We didn’t want to, but we had to leave London sometime. DH went to get the car and I read to the twins in the garden. I had tea with S one last time. Before I knew it, we were saying thank you to M and S and goodbye for now and thank you again. We were in the rental car with our backpacks and it was time to head out of the city. We were making our way to rural Wales to a farmhouse for the night, but it was only a couple of hours away and we had all day to get there.
It took over an hour to get out of London to the freeway. I appreciate that the big roads do not cut through the city as they often do in the US. Travel by car is therefore more difficult but I am happy to put up with this since it encourages people to use trains and means a more organic form to the city. Being trapped in a small car with pre-teen music blasting is not ideal but not so bad either, considering we had only six in the car instead of seven like last road trip. And the one before that.
Salisbury
We went first to Salisbury- St. Thomas’s Church with the Doom Painting from 1475 was beautiful and strange (above). I liked the handmade pillows for kneeling (above). Salisbury Cathedral (below) was enormous and has a copy of the Magna Carta! The town itself was very walkable with pedestrian streets and many shops. We spent a couple of hours here.
Stonehenge was next. It was surprisingly expensive so only Cleverly and Fiercely went to the actual site. Luckily, Siri sent us the wrong way to the entrance and we had a great view from highway.
Per F and C, there is a fence around the ancient stones so visitors can’t get very close. They did have entry to a small museum which they said was ‘ok’ but that could mean anything from our 12 and 15 year old correspondents. We all did enjoy the visitor center where there are recreations of houses during the time of Stonehenge, whitewashed thatched-roof rounded structures.
We crossed into Wales, and all signs are in English and Welsh. We stayed at a little farmhouse Middle Ninfa Farm, a very interesting place where they offer occasional coracle making courses. What? Check out the British Coracle Society! I didn’t know the word until I saw a brochure at the farm and the next thing I knew there were the twins riding in coracles at the pond!
I don’t know how anyone gets anything done around Europe with all the fascinating history laying around; it’s amazing they do anything other than study and re-create history around here. Wales was particularly beautiful; we were near Brecon Beacons nat’l park which is protected as an international dark sky reserve, free of light pollution and excellent for viewing stars.
We stayed until the afternoon the next day, relaxing and walking around the farm. I wish we could spend more time in Wales. The road trip continued. More in next post.
Tripping Fantastic 2 