Yeah, I Could Live There (Salisbury)

I'd been to England six times before my first move to London in September 2008 - the first time was on a family holiday when I was 11, but the second and third trips were tours with my choir from the Washington National Cathedral here in DC while I was in middle and high school.  (The fifth was a choir tour, too, right after my semester abroad in Paris as a college student in 2007, and it was tons o' fun to experience one of the trips as an adult!  I had no idea when I was a child that so much carousing went on behind the scenes...)  While we checked off all of the usual tourist attractions and activities, we also spent time visiting (and singing in) almost every cathedral and well-known church in the United Kingdom.  One of my favorites was Salisbury, a quaint but bustling medieval town in the south of England.

Salisbury is located the most beautiful green valley at the confluence of five rivers; it was a major market town in the Middle Ages and is packed with incredible history, from Stonehenge to the 13th century cathedral and beyond.  (If you like historical fiction, I totally recommend Edward Rutherford's Sarum, which traces the life of the town through the centuries - it's fascinating!)  It takes about an hour and forty minutes to get into London on the train so the city is accessible, but it feels like you're in the deepest countryside when you're in Salisbury.  Sometimes, when Jon and I imagine where we might live one day, we picture ourselves in a lovely little town like this one...

[ view / Old Sarum / Salisbury Cathedral / Stonehenge ]

And, of course, in these fantasies we're always in an amazing property like The North Canonry, right on the Cathedral Close, parts of which date from the 13th and 16th centuries.  It's got six bedrooms, a wine cellar, a music room, and a stable block and formal gardens as well as an incredible view of the cathedral and fishing rights on the river Avon.  Don't worry, dear readers, you can come visit us here once I've redecorated!  There'll be plenty of room.

linking up with Helene in Between for Travel Tuesdays!