Salisbury Cathedral and on to Woking...

Monday, 6th June - (Catch-up)

As with most Premier Inns, you don't have to check out until 12.00 midday, and so we packed everything up after breakfast, and headed for the nearest Park and Ride. You park for as long as you think you'll need and then get a bus all the way into the heart of the city. (I suppose there is always that risk that everything in the car could be taken, but that could happen in the city as well, and they have CCTV cameras in most of these places). At GBP3.50 for a car with up to four people, you get return tickets on the bus, which is pretty good value, and saves the hassle of trying to drive into an unfamiliar town and find car parking.

It is obvious as you enter the High Street, that there are some ancient buildings, and one building had Roman numerals for 1683. After you pass through an old gate, you emerge into a large square, with buildings all around, including Mompesson House. The girl in the National Trust shop remarked that it wasn't unusual for a place to have uneven floors, as the building she was in, dated to 1613!

There is a huge open space in and around the cathedral, and there had been a music festival, and they were dismantling all the stage and seating, etc. So you get a good look directly at the front of the the cathedral, and it is like most of them, quite impressive. There are modern as well as ancient things within the cathedral including a dreadful metal sculpture which looks like no more than a huge roll of barbed wire, and in our opinion is so ugly and out of place here. The "look" is different inside and the columns seem to be higher and of a darker stone. They have a copy of the Magna Carta in a special and beautiful round room, called Chapter House, but don't allow photos.

One of our favourite cathedrals, and equally impressive in its own way. 
Had coffee in the cafe, which is well done and blends in with the cathedral quite well.

Across the square there is Mompesson House, which is National Trust, and was built in 1701, and used in the movie "Sense and Sensibility"

It is in the Queen Anne period with a beautiful staircase, and a wonderful collection of glassware, and some beautiful furniture.

The garden is lovely although small, but very well maintained with some attractive plantings.

On the way back into town the hordes had arrived, again by the busload, and we shared a panini in a small restaurant attached to M & S (?), and then went up to wait for the bus to take us back to the car.

Getting out of our part of Salisbury was quite easy and we knew we had a fairly straight-forward drive up to Woking for our few days doing London things. Lee had initially thought it would be 77 miles, but it ended up shorter than that and we used the M3 for all but the first 12 miles.

I don't mind the M's. They are horribly congested, and fast, but once you get the hang of them, most other drivers perform in the same way, and you get over when you can, and make way for the zoomers, and as we've said before, all the exits are well marked and always off to the left.

Mompesson House

We had good directions to the next hotel (Pr.Inn), and after only one wrong turn in the actual centre of Woking, we found it quite easily. It is next to the Basingstoke canal, which is now not used for barges, but the locals certainly use the canal paths for exercise and as a pedestrian through-way.