Look familiar? It was the subject of one of John Constable’s paintings, and just about at this angle too. What makes Salisbury cathedral so unusual is that 1) it was completed in 38 years (rather than centuries), and 2) it has a spire. Many cathedrals were built with a tower that was intended to have a spire on top of it, when money was available, but typically it never happened. The spire was added 100 years after construction of the cathedral began, but at least it happened.

The spire is beautiful, the highest in England at 404 feet. It was a feat of medieval engineering (1320) to get that sucker up there, and despite efforts to straighten it over the centuries, it’s still not perfectly vertical. William Golding (of Lord of the Flies fame) even wrote a novel about it called, appropriately enough, The Spire.

I think this is the most beautiful cathedral we’ve seen so far, and the spire definitely is a factor. As a bonus, the Chapter House at the cathedral houses one of only four surviving copies of the Magna Carta, and it is the most legible one. The document, which King John was coerced into signing in 1215, was the first to give citizens of England rights. The US constitution borrows heavily from it.

The city of Salisbury itself is fantastic, another place that Fodor’s didn’t do justice. We happened to be there on market day. The open-air market was better than most we’ve seen. And there are many fun shops and restaurants in addition to the market. Queen Elizabeth Gardens and the watermeadows (the flood plains of five converging rivers) are beautiful green spaces. And all this is less than ten miles from Stonehenge. If I ever get back this way, I want to stay here for a good, long time.

A stone circle is a stone circle. Or is it? Several reviews I read of Stonehenge, the most famous of them all, said the site had become such a tourist Mecca that it was not worth the time and money to see it; chain-link fences around the stones kept visitors at a sizable distance. One review even suggested bringing binoculars!

So when I read that Avebury, a nearby stone circle larger than Stonehenge, was so accessible you could touch the stones, I thought, We will swim against the current and visit Avebury instead.

Avebury was something of a disappointment. The stone circle was so big that the village of Avebury grew up in the middle of it. We could only view a quadrant at a time. And the stones were so irregular that they didn’t appear to have been placed there for any significant reason. They didn’t look like columns from a Neolithic temple; they looked like a Halloween prank.

I started thinking about Stonehenge, and I just had to see if it was the same. No comparison. First of all, your driving down a winding country road, you crest a hill, and there they are. Right out there on the Salisbury Plain for all the world to see. It caught me so much by surprise that I thought it must be an advertisement, but it was the real thing. As soon as you go through the entrance and up onto the plain, you are right in front of the stones, circling them on a path that is remarkably close. There is no chain-link fence, only a cord about a foot off the ground that quietly suggests you don’t approach the stones.

There is something about being out on that flat expanse of the greenest grass you will ever see with those amazing stones that is just unreal and impossible to describe. It is just like the photos you see, but nothing like them. You can see the texture of the stone and other details. Some of the lintels, the horizontal stones that lie on top the vertical ones, are still there, giving the stones more of the feel of a temple. On top of the solitary vertical stones, you can see a knob where a notch in the lintel had once fit so snugly, like Neolithic Legos. So intricately designed, planned, and carved. So fantastically built.

We may never know how this engineering feat was accomplished, or what the stone circles were for, but that doesn’t bother me. I was fascinated just to walk around them – 360° – to get a view from all angles. Every angle is different. And I timed our visit just right: we got there as late as we could (a half-hour before closing) so we could (almost) see the sun set behind the stones. It’s an experience I will never forget.

When we first arrived in Great Britain, we were surprised to see couples sitting in cars in car parks (parking lots, in American English) eating lunch, often from styrofoam takeaway (takeout, in AE) containers. Why would people eat in their cars???

Well, we’ve gone local. Yesterday we found ourselves eating a picnic lunch in our car in Wells, England. Why? We couldn’t find a picnic table from Glastonbury to Wells, two beautiful towns in the lovely Somerset countryside. Couldn’t find a park either, or any other green spot to look at while we munched. So we found the first parking spot we could, and had our lunch as shoppers pounded the pavement around us. Maybe it’s time to go home…before we start saying to-mah-to. ;o)

My guidebook didn’t do justice to Lyme Regis on the Jurassic Coast of England, and I didn’t plan to spend enough time in this cute little town with a gorgeous pebble beach.

And then there’s the historic Cobb, the dramatic stone jetty that was featured in The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Knowles and Persuasion by Jane Austen.

Almost 400 years ago my ancestors departed from England, boarding the tiny ship Mayflower from these steps, risking death at sea and who-knows-what perils in the New World for a better life. And here I am, come back to visit their launching-off point.

What is it about remote spots that compel me to visit them? Southernmost, westernmost, northeasternmost…. I am drawn to them all. When we were in Portugal two years ago, I just knew that the southwesternmost tip of Europe would be wild and exciting. It was. The photo in the header on my homepage was taken from Cabo de São Vicente, looking up the west coast of Europe. Fantastic!

When I started researching Scotland, I read about John o’ Groats, the northernmost town on the mainland of Scotland – well, on Great Britain, for that matter. I wanted to go. I read about the cold, desolate landscape, the sparse population. Yes! A friend told us of visiting the area and staying in a friend’s castle. He said he was so cold in summer, he had to pull the rug up off the floor and wrap himself in it to stay warm at night. Yes! Yes!

But wait! There are also the Orkney Islands off of the northern coast of Scotland. And then the Shetland Islands are even farther north than the Orkneys, and they have those wild ponies. But then I read that the ferry from John o’ Groats was a bit rough after July. And a woman (hi, Shannon!) we met on Skye had just been and confirmed it. Never mind. I don’t want to see the islands that badly.

So we had the opportunity to see the southwesternmost point of England – Land’s End in Cornwall. That will have to satisfy me. There’s something about that suffix “-most”….

My friend Laura introduced us to this fantastic British comedy, Doc Martin, about a brilliant but cantankerous (a la Dr. House) London surgeon who develops a phobia for blood and has to take a job as a general practitioner in a little village in Cornwall.

.
.
.
We’ve seen all six seasons, and have grown to love the quirky characters who drive the doc crazy, but we also love the picturesque village of Port Isaac (fictitious Port Wenn on the show). We found it on the Cornish coast – just as pretty as it is on camera. I thought it would be weird seeing it in real life, but it was just as if I’d been there before.

Two days before we were supposed to check in to a flat we had rented in Plymouth, I went to the listing for it to remind myself of its features and amenities. I happened to see a review that wasn’t posted at the time I reserved the flat back in April. It was a terrible review.

When traveling, or even in our own backyard, I rely heavily on reviews posted by people who have visited the places I am considering. I’ve learned to scrutinize the information; some is honest and constructive, other is petty and mean-spirited. This particular review had some very real concerns: neighbor blasting music at all hours of the day and night and – even worse – singing along, and the police showing up three times looking for two men who had been living in one of the neighboring flats. Then there was the more typical stuff about dirty flat, no cable TV, etc. But when I saw there was no coffee maker – well, that just ripped it for me.

Seriously though, sounded like a rough neighborhood – nothing I wanted to get into for a full week. I tried to get in touch with the property manager on three different phone numbers. No answer; no voice mail. We had less than 12 hours to cancel if we wanted a refund, so we bailed. Then we had less than 24 hours to find a new place to stay.

Long story short, we found this adorable cottage in Cornwall, which is really where I wanted to be anyway. It is relatively new, beautifully built and decorated, and was in the middle of the woods. Lovely!

When I was 14, my sister Nancy got me hooked on Gothic romance novels by Victoria Holt (one of a multitude of pen names for author Eleanor Hibbert). Although Holt’s books were set in various exotic locations, my favorites were set in Cornwall. The heroine would often eat
.
Cornish pasties (pronounced pass-tees). I had never heard of a pasty before, but Holt took great care to describe these flavorful folded pies chockfull of meat, potatoes, and onion coming straight from the oven, typically just as our heroine was about to pass out from hunger. (She always seemed to be running from someone, usually a handsome, misunderstood man, and had to spend her last shilling to fend off starvation.) Holt’s descriptions would make my mouth water, and I longed to try one. Today I got my chance. It was delicious! The pie crust was flaky and tasty, and the steak, potatoes, and onion were seasoned to perfection.

After reading The Once and Future King by T. H. White a few months ago, I want very much to believe that King Arthur is more than a legend. White wrote the character with such finesse and such pathos that I cried in the final scene. It wasn’t even his death scene; it was the scene leading up to the battle in which he would be killed by his illegitimate son, Mordred. But his words and actions summed up everything that he was. I had witnessed him grow from the unassuming innocent, Wart, to the just but tragically human ruler of Britain. A finer man has never lived.

Or did he live? No one knows for sure. There are many tales of Arthur beginning with preliterate stories told round the fire, perhaps based on some noble warrior who distinguished himself in battle. Maybe a beloved king’s deeds were exaggerated to heroic level, or maybe stories of two people, king and hero, merged into one. But myth or reality, they were perpetuated widely, mouth to ear, for centuries until someone with the ability to read and write thought to put them down on paper.

Although carefully referring to him to as a legend, historians place Arthur in the 5th or 6th century. And whether or not he lived, the Scots, Welsh, and Cornish all claim him as one of their own. But when I heard that a highly respected 12th-century Welsh historian placed Camelot in Cornwall, I felt there might be some truth to it. There is very little the Welsh will concede to anyone, least of all the British.

So when I heard that Tintagel Castle, on the north coast of Cornwall, was thought to be the birthplace of Arthur, I had to see it. We had arrived in Cornwall the day before our visit in the driving rain, and had to bypass Exmoor National Park because of the weather. Although the next day started out overcast, I would not be daunted. I had been looking forward to Cornwall for weeks, and I was determined to get out there and see it.

By the time we arrived at Tintagel, an hour after setting out, the sky was brilliantly blue and virtually cloudless. The Cornish countryside, dotted with sheep and rolling down to the sea in great green waves, was stunning against the turquoise sea. As we climbed down into a crevice between two rocky outcroppings towards the shore, we saw the rocky ruins of the castle on a hill above us. Rocks. Another of many ruined castles. But this one felt different. Maybe it was the way it was perched above us on the hill against the unfamiliar blue-sky backdrop, or maybe it was the way in which the weather had changed so dramatically as we approached, but the place felt otherworldly to me. I could imagine a twinkle in Merlin’s all-knowing eye. Such is the power of extraordinary literature.