Day 13 - Hangin' at the Cathedral

   Monday, Monday, can´t trust that day
Monday, Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way.....

We knew this day would come where we woke up to find that we both had to catch up on our work. So side by side at the dining table in our cottage, Ange and I started the day behind our laptops. It's not that we haven't been doing work since we arrived, but up until now it was usually in the evening or early in the morning and most of the day was reserved for exploring.

Phil and Ange the adventurers. Isn't Ange cute?  

But today we had saved the day to work and then perhaps find some time to get out and do some exploring later. We also had to get our laundry done, and this was actually where our day's adventures began...how do you operate these European clothes washers? We were able to figure out the combined washer/dryer at the last cottage, but this one had us shaking our heads. When is the wash cycle not the wash cycle?

Can you spot the clothes washer?

Well, when the wash cycle began (except it really hadn't), we closed the cupboard door (many appliances in updated kitchens are installed under counters and integrated into kitchen cupboards) and we went back to work.   When the machinations of this darn thing were finished, we found that our clothes smelled wonderful and were also pretty much completely dry. It had to be a supersonic spin cycle to get the clothes that dry. So with the next load, we left the cupboard door open, and when everything was done it was clear that this time a wash had taken place (our clothes were now definitely wet). Essentially we ended up spinning our first load of laundry mixed in with the detergent. Yikes. Needless to say a third wash took place.

To add insult to injury, here we were writing away while brilliant sunshine was coming in through the windows. My quick check of the weather indicated that rain was due later, so I coaxed Ange into going into the Salisbury city centre to visit the cathedral and have a late lunch before the weather crapped out on us.


We chose the river walk along the Nadder as our route, eventually ending up at the cathedral. Built between 1220 and 1258, it's spire is the tallest in the U.K. at over 400 feet, and the church property is over 80 acres (the largest in Britain).

 It is now referred to as the Salisbury Cathedral, but was known as Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Inside we found the world's oldest working clock (1386) and in one of the ante-rooms they have one of only four remaining original copies of the 1215 Magna Carta.

In the area adjacent to the cathedral is the Bishop Wordsworth Church of England School for boys aged 11 to 18, and where its school master was once William Golding, the Nobel Prize-winning author who wrote Lord of the Flies (if you don't know the book, it's the story of a group of boys who go wild and subject each other to extreme violence. It's lesser known title is "Uncle Phil's Nephews" -- just kiddin' Jen).

Alas, our lunch break, albeit an extended one, had come to its close and it was back to work before the rains came.

Ale of the Day: Greene King IPA, Westgate Brewery, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk