Touring from London: Salisbury, Bath and Brighton..And a real castle!

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Salisbury Cathedral

Roman Baths in Bath

Battle at Arundel Castle

Brighton Beach

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The break provided us with a chance to break from routine so we took the opportunity to see some of England. Our 4 day trip took us to Salisbury, Bath and Brighton. Stopping of at Stonehenge and Arundel.

We have seen some amazing castles lately, the most impressive of which was Arundel Castle which is worth the visit to Britain alone. We were also lucky because on the day we visited (Easter weekend) they had a "bringing history to life" re-enactment day with people dressed up and in character (like they used to do at Old Sydney Town, but of-course they weren't soldiers intimidating and bullying us but rather knights and Saxon villagers with storytellers and armorers etc. We watched a hilarious tournament and skirmish reenactment where the knights changed their tactics each time they attacked the archers. The castle interior was spectacular but there was something quite revolting about walking around in a real castle where people actually lived to gawk at their finery. I felt a bit of a peasant with my unkempt hair and daggy jumper, even though I enjoyed it. The current Duke and Dutchess of Norfolk live there. Lauren wanted to know if they would have more money than Paris Hilton and I didn't know, but it got into a discussion about "old money" verses the newly rich and we came to the conclusion that the only thing they had in common was that they both actually did nothing to deserve their wealth!

Salisbury is a pretty little town with a gorgeous river running though it. All the big name shops are there (actually all of Englands towns have exactly the same shops in them!) The cathedral is a stunning backdrop and worth a wander. We also visited Stonehenge and I thought it was fantastic even though Herve made derogatory remarks the whole time about them being a "pile of rocks" that the locals piled up and called a "sacred" prehistoric site.Then he and the girls had the idea that maybe in fact the sheep (nearby) made stonhenge and were never given the credit. (You had to be there at the time, but let me tell you it was hard to appreciate the mystery and ambience with a family all bleating like sheep and giggling. Alas, you can bring the horse to culture but you can't instill culture into the horse.

Then we went to Bath and visited the abbey and spectacular Roman Baths. We couldn't decide if the Baths would be worth the 32 pounds and a queue wait so we lifted up Christine to take some photos of the inside from the outer walls and we had quite a few askance glances.It turned out to be well worth every cent even though the crowds were huge with the easter long weekend. The British are so placid and courteous and do everything by the book. We have often taken the "we are Australians, we don't follow the rules" attitude to our hilarity but to the locals disdain. It works especially well at school when I plead ignorance to everything we are supposed to do that we don't want to do like have the school lunch (the girls hate the food). Last weekend we went to Paris for a long weekend (and visited Alex and Herve's old friend and his family and stayed with Rene and Dina) and it was such a big deal and our friends were telling us it was not allowed to take a day off and not to do it!! We just followed our passive resistance tack and it

worked well. :-) They just assume we are ignorant Australians and we are all happy.

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