Today mostly involved sitting on the bus and covering the miles back to London.
We had one quick photo stop at a thatched roofed village and we whistled by a monument to Thomas Hardy which I didn’t photograph as I misheard the guide and thought it was for the author who I recall my Grandmother being rather down on, but after it had vanished from sight it turned out to be in honour the Admiral Thomas Masterman Hardy and I was rather downcast at having missed it.
Around lunchtime we stopped at Salisbury and checked out the Catherdral . It was a magnificent structure claiming the highest spire in England. Unfortunately it had been blighted by commercialism with its cloisters turned into fast food restaurant eating areas and wildly jarring modern art pieces inserted in various locations.
On the plus side, the Cathedral held the oldest, still operating clock in the world. It doesn’t have a clock face but chimes out the hours on a bell.
The Cathedral’s lovely Chapter House held another fascinating artefact. This was one of the last four original copies still in existence of the Magna Carta. The copy is reputed to be in the best condition and I can testify that it is in pretty good nick. The writing is small and perfectly uniform across the whole document and I could not understand a word of it. Fortunately there was a translation to hand. Photography unfortunately was not permitted.
Back on the bus we finally arrived in London around 5pm. Our guide and driver very kindly made a special stop for us near our hotel which was a real blessing as we did not have to fight our way across London at peak period with all our luggage.
Hardys’ Travels 