Stonehenge

Monday morning and a bit of a slow start. With the Alpaca Manager presentations (or not!) behind us, we are both feeling a bit weary having lived out of our suitcases for four weeks. Our hosts (Jason and Ian) both left early so we had a leisurely breakfast and then packed up the car again. For only the second time on this trip, it is actually raining.

Our first stop was a Superstore (Marks & Spencer and a Sainbury's)  for a few essential supplies. It took quite a while to find what we wanted since the combined stores were about 1km long! Then on to the motorway again heading for Salisbury.

The New Inn

With the car parked in the centre of town on a 2-hour Pay-And-Display we decided we could do some exploring, but first a bite to eat at the 'New Inn' - I'd hate to see the old one! A quick half-pint and a wrap and we were on our way. The obvious choice was Salisbury Cathedral which was just around the corner. This is an amazing building; so big and impressive - more so inside than out. One amazing memorial was to a chap who was Knighted by both King Henry VII and Richard III. These were the two kings who fought at Bosworth Field resulting in Richard's death. Obviously he liked to hedge his bets regarding his allegiances. The note next to his tomb said that Richard actually knocked him off his horse at the battle but failed to kill him.

The highlight of the cathedral was seeing the best preserved of the surviving 4 Magna Carta documents. It is written on parchment (sheep hide) in very small letters and the whole thing is about the size of an A3 piece of paper.

Back to the car and off to Stonehenge. This has been substantially developed for the tourists since we first visited in 1978. Now you park about 3kms away and get a shuttle bus to the site.The visitor centre has a very good museum. Unfortunately, the weather had gone from bad-to-worse and, with a cold wind blowing across the Salisbury Plain and persistent rain, we did a quick loop around the stones and then headed back to the cafe for a coffee and Cornish Pasty to dry out.

Our next Airbnb was in a small village called 'All Cannings' near Devizes. We headed off there and our sat nav found it perfectly. We would never have found it without this piece of technology. Our host Julie had pre-booked us dinner at the local pub (The Kings Arms) and we had a few wines/pints and a slap-up meal before a good night's rest.

Julie has an amazing menagerie consisting of:

• An old very friendly Retriever bitch
• Two small white terrier dogs who never muttered so much as a whimper
• At least three cats
• Three or four Indian Runner ducks
• Three of four normal chickens
• Another chicken (mistakenly named Kevin by her children) who was hatched by a dove and then hand-reared by Julie.
  This bird thinks its a human and spends every moment it can in the kitchen and on the dog's bedding. She sleeps in a cat cage in the Utility Room (Laundry).