Ah, the 4th day in England. This was, in my mind, the beginning of our trip. We had actual reservations at a B&B and that meant a full english breakfast in the morning along with loads of tea and wanderings around a cute town. I was very excited/very nervous because I had done all the bookings this trip and I just felt a bit responsible for everything.
We headed to the station, bought our tickets (next time we def need to get a rail pass) and waited for the next train to Salisbury. Obviously this meant we had time to get money out of the ATM and get some food for the train. We caught the right train this time, no overground for us. HA!
Once on the extremely empty train, we headed south. I was reminded, on that train journey, why I love England. It's those countryside hills and pastures. I LOVE THEM. Everything about them makes my insides just twirl with happiness. It was about an hour and a half train journey and then we arrived in Salisbury.
The B&B hosts had give me walking directions from the station, which was easy to follow...I thought. See it was easy to follow, but the hosts didn't give me instruction on how to handle my second guessing when you have a sister who is overly worried and very directionally challenged...I managed though. I continually checked the directions every five seconds because my sister was wheeling her bag behind me going, "Uh, are you sure this is the right direction? We should be heading the other way...' 'This is a residential area, are you sure this is right?', 'Katie, do you know where you're going? This doesn't look right to me...'" My favorite quote of hers was when we reached St. Mary's Cathedral and my sister goes, "No this is not the Salisbury cathedral, this is St. Mary's, we need to be by the Salisbury Cathedral. This is the wrong direction. Are you sure you know where you're going?". The thing is, St. Mary's is Salisbury Cathedral. Salisbury is St. Mary's Cathedral. My sister was beyond convinced she knew she was right, even though neither of us had ever been to Salisbury before. There is only one giant cathedral in Salisbury...and I have already mentioned it was St. Mary's...
ANYWAYS. After 15 minutes of dragging our suitcases behind us, going down cobbled streets and trying to still adjust to the way of traffic, we found ourselves going, "WOW! Oh this is so adorable!', 'This is so cute!'" We were so so so excited to be in Salisbury. It was absolutely charm central. We made it to the B&B, and met the nicest B&B hosts (besides Sally in Chipping Campden circa 2012). Our host Steve told us all about what there was to do and see in Salisbury and then he carried our luggage up 3 flights of stairs to the top of the 17th century Georgian home. We thanked him, put our suitcases down, flopped on our beds. GOOD NEWS WE DIDN'T HAVE TO SHARE BEDS!!! Annie offered to make some tea, we opened our digestives, and looked out the window. WOW. What a view. There, just out our window was the most beautiful view of the cathedral. We just stared and drank our tea and stared some more.
After unpacking and settling in, we layered up and headed out to explore some of Salisbury before Evensong that evening. We found a bench by the church and people watched while eating our lunch. When we finished eating, we wandered. One of my sister and mine's favorite things to do when in a new city is to go down as many streets and alleys we can find to try and orient ourselves and potentially stumbled upon something magical. We took a lot of photos, and then decided to pop into the local Sainsbury to buy more digestives, and find all the candy we had been dreaming about before leaving for England. Maoam's, munchies, tangfastics...etc. We headed back to the B&B, dropped off our candy, and headed to Evensong. It was an absolutely beautiful service with the men's choir singing. After church, we went to the BEST pub I have been to...
We decided not to wander too far since we were hungry and tired. We went to the pub recommended to us by our hosts and grabbed a table by the window. My sister and I intentionally try our best to not look like a couple, so in these situations we tend to reference each other as "my sister" more than anything else. We also mention our "Mom and dad" a lot too. Anyways, basically our waiter was DREAMY. Like light blue button down, dark fitted denim, blonde, TALL, british waiter. We started giggling uncontrollably after he left. Not to mention the bartender was also dreamy. The food was phenomenal. And with stomachs and eyes full of loveliness, we headed back to the b&b. We contemplated going back the next night for dinner, but we didn't see the same waiters when we walked past....
That was our first day in Salisbury. We loved it. We climbed into our beds and watched Escape to the Country on the TV instead of catching old episodes on youtube. The best part was that our window had that enchanting view of the cathedral spire at night.
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