Shaftesbury / Salisbury / Poole – 6.+7.9.2023

We spent the night near Salisbury, next to the Old Sarum. That would be worth a visit, but we had other plans.

Quick stop at a farm café.

We spent a lovely day in Alderholt with dear friends. The labradoodle Keira kept us company, too 🙂 A funny detail: our friends live in Dorset, their address is in Hants, but they have a Salisbury (Wiltshire) postcode … 🙂 A few years ago we spent a couple of days in the beautiful New Forest which is close to there.

In the evening we drove towards Shaftesbury, to Win Green.

We spent the night there.

The town Shaftesbury is very picturesque.

The street Gold Hill became famous because of an advert about Hovis bread in the 1970s –> The_Bike_Ride . It is believed to be one of the most romantic sights in England 🙂

The picture of the road often decorates boxes of chocolates or fudge.

Shaftesbury used to have an abbey, built in 888, but it was destroyed in 1539.

In the evening we wanted to attend Evensong at Salisbury Cathedral. It was highly recommended to us, no matter whether you’re religious or not. That’s the reason we drove back to Salisbury. In an old farm building we came across an interesting café. The staff went out of their way to meet our wishes!

The Fovant Badges are regimental badges created during the first world war.

A little walk through Salisbury.

The cathedral is impressive. The spire is the tallest church spire (404 feet) in the UK. Parts of the filming for „The Pillars of the Earth“ by Ken Follett were shot here.

The Choral Evensong was a special experience for us. It takes place up in the quire – the area where there are choir stalls, nearest the high altar – and involves a short service. The ancient tradition of choral evensong, which dates back to about 1549, is still going strong and is sung daily by choirs of men and child choristers. There is even a livestream –> Evensong.

The next morning our ferry across the channel was due to leave at 8am. We drove to Poole, to spend the night near the ferry terminal.

We were hoping for a spectacular sunset, and we made it just in time!

The ships in the foreground made the sunset a special experience.

The map with our itinerary of the last two days: in blue on 6th and in red on 7th.

When we started our trip to the UK and Ireland at the beginning of June, we had a vague idea of the route. We wanted to visit the puffins at Bempton Cliffs, then friends and family in Barrow-in-Furness, then Connemara in Ireland, over to Wales, quick trip to the Midlands to visit family, back to Wales again, then to the south of England to see friends, further south to Cornwall, then aross the channel to Britanny. We had not yet determined the routes in between. We did everything except Cornwall. Another year we will explore the South West of the UK, and also parts of Wales which we missed this time.

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