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!