May 14, 2008 10:32 a.m. café bar at the Heathrow Airport

Last night we did not make it to Stourhead, but did get to stop at the site of an old castle and chapel called Old Sarum. Now only the hill (outside Salisbury) and some ruins are left. It was closed, but most of the group jumped the fence to look at it. Brooke and I stayed out and I took a doze in the lovely grass (I adored the grass in England!)
We could not have gotten a better closure to our trip than the visit to Salisbury. The cathedral (the old Sarum liturgy upon which the 1662 Anglican liturgy is based, originated here) is my favorite of all that we visited on the trip, although we did not make it in time for evensong. It had some unique features. Most striking to me were the colors used, like the deep blue stained glass window behind the altar and the various tans and other colors blended in the upper windows. The vaulting in the ceiling down the center of the cathedral had been painted in more of the same reds, tans, and other colors, unlike some of the other vaulting we had seen that was predominantly white or gilded or one color. There were also pictures painted on the ceiling. I could see most of the organ pipes, some of which were incredibly huge. They still had the large wooden semi-circular cope chest, too, in which the vestments used to be kept.
After seeing the cathedral we found a pub for our last English dinner, called the New Inn, and established 1777. The food was great. I ordered the cottage pie (like shepherd’s pie) and a half of hard cider (I had hard cider for the first time in England). The pie, drenched in this great brown gravy, came with good green beans and peas on the side. I grew quite fond of that gravy.
After dinner we drove a bit more to Reading where we stayed in a hotel for the night. It was quite nice to shower and crash onto the soft bed. Morning came all too soon, but we had determined to get all packed and ready and beat the guys to the door, so we had to get up on time.
Finally, after returning our royal blue rental van and riding the shuttle to the airport, we are sitting at a coffee shop enjoying a bit of breakfast. Josh and Erica got searched during the checking-in process because they had letter openers in their carry-on bags, but all turned out well. I think Erica had to buy a small checked luggage bag to send her letter opener in. Our flight home leaves in an hour.