The Amazing Travels

Salisbury, Home of RatMan

So he had a long bit of a lie in and at 11ish, Reuben called and said he was in Bournmouth, so we hopped in the car to meet him. We parked and walked up and down the boardwalk. The beach was crowded with quickly burning Brits. We stopped and had fun spending 60p in the arcade on the change sweeping machines. Fun. Basic story – should have quit while we were ahead. Had lunch in this surfy type place where the appetizer platter we ordered was a full lunch for 2. We drove back to the chalet and Mel and I spent the rest of the afternoon planning our Space Opera. My character is Ophelia, daughter of a captain of a lost space colony. Mel’s is Portia, Earth grad student stuck in middle management who decides to find lost colony.

At 9:15,(after wrestling with the telly) we went to see the holiday camp visiting comic. He wasn’t very funny. Most of his jokes were recycled from the internet. Went home to bed.

So moving on to today, we went to Salisbury and did a drive by of Stonehenge… literally. My camera ran out of batteries just as I was going to take one of Stonehenge. I was sad, but going back to the morning, we park and rode to the center of town, did a bit of shopping (I picked up “Nursery Crime,” Jasper FForde’s new book out today and Mel picked up some clothing for the nieces and nephews.)

We took a 90 minute guided tour of the cathedral with a pleasantly rambling gentleman who told us about the baby who died 11 days before its birthday, and the prince’s half brother who was found with a perfectly preserved rat in his skull. (We later saw the rat in the museum.)

After the tour we walked back to High Street for more shopping (Boots Baby!) and lunch at the New Inn, a Tudor pub that had to be at least 500 years old. I had a Brie Ploughman. Yummy. Cheese, bread and pickle.

Our next step was the museum (the one with the rat) back next to the cathedral. Bad planning on our part… but the museum had some interesting old costumes and a section on Stonehenge… and did I mention the rat? By the time we got out of the museum, Clare and Mel were knackered so we sat on a bench by the cathedral and watched all the Germans go by. After some ice cream, we managed to drag ourselves back to the bus stop. Once back in the car we did the Stonehenge drive by and then off towards home. We stopped on the way at Tescos for provisions and I still contend I use us there by the fastest route.

The dude with the rat in his head was John Longspree, the half brother of King John. Also the half brother of King Richard. BTW, I really dislike that guy. All he did was run around the holy land, kill Turks, and get kidnapped and hang around in dungeons waiting to be summoned. The jerk. Only everyone loves him for some reason. Poor John was stuck back in England, trying to scrape together enough money to ransom Richard out of a dungeon. I think John has a bad rap.

Tonight’s dinner was chicken balls and potato croquettes, both oddly orange and kiddie food. Not a criticism, just a statement of fact.

Jenny’s currently going on about how she needs another bottle of wine to get “happy.” Lush. (and I’ll take as much space writing as I please. So ha!)

Clare says, “That spider is watching me.”

posted by omouse @ 7:56 PM