Pughnited Kingdom: First Salisbury,

In England, if you want to take a look at Stonehenge, you have to pay like eight pounds to stand behind a rope that is like a hundred feet away from the henge, and that's such a waste. However, if you want to pay twice as much and only get an hour's time at the site, you can book way in advance to be part of a group of no more than 26 people who are scheduled certain days each week to visit at sunrise or sunset, and cross over the rope barrier, and walk amongst the stones. And get to take pretty sunrise/set photos.

But that's not what this post is about. In order to make the above happen, we had to rent a car, since public transportation to Stonehenge is limited, and we figured if we've got the car, we might's well visit nearby Salisbury and see some other historical landmarks before our scheduled Stonehengery at 7:30pm. So we went to Salisbury Cathedral.

We packed a lunch and a bunch of snacks for the longish trip. Here's me by a little river, where we stopped after parking for the cathedral. It's a Korean-style pose.

This is me doing a little exercisy after eating and all that car time.

A little bit of downtown Salisbury.

And here we are on the grounds of Salisbury Cathedral, our photo taken by a dude who clearly doesn't know how to step back and set up the shot so that both the cathedral and the subjects of the shot are fully visible. Pretty colors, though.

From the looks of this sign, they really need it:

This one looks like there's a little cloud dolphin, jumping through the foamy cathedral waves.

For some reason there was this really weird art exhibition at the cathedral that day. There was this installation outside that was a model of a little apartment or something, with this oddly proportioned dude inside. Then there were other figures, life-size and non-, on the exterior and interior of the cathedral, but there was nothing connecting them to that location. It was pretty lame. I don't like bullshit art, as I mentioned to Ed at the time.

Here are some closeups of the outdoor walls:

This wasn't really relevant to the site either--it's a model of Old Sarum, a castle slash fort with stone perimeter built on a large motte, not far north of the city. It has a moat.

This is another oddly proportioned figure--creepily proportioned, really--at Salisbury Cathedral, but which is always there to freak you out.

Map of the region:

Here are some interior shots of the stained glass windows and columns and such:

There was another suite model inside, the building of the cathedral. We studied all the little workers for some time.

This photo shows my confasperation at the aforementioned exhibition--another figure in the background.

If I were a preacher, or whatever they call a Church of England Cathedral-speaker, I'd want a SOLID GOLD LECTERN, too. It's only natural.

This art doesn't seem to be connected to the bullshit art, and is acceptable, because it looks pretty cool and isn't INCREDIBLY PRETENTIOUS.

And here is where they keep the holy audio kit (Ed 2011).

I don't think I need to say anything about this one.

Here are some pretty, uh, shrines? I don't know--in the back of the church.

Here are some cool shots of the cathedral from afar, with ominus clouds. Spooky.

Back out on the grounds, chillaxing with the Walking Madonna.

Although we didn't have enough time before our date with the henge to go see another site, like Old Sarum, we did have some time to wander around Salisbury, get some Italian food, and take some pictures. This is called the Market Cross, question mark?:

This is just a clocktower.

This is a pub that looks like an old castley kind of thing, but it seems to not be authentically so, unlike quite a few other modern establishments running in wicked old buildings.