Lamb for Thanksgiving and Salisbury’s Surroundings

Let’s start this blog out last Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. In order to have a bit of home in our Hull abode, Caitlin, Emily, and I decided to have a little Thanksgiving meal. After a bit of debating, we decided on a menu. The line up consisted of a cranberry glazed roasted leg of lamb, sauteed green beans with mushrooms, green onions, and bacon, cheesey mashed potatoes, and stuffing. What was for dessert- rice krispy treats, traditional right? The meal took about 2 hours to complete and was well worth it. We all enjoyed it, even though it wasn’t quite the same as being at home.

Thursday we spent the entire day on a bus travelling from Hull to Salisbury, which is in southern England about 10 hours away. When we arrived, a few of the natives gave us walking directions to our hostel, which turned out to be only 10 minutes from the bus stop. So far, so good. Our hostel was nice, providing us with all the amenities we needed for a comfortable stay.

Friday morning we awoke early to get a jump on the full English breakfast buffet the hostel served every morning. The last traditional English breakfast we had was in Wales, so this was a welcomed treat. After filling up on eggs, tomatoes, bacon, sausages, beans, hashbrowns, and toast, we waited for our chauffer, Vick, to pick us up. Thankfully, he was right on time, and the day was set to begin. Vick operated Vick’s taxis, a business which offered taxi services and tours of Wiltshire, which is the “county” Salisbury is in. Vick was 65 years old. Vick was very nice. Vick couldn’t remember we were from Hull, not London, even though we told him 5 times. Finally, Vick had a tour planned which would take us about 120 miles round trip through the English countryside.

Our first stop was at the Salisbury Cathedral in, you guessed it, Salisbury. It was a beautiful church, and a feat of engineering if you ask me. The cathedral was built on a water meadow, which is caused by water seaping into the ground and then being blocked from penetrating the earth further by a think layer of chalk. If you were to walk on a water meadow, it would seem as though the ground was moving underneath you. To counteract this, over years and years and years before the building commenced, the workers forced any wooden material they could into the ground to solidify the surface. This strategy proved to work well, as the cathedral still stands now as it did 750 years ago, although there have been updates on the inside. Another very interesting thing about this church was that it housed the world’s oldest mechanized clock. The clock was basically a system of pullies and rope which rang a bell every hour on the hour. It has been refurbished and still works today.

Next stop was a surprise for us as it wasn’t necessarily something you would expect in the boonies of Southern England. That attraction: Sting’s house. Turns out, Sting has a mansion right outside of Salisbury, and this time of year you can actually see it due to the fall weather taking effect of the foliage. Vick had worked for Sting and says he is a very nice fellow who will ride his horse down to the pub, have a few drinks, then ride back home. While I’m on the subject, Vick had also done a lot fo work for Rod Stewart. Needless to say he had a lot of stories. After invading Sting’s privacy, we headed on down the road.

The next stop was the one I was most excited to see: Stonehenge. Let me set the climate for you. All morning it had been partly cloudy, a few sprinkles here and there, no big deal. OF COURSE, when we arrive at Stonehenge it starts to rain, nothing we can’t handle. Then, when we get to the stones, it rains the hardest it has rained our entire time over here. Seriously, the wind was hurling these water bullets so hard it hurt. You can see it in our pictures. Even so, it was very cool to see something I had heard so much about and to have experienced being in the presence of one of mankind’s greatest mysteries. Once we were good and drenched (after about 12 minutes) we ran back to the taxi and hopped inside. Vick was very apologetic, but it didn’t make our jeans dry any faster.

The next stop was the lesser known Woodhenge, just down the road. This was discovered by a farmer who, while plowing his field, kept coming across wood logs in a circular pattern. After the site was escavated, it was found that the logs formed a concentric circle, with the focal point being the remains of a child. Pretty creepy huh?

Moving on. Our next site seeing opportunity happened not much farther down the road as we got our first chance to look at the White Horses carved into the chalk hills. The first was at Alton Barnes. Visable from quite a distance, these large horses were cut into the ground for no apparent reason. Due to the layers of chalk which begin a few feet below the top soil, the horses appear white and shining in the sun. However, they do sometimes get dirty after a rain, so local criminals who have earned community service are made to climb the hills with a rake and turn the chalk to return it to its original luster.

The next stop was Avesbury, site of yet another mysterious stone circle. This small town had a large stone circle running through it, made up of enormous boulders. Many think this circle and trench once formed the city gates. Makes sense to me. Vick said this is where the modern day travellers (hippies) would come during the summer with their bowls and digerados (no idea how to spell it) and try and conjuer up the spirits that haunt the stone circles of the area. Oh, yea, they also steal everything they can get thier hands on. Way to go, hippies, way to go.

Near Avesbury was our second white horse sighting, this time it was the Chernhill white horse. The story of this was interesting. Apparently, a “mad doctor” commissioned a group of men to cut a horse into the ground to show off his wealth to his peers. He shouted out directions from a distance through a megaphone as the builders slaved away. The original horse had a glass eye made out of bottles, but over time they were stolen and replaced with a cement slab. Also, the mad doctor’s neighbor, not wanting to be out done, had a stone spire erected near the horse in his honor. Recently, they had to put up a gate around it so extreme sports people would stop climbing it.

A brief pitstop gave Emily her money’s worth as we took a break at Lacock Abbey, which is where the broom training scene from Harry Potter was filmed.

Our final stop was in the beautiful city of Bath. Vick dropped us off directly outside the Roman Baths, so we couldn’t pass up the chance to go inside. With audio tours in hand, we walked through the areas where the Romans used to come to bathe, heal, and socialize. Much of it is in ruins now, but the main bath and hot spring still remain. There are also areas which have only half eroded away, allowing the you to imagine what it would have been like all those years ago. The final part of the Baths tour was the chance to have a glass of water at the pump house, which came from the hot spring. It was free with our ticket so we all tried it. The girls nearly vomited but I drank the whole glass. It was warm, not overly hot, but it was heavy, with a earthy taste. It is said to contain 43 minerals, and have curative powers. How could I pass that up?

After the tour, we were a bit hungry so Vick recommended we try a Cornish Pasty, which the region is famous for. We all had one and they were delicious. It is essentially a pot pie that you hold in your hand, filled with lamb or beef, carrots, and a turnip like vegetable. It was just the thing to warm us up.

And that was that. Eight hours and 120 miles later we were back at the hostel after seeing much of Wiltshire and learning a lot about the mysterious area. The next morning we were back on a bus for Hull, and that is where I sit as I type. Today, I finished one of my classes, leaving me with 2, one on Monday and the other on Tuesday, for the next few weeks. Exactly 3 weeks from today we will be flying home- I really can’t believe we have been over here this long! This weekend will be my last adventure for the semester as I travel with Emily to Amsterdam by ferry.

As always, check in next Monday to see my review of the Netherlands and how my final weeks are going.

Cheers! (And a belated Happy Thanksgiving)

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