind the scenes action that ended up being just the two of us (popular tour, eh?). In the end, it proved definitely worth the price and we not only learned a lot about the construction of the church, but got to go to the top of the church tower, which is one of our favorite things to do (aside from trying the old pubs) when visiting new towns.

Here is us from the tower, only 220 feet up on the 404 foot tower (and spire).

When we left the church, we stopped at an old antique shop and Erin left with an early birthday present. The pot was the talk of the pub that we went to after the shop.

We got free inspections of the pot and even appraisals, from talking with the local "experts", it sounds like Erin got a good deal. Maybe she did; but a 3.6 pound pint of locally brewed Hop Back was definitely a good deal.  Below is the Haunch and Venison pub, everyone there (as well as some pub guides) rate it the best Haunch in the town. We didn't disagree.

Salisbury is definitely a great place for a day trip, spending the night would've been nice to, but 7 hours stomping around Salisbury is definitely a good adventure out of town!

Visitors abound

Its been pretty quiet on the England front in February and March, with perpetually dreary weather, dark days and only thoughts of a warm and sunny summer getting us through the English winter. This explains the lack of blog posts lately. However, as the dark days have started to brighten, so has our desire to get out and explore. Along with the market we went to a couple weeks ago with Pramit, we've had some visitors, which has been good for the mind and soul (just not the wallet). 

Recently, Betchkov and Adrienne visited our place for a little over a week, enjoying two weekends with us and taking in Paris during the week, while we worked (its not fun to imagine your friends frolicking around Paris while stuck in a cube). 

During the weekends they were here we took them to Notting Hill market and showed them our local(s) (The Prince of Wales and the Windsor Castle), and even made it to Aladdin for a meal on Brick Lane. 

We also had a really nice night out in Shepherd's Bush at Alounak followed by pints at Defectors. Another night we took on Soho, eating at a very popular Venetian small plates restaurant called Polpo, which I highly recommend. 

We also went to El Camino and then to Sketch during one of our nights after a meal in China town. Sketch is an interesting club, but given the most interesting part about it is the bathrooms, don't hold your breath.

About a month earlier, Ross was in town en route from Minneapolis to Italy to Shanghai (weird - but you cannot question Ross' travel plans, you just have to go with the flow). We showed him a good night out in Soho as well, following a dinner at Rocket in Mayfair. Rocket is another affordable but stylish Italian spot that has killer pizza and calzones and a good wine list. We also checked out the Borough market for a famous Chorizo sandwich and hit a couple pubs up (of course). 

Having friends come out was a terrific distraction from the long winter/early spring. It was good to talk about the crazy college days and plan for the times to come! Also helped us pass the time until our next trip, which is only a few weeks away!!