Salisbury, Stonehenge, Sally Lunn's and Sports

---

We woke up, ate breakfast (chocolate muffins seems to be a popular choice in our group) and hopped on the bus by 8:30 am to start a typical bus-touring day. Today was slightly different as we were traveling to see some of the oldest attractions on our whole entire trip. First was the Salisbury Cathedral and at first glance we knew the tour (and the day) was going to be spectacular. We took a few group pictures outside on the lawn, as we waited for Dr. Brady to find our Cathedral tour guide, when surprisingly he popped out of nowhere and greeted us with a smile. He was a blast to have as a tour guide as he held such a passion for the Cathedral and its history that made it impossible to get bored with the tour. Not that we would’ve gotten bored in the first place seeing as the Cathedral was one of the most outstanding sights/attractions we had made it to yet. However, the evidence of our lack of any kind of historical architectural knowledge was quickly discovered through his many questions about it. But we learned and absorbed a lot of the information about scaffolding holes, ceiling drains, metal structural supports, and the foundation (soggy gravel) on which the Cathedral was built. The climb higher and higher into the Cathedral’s tower paralleled our group’s growing complaints about the spiraling, tight passage up the stairs. We met along the way a mechanical contraption that controlled the ropes to ring the church bells and shortly after we met the bells.<span><span>One fun fact about the bells I thought was that there were five ropes coming off of the mechanical time contraption but only 4 main bells. This was because in order to play the classic melody marking the hour and half hour the same note needed to be played twice (consecutively and in time). This required one of the bells to have two hammers attached to the ropes. Alas, we made it to the top of the tower just before the spire and were greeted with extraordinary sights from the outside ledge on which our guide took us.

<span> After the tower tour, we ate lunch in the Cathedral’s quaint café and moved onto our ground floor tour with another very friendly, passionate, and well informed tour guide. We learned several neat facts about the Cathedral that we might not have noticed if we hadn’t taken a tour. One example was the last carved wooden bishop above the last stall who was the only figuring to have his bishop hat at his feet rather than head. Our tour guide informed us that this was most likely a result of the changing of religions and beliefs from Catholocism to Protestantism and back to Catholocism, which brought fighting and disgrace to this bishop’s time at the cathedral. An extremely important artifact to both the U.S.A.’s and Great Britain’s political history that we viewed was the Magna Carta. This document, written on sheep’s skin several hundred years ago, was the foundation for the idea of the separation between church and state (government).

<span> I was particularly excited to see our next attraction as it was erected from 3,000 B.C. to 1,800 B.C. and involved massive, massive stones stacked on top of each other. But one of the many interesting facts about Stonehenge was that it could mark the summer and winter solstices suggesting that the people/society that built it could map the paths of the sun and moon. We learned, from a previously stated and most famous Paul the bus driver, that this knowledge of the sun and moon orbits provided unprecedented power to those people. The larger stones weighing approximately 25 tons each originated from a quarry some 120 miles away in Wales. How the stones got to this location and the exact purpose of its existence was part of the mystifying, fascination I had with it. But the present purpose it had for us was to provide a background for some silly gestures and funny pictures.

<span> Previously today, we had heard that the Olympic torch was passing through Bath around 4’oclock so as we finished up at Stonehenge we took off like a herd of turtles to get back to Bath. We made it with about 15 minutes to spare and with the girl’s nudging and leaning into the crowd of people we came away with a few good pictures of the lady running with the torch.

<span> A few of us explored the city more after reloading at the hostel and eventually we came across a great big patch of grass laden with many picnickers, school kids, and sun bathers. Many of them were passing a soccer ball (I mean futbol) around leaving me quite jealous, as I am a huge soccer (I mean futbol) fan. So Andrew and I shot off to find a sports store. By the time I bought a soccer ball it was time to go back to the hostel to get ready for Sally Lunn’s; soccer had to wait.

Sally Lunn’s was a delightful dinner besides the fact that most people had forgotten what they had ordered for the three-course meal from Dr. Brady’s doodle poll. But what really added to this delightful meal was my bringing along one of my Purdue roommates (Steve) who had been studying in Bath for the past semester. He provided us with interesting information about Bath, we had quality conversations, and he got a free meal out of it.

After dinner, Andrew, Steve, and I lumbered back to the hostel and eventually made our way back out to that patch of grass to kick my new ball around. When Jordan, Megan, Jennifer, and Allie showed up we decided to make some quick goals out of surrounding rubbish and make a go at a night game. It was surprisingly difficult to stay on our feet as the dew had settled onto the field already. But we had a good time and it was well-deserved exercise after sitting in a bus for many hours over the past week.

---