Salisbury

We are up in good time and get in the car to head towards Salisbury. We stop at the Park 'n' Ride and take the bus into the city centre. The cathedral in Salisbury is absolutely gorgeous and is the only British gothic cathedral still intact in its entirety. The spire is the tallest in Britain and the cloisters are the largest in England. The cathedral is actually undergoing restoration, which started in 1986 and is expected to continue until at least 2015. We get a free tour around the cathedral with an elderly gentleman who was very well spoken and knew loads about everything we wanted to know! Interesting parts of the 90min tour were the oldest mechanical clock, the baby who died eleven days before it was born (a result of the change from Julian to Georgian dates) and the guy who was found dead with a perfectly preserved skeleton of a rat in his skull – nice! Of course, there's also the infamous Magna Carta on display, guarded by numerous staff and surrounded by carvings on the walls, depicting major events in the Old Testament of the Bible (Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah's ark, etc)

After the tour, we trekked back into the city centre for lunch in a Tudor-style pub and had jacket potatoes and Ploughman's. The people moving around upstairs made the ceiling creak and I swear I saw one of the beams move… We then did a bit of shopping, mooched around Boots (the Yanks can't get enough of the Fresh! range) and then trudged all the way back towards the cathedral so we could go into the Salisbury museum. It contained the infamous preserved rat skeleton, a history and analysis of Stonehenge, costumes from the Victorian era, and a whole range of Wedgwood pottery. Completely tired out and way too hot (it is 28ºC today!) we relaxed on a shaded bench in front of the cathedral before finding ice cream and making our way back to the Park 'n' Ride.

Due to our aforementioned tiredness, we decide to drop by Stonehenge but when we get there, there are hardly any spaces to park in and we are hot and grumpy. I stop in a lay-by opposite the henge and we took some photos before driving slowly by the structure to grab a last shot. "It's smaller than I thought it'd be," Jenny commented. Hmm… Americans always say that about stuff in England…

So we drove back, stopping off at Tesco's to buy more provisions (read 'alcohol') and get petrol. Mel and Jen insist on arguing about everything when we go food shopping. Not only are they adults arguing in the middle of the shop, but also they are loud and have American accents – enough factors to get everyone looking at us! I try walking ahead to avoid the arguments but in doing so, I'm probably making it worse…

We have an orange dinner of chicken Kiev balls and potato croquettes followed by a yellow desert of lemon Madeira cake and pineapple chunks. Loyd Grossman would be appalled… Soz guys… Anyways, by 10.30pm the girls are shattered but I had just had coffee and was buzzing. I watched some music videos and a good episode of SATC before hitting the sack around 00.25am!