The Stourhead Gardens and its Follies.

On our way from Salisbury to Combe Martin, in Devon, we stopped at Stourhead house and gardens. Not only do I love gardens, but Stourhead was (relatively) recently a feature location in the newest movie version of Pride and Prejudice, which is a favorite of mine (the book and the movie, of course).

The gardens are actually more of a large, well-designed park around a lake, with huge, beautiful trees, large swathes of velvety green grass, and the various follies for which it is famous.

We took a walk around the park, which started in some more formal-ish gardens.

We then started our walk around the lake and got our first glimpse of the Temple of Apollo across the lake.

View from the Pantheon.

The three follies that we saw as we walked around the lake were: the Temple of Apollo, the Pantheon, and the Bridge.

After our tour of the beautiful parks, we toured the house (where photography was not allowed).

The gardens were really beautifully laid out, and it was quite lovely to walk around them in the good weather. There was a hint of fall in the trees (see photo above), that made me really excited for fall!

Visiting Salisbury.

At the start of our trip, my parents and I arrived in London within a few hours of each other and met up in the international arrivals terminal. Some insane tail winds for them and head winds for me meant that they were waiting quite a long time for me, even though my plane was scheduled to arrive an hour earlier than theirs! After a little coffee, we got our rental car and headed off to Salisbury, where we stayed for two days.

Salisbury is famous for its huge cathedral, which was built in the 1200s! It's hard to believe that it was built so long ago and is still standing. It also houses an original copy of the Magna Carta, which was quite interesting to see. Our first order of business upon arriving in Salisbury was to walk around the city and the Cathedral close, soaking up the sun.

We also walked around the Cathedral's cloister, which was really beautiful. I really enjoyed the peace and beauty and amazing old trees of this cloister.

The Cathedral close was full of grand old homes, and we really enjoyed walking around to see them.

My favorite door. It was blue, of course.

The next day, we took a walk out to Old Sarum, which is where the original city was founded, in 3000 BC. My dad recently read a book on the history of Salisbury through the ages, and this site featured heavily in the book.

Old Sarum hill.

Site of the old cathedral.

Ruins of Old Sarum.

We took the full tour of the Cathedral in the afternoon, viewing the Magna Carta, and also participating in an Evensong service. I have to admit that seeing ruins is interesting, but I have a hard time picturing how it once was. Attending an Evensong service, on the other hand, in the same place where such services have been taking place for hundreds of years, made me feel connected with the past in a very tangible way.

It was nice to have some time in Salisbury (partially to allow my parents to get over jet lag a little before we did a lot of driving), but also because it is always possible to see and learn more when you stay a little longer in one place, as opposed to just popping in from place to place. It was a great start for our trip!

Our English Tour.

To celebrate me becoming Dr. Sarah Page, my parents and I took a holiday and traveled around England for two weeks. I've now realized that I've gone to England after earning all of my degrees- I guess it must be a habit! It really is a beautiful country, and it's lovely to travel somewhere that English is spoken.

We made a pretty big tour around England, and I'll be posting more in the next week or so, but here's a map with an overview of the places we went:

View UK 2012 in a larger map

It was great to be able to spend some time with my parents, and definitely amazing not to be working!

Last day in the UK...

...and we toured Buckingham Palace!

At Biddulph Grange Gardens...

...in the pouring rain!

Around the Lakes.