Clive Best

My approach  to finding somewhere to stay in a city is simple. First park the car somewhere - even semi-illegally. Then walk to the nearest hotel or B&B and book in. This has worked well so far as with no hassle we have found the Queens Hotel in Brighton and a B&B in the centre of Salisbury. The other approach of finding a nice good priced hotel first and then booking it on the Internet/phone/foot  gives you the stressful job of first finding the hotel by car in some pedestrian precinct and then finding somewhere to park which isn’t half a mile away. Last night I parked the car in a residents only place, walked across the road to the nearest B&B, where they gave me a visitors’ permit for free.

Salisbury is a fabulous city and the Cathedral must be one of the top 2 or 3 in Britain/Europe dating

Town Centre

back to the 1200’s. We took a tour of the Cathedral with a retired volunteer who was very interesting. The Cathedral dates back to the 13th century. It has the working oldest mechanical clock, the tallest spire in England

Cloisters

and the second tallest in Europe at 460ft. The tallest in Germany has a wooden structure so shouldn’t really count according to our guide. It has an original copy of the Magna Carta - the first declaration of human rights dating from King John wars against the French. New choristers are placed on a chair and “bumped” by pushing their head back a couple of times against an ancient stone near the choir stalls. This practice has been going on for 800 years and the stone is now worn down by the heads of little boys. The cathedral contains the tombs of knights, noblemen and the like including the latest one of Edward Heath. Originally the walls were decorated in colourful murals but the Puritans destroyed them all after England became protestant. At that time priceless

River Avon Salisbury

treasures were lost through the sacking of the abbeys during the reign of Henry VIII. Nearly as much cultural damage was reeked by 1960’s town planners and Salisbury has taken some hits here with tacky shopping centres carved through wonderful medieval buildings. Despite this Salisbury is still a wonderful city with a timeless atmosphere.

21:30 We are now in Swanage after a visit to Blandford Forum and Dorchester. Earlier we spent an extra hour  in Salisbury and discovered the river banks full of ducks, baby ducks  and clear water - very pleasant. On a whim we stopped for lunch in Blandford Forum because on the way I wanted to see Wilton having

Lunchtime Pub Blandford

remembered it as a child. Blandford is mainly Georgian but not a patch

Swanich

on Salisbury/Wilton. Dorchester is lovely with a very nice atmosphere - could be also a great place to live, with seagulls flying overhead and not far from the Dorset coast. Speaking of which we spent an hour at Lulworth Cove which was full of tourists and although pretty-  not enough to make you spend your days there.

Lulworth Cove

 As a result we found ourselves in Swanage - this may be because my colleague David Horby was there earlier this week but also because it has a great setting on the Peninsula. Again I found a parking space on the harbour front and we walked to the first Pub Hotel to ask for a room. It seemed rather cheap so we’ll see tonight how well we sleep !  Anyway Swanage is not a bad place and we spent the evening in a Camera Pub “The Red Lion” which had a curry night. The curry was excellent made from local fish and freshly prepared. The beer was also great and I sampled probably too many, and now as I write this I am in another pub offering  free internet access. hmm!