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| view toward St Mary's chapel from the west window |
Moments after we left Old Sarum, and as we stood waiting for the bus into Salisbury, the cold rain began to fall. I was glad then for the umbrella which we used for the first time. The bus seemed to take forever to arrive and we made it with minutes to spare, our tour beginning shortly after we arrived back at the Cathedral. The Salisbury Cathedral spire is world famous and the tallest in Britain at 404 feet and this is really the closest way to experience it and the rest of the Cathedral's beautiful Gothic architecture. Our tour guide, an elderly man who spoke softly but knowledgeably about the history of the roof and spire, unlocked the huge wooden door to the first set of 332 stairs we would climb. We passed some of the oldest and well preserved stained glass windows in the first roof space as we looked down the entire length of the Cathedral. The ancient oak wood beams above the vaulting were absolutely amazing to look at and feel. It was hard to believe the Mongol invader Genghis Khan was roaming Europe when these beams were cut and shaped. We could see the ancient iron bracing put in during the building of the tower in the 1200s to stop the weight of the spire's 6500 tons from spreading the walls out! When we reached the bell tower the bells were ready to ring out 4pm - they were so well cast the reverberations last 32 seconds! And what a glorious sound it was.
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| 800 year old roof beams above the vaulting |
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| 800 year old nails and beams |
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| Graffiti from hundreds of years on stone walls |
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| Ancient iron bracing |
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| looking down at the cloisters |
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| waiting for that glorious ringing |
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| looking up to the spire |
and now some views of Salisbury....
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As you can see the views of the city from where we had climbed up were spectacular. And as if on cue the sun came out again as we stood on the edge looking out on this beautiful city on the Avon and Nadder rivers. We had finally come to the end of this month long trip but not the end of our travels; even the distance landscape I gazed over seemed to beckon me to explore further.... Before we left Salisbury I stopped and reflected about our visit here and the wonderful memories that will stay with me always, sad to leave all those who had touched us both yet thankful for this opportunity to see some of the greatness that was, and still is, England. gws
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
-Marcel Proust
