Sunday, November 18, 2012 - Southampton, England

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2012 - SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND - Our ship returned to this port, arriving about 5 a.m.   I had arranged a scenic transfer with a company named International Friends for a group of 16 and after meeting on the ship we proceeded off to meet our guide and  board our bus.  The requirements for being a part of this group, besides paying the scheduled fee, was that each person had to walk off the ship, carrying their luggage.  Once the luggage was all stowed on board the bus the tour began. 

Our first stop was in the beautiful English city of Salisbury for a visit to the Salisbury Cathedral.  In 1220 the city now known as Salisbury was founded on a great meadow.  The building of the new cathedral was begun in the same year.  The main body was completed in only 38 years and is a masterpiece of early English architecture.  The 404 foot tall spire was built later and is the tallest spire in the United Kingdom.  The cathedral is built on a gravel bed with unusually shallow foundations of 18 inches upon wooden faggots.  The cathedral contains the best preserved of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta and a large mechanical clock installed in the cathedral in 1386--the oldest surviving mechanical clock in Britain.

 Salisbury Cathedral is recognized as the inspiration for Kingsbridge Cathedral of Ken Follett's international best-seller about the building of a medieval cathedral, The Pillars of the Earth, which tells the story of the construction and the life of a "new build" cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge in southwest England.

 Stores in the city of Salisbury.  Early Sunday morning; stores were all closed.

 Leaving Salisbury we drove through the countryside, passing houses with thatch roofs.  (Pictures taken through the window of the bus).

 Arriving for our second stop, Stonehenge

 

 

Leaving Stonehenge we traveled to Windsor Castle for lunch and a tour.

 

The Admission Center and Courtyard.

 Upper Ward area. (State Apartments, The Drawings Gallery, and Queen Mary's Doll's Houses

 The Round Tower.

 

 Lower Ward

 

 St. George's Chapel

 

Our tour ended about 4 p.m. and then the transfer began to hotels in the Heathrow area and hotels in London.  I think Sylvia & I were the last ones delivered to our hotel in Islip neighborhood of London.

 

Sylvia and I stayed in London for two nights, going to the theater on Monday night to see Les Miserables in the West End of London.  Our flight to Dallas-Ft. Worth departed from Heathrow airport shortly before noon on Tuesday.