7.27.09 London.

with our mornings so early and also so chilly, it is necessary for us to begin with a little pick me up.

6:40 AM. That is the time we met at the tube this morning. It was a rude awakening that our blissful weekend was over. It was on the tube, then train ride, then a few buses to arrive at the Wilton House.

walkway up to the wilton home.

i caught her on the run, but you can still catch a glimpse of jolly ol' josie the tour guide.

This estate has been around for quite some time and is still a family run home with the 18th Earle of Pembrook still living in the house. The current Earle is one “dishy” man as our adorable tour guide put it. To put it simply, he is a VERY handsome man and recently engaged – too bad. Our tour began with a very entertaining film of the home’s history that included a disappearing nun and drunken actors. It was a treat really for us to watch and was a perfect beginning to our tour. The Wilton house is really pretty and a well-known venue for films such as Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility to name a few. According to Josie the guide, the English “poo pooped” Kiera Knightly’s version of Pride and Prejudice, but we loved it in the states. A famous room in the Wilton House is the cube room, meaning the room makes a perfect cube – 30 x 30 x 30. It was deceiving because I was convinced one of the walls was longer than the width, but it wasn’t. There is a great display of Chippendale furniture throughout the house and just so much rich history throughout the entire place. I love thinking that someone is still living in a piece of history (and a good looking someone at that.) We were able to go out into the gardens and the land is just covered in lush green lawns and perfectly shaped trees. There is a bridge over a river that runs through the property that was built by the same man that built the Rialto Bridge in Venice.

bridge at the wilton house that mimics the architecture of the home.

I have quite enjoyed our stay in the UK and feel like we have always been treated kindly everywhere we go and today was no exception. After the tour of the house we were treated to fresh strawberry lemonade and pastries. Now that’s the way I like to tour historical buildings – with a reward afterwards.

this sign greeted us at the door of the chapel. 'ello charlie!

salisbury cathedral. stunning.

It was on another bus to get to Salisbury, a little town about an hour and a half from London. We had a tour scheduled at the chapel there in town. Can I just say that the weather here in England is bipolar? Literally one minute it was sun shining and almost hot; 30 seconds later it was pouring rain and windy; one minute after that there is not a cloud in the sky. I just can’t even begin to figure the weather out here. Anyways we made it to the Salisbury chapel, which was built 1220. It was constructed in 38 years and if you’re wondering, that was a major engineering feat for the day. The architecture is beautiful English Gothic style and has wonderful stained glass throughout. It seems that everywhere we go, we aren’t without some interesting tour guides and the man for Salisbury was no different. He made it quite clear that we were in a Christian church and to respect that it was a working cathedral and place of worship, after explaining that it “cost a hell of a lot of money” or “this has been here for a hell of a long time.” Once the organ starting piping and was louder than he could speak the words, “damn the organ” were uttered and I just had to laugh at him, especially since cursing in a British accent is just funny, not offensive. Our tour consisted of seeing the ground level of the cathedral and to be frank, I was pleased with seeing that much of the church, but no. No, we had a tour to go up into the rafters above the chapel and up into the spire, which just happens to be the tallest spire in the UK. Just so you know, heights and me do NOT mesh and I thought climbing St. Peter’s dome was enough height for me.

view from the first level we hiked to. it looks like it goes on forever and ever..

The tour begun up a harmless spiral staircase, fairly narrow but nothing I couldn’t handle seeing as I am also claustrophobic. We made it to the rafters and it really was so cool seeing how the ceiling was constructed from a top view and think that a tiny capstone is all that was keeping the ceiling from collapsing. Me being naïve, thought that this was the end of the tour and that after climbing 82 feet above the ground was high enough. This was not so. We moved to the next room that is the bell tower shaft. That was cool to be able to see the framing that was holding the structure up and how talented the engineers must have been at that time period to know how to keep a building of this size and weight standing upright. Again, I would have been pleased if this was the end but no, the guide showed us up a vertical staircase about two feet wide I swear, open to everything below. The guide had to convince me that it would be worth it once we reached the top and that he would look after me going up.

what you are looking at here is the "staircase" as some might call it that we went up to reach the top. i like to call it my near death experience.

I was only slightly hyperventilating once we reached the top and we made it to the bells just in time to hear them ring at 4 o clock. I nearly jumped out of my skin when the bells went off seeing as they were right next to my ears. There were benches to sit so I did and was so proud of myself for making it to the top. Or so I thought. Nope, we still had two more staircases to go up before reaching the very tip top of the church. Finally, we made it and we were just underneath the beginning of the 400 and some odd feet spire that was a sort of after thought once the church was built. The belief was that the higher you built into the sky, the higher to God you were. I was totally blown away that the frame of the spire was completely made out of wood beams and that wood was capable of holding up that much weight for 7.5 centuries, even through all the elements of time. It was really impressive and brilliant to see how it was constructed. There are four doors at the top that look out at each direction over the town of Salisbury and it was just as you would imagine the English countryside to be. Beautiful. We had to hurry down in order to meet the group in time to head to Stonehenge and boy was I glad to get my feet back onto the ground.

congratulations salisbury cathedral. well done.

view from the top of the tower.

Stonehenge was about 20 minutes away from Salisbury and we took taxis to get there. The drive was gorgeous with green farmlands all around and countryside as far as you could see. It honestly reminded me of parts of Utah just greener. Then, out of nowhere what should pop up in the horizon but Stonehenge itself. I don’t know what or where I was expecting it to be, but in the middle of farmland was not quite what I had in mind. Walking up to Stonehenge really was incredible and mind blowing trying to grasp who or what or why this thing was built. I like the mystery of it and felt mystified and an air of magic almost in the air. You had to be there to feel it I guess but it was there. From an architectural standpoint, the placement of the rocks is beautiful and I love how every angle gives you a new perspective into the circle of rocks and it’s a new view at every turn. The hardest thing for me to grasp was the age of the rocks – 4,000 years old! I mean really, that is just bloomin brilliant! I would love to sit down and chat with the engineers and project managers for Stonehenge and just pick their ingenious minds because what they built is astounding. I have really wanted to see Stonehenge and I’m not sure why or what intrigued me but it was a great day being able to see one of the world’s most mysterious findings.

and there it is...mysterious stonehenge.

the fab 5 at stonehenge with me looking...not so fab. lets blame the wind.

It was a taxi ride to the train station and then a pleasant train ride filled with lovely conversation and sweet treats from the treat trolley (for some reason this train had a treat trolley while as our overnight train to Paris was lacking that) and we were home 16 hours later. It was a long day, but successful day and one more day of lovely London – can’t complain about that one bit.