Oooh, a shiney car !!!

It's been almost a year since I last got to drive a car. So today, we picked up a VW Polo from Wembley. It felt a bit odd, but at least it was on the right side.

We've always agreed that, as much as possible, we would avoid motorways and definitely tollroads - we want the picturesque pretty English drive. Turns out it didn't work as well in this regard as it did in Italy. But anyway, onward and westward.

Our first stop was Avebury. Widely regarded as the poorer, lesser-known sister than Stonehenge. We probably disagree - not least because you can walk up to,touch, and indeed, climb on, the stones.


Avebury is a big area, with a gigantic circle of stones, that stretches much further than you would ever have expected, despite being intersected by the road. There was also a cute, albeit small town in which we got some awesome butterscotch cookies, and an elderflower soft drink. It would probably have been good to spend more time and look at the other things nearby including the old barn thinggy, but time pressed on us, so we headed off through our next stop, Tidworth.

There's not really much there. So we kept going.

Suddenly, as we went over the hill, we saw a great big field of rocks. Surrounded by lots of people. Because we're tight (or because we'd just been to Avebury) we elected to simply pull over on teh side of the road, and look at Stone Henge from a distance, before heading on to our accommodation for the night.

Salisbury, on a Sunday night, is very quiet. Some might say, dead. At least our parking right outside the hotel was free. Which in some way compensated for the fact that the receptionist was a bit rude in telling us that we didn't have a reservation (we did, and it was prepaid!!)

Making the best of what we could, we went for a walk around the town, and saw the Cathedral, (about all there was) before heading back to our hotel to get changed and head out for dinner.

Dinner was at The Old Mill - still in Salisbury. It's a gorgeous place, with a waterwheel, rushing stream, and pond. Well, it's an old mill, so.. makes sense. We did get seated next to the window though, to eat the following:

Chicken and Asparagus Filo / Smoked Duck Salad for entree
Sausages and Mash / Beef Casserole for main.

Sounds boring, but wasn't.

And thus ended our first day