Taking the Train to Salisbury

Saturday, July 10
Day out of London

The highlight of our trip, in fact, my very reason for making the trip in the first place, was our visit to cousins Sheila Thompson, her brother Brian and his wife Brenda. Got up early, relatively speaking. I set the alarm for 7 and asked for a 7:10 wake-up call. Took me until around 1:00 am or a bit later to get to sleep. Might have been as late as 1:30. Well, we hadn't arrived back at the hotel until well after midnight after seeing Money, and I had to put my feet up for 30 minutes or so before I could sleep. I pulled a chair up beside the bed and rested my legs from the knees to feet elevated above my butt to simulate my recliner at home. Not the least bit elegant, but it did the trick. A bit of reading or TV distracted from leg, knee, and feet discomfort long enough for me to unwind and prepare to sleep. Jan didn't like the light or TV on as he was ready to sleep much sooner than I. On the other hand, he was up closing the windows and fiddling with the curtains at 6:15 in the morning. I sat up and checked the alarm clock then went back to sleep until the 7:10 wake-up call. The clock had stopped at 6:45! What gives!?! Anyway, we were showered, dressed, and finished breakfast by 8:00, out the hotel door and off to catch the tube to Waterloo station. We got there at 8:45, stood in line to get tickets combined with our Oyster cards (like TTC passes) and made the 9:15 to Salisbury - a lovely compfy fast ride with 4 seats to ourselves, facing pairs, with a table between. The porter brought a cart of refreshments - how civilized! I had a cappucino and a candy bar.

Sheila met us at the station and took us on a whirlwind tour of the old central part of Salisbury accompanied by all sorts of interesting bits of history and story. We walked through the marketplace that has held a charter for markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays for hundreds of years.
We took a picture at the butter cross ( or was it the cheese cross?), looked at the guild hall, the old china shop that is now a chain store,

and had a cup of coffee in the Red Lion pub which we entered through a beautiful old carriage driveway and a courtyard hung with vines and flowers. There was a typical British lion near the door enamelled Chinese red. Sheila proudly showed us a map and explained that the village had a grid of streets that created 6 square blocks, which were called checkers, and each one had a name.

Our walkabout was followed by another hair-raising trip down narrow roads, twisting and turning through the countryside until we came to the Black Horse country pub where we stopped for lunch.

This was a great old place, a couple of guys with their dog sitting outside, trees and fields falling away around it, and terrific food, of course: beer and cider for Jan and I, the prawns for Sheila and I, fish pie for Jan (potato and cheese topping rather than pastry), and sticky toffee pudding for dessert - mine with custard and Jan's with cream. Ah!

It was time then for Sheila to take us home to Firsdown where she shares a house with Brian and Brenda. Its back yard sloped up to a wonderful view over the top of a hill where far below we could just make out the cut of the old Roman Road. It was one of the few remaining chalk meadows in the area, covered with lichens and wildflowers and rabbit scrapes. Brian was having a rabbit fence installed - the same tough wire grid that surrounds our vegetable patch at home. We could see how hard it must have been to dig into the chalk and flints through such a thin covering of vegetation.

Sheila showed us around the house, the family memorabilia. We had a good visit with all three, and Jan gave them the USB drive full of old Thompson photos that he had assembled. Sheila had to leave early to meet the choir, so Brian made us tea - our first taste of scones,strawberry preserves, and clotted cream. Oh, my, god!!! Too good to begin to describe. Brian and Brenda were not going to the concert so a lovely friend of Sheila's picked us up for yet another white knuckle trip (we were beginning to get used to driving conditions) to the old red brick and stone country church, reportedly built under the direction of Christopher Wren. There was an old almshouse across the road. The choir of about 20 entertained the audience with a great selection of standards and show tunes, interspersed with solos by a guest soprano and the choir master himself. At intermission, refreshments were served on the lawn (I had expected tea and a plate of biscuits, but there was wine, and both sweet and savory snacks), door prizes were drawn, and Sheila introduced us as having interrupted our vacation to attend. No way!

Seeing her was the very reason I had wanted to make the trip in the first place. It was just great. We really enjoyed the day and the concert. Sheila got us back to the station in Salisbury on time to make our train. We got into London on time to catch the last subway to Earls Court. It was the best day.