Salisbury, England / September 2015 –

I was on tour with several of my high school class mates. We were attending the Rugby World Cup – England 2015 tournament. The motto being – ‘The World in Union’. Although I was in England for three weeks and attended 12 games, it wasn’t all rugby. We did some sight-seeing adventures as well. One such place was Salisbury. Some may remember the lyrics to Peter Gabriel’s ‘Solsbury Hill’, well this wasn’t that place.

Salisbury Cathedral is now 762 years old, having been completed in 1258. It has the tallest spire in all of England at a height of 404 feet. It also has England’s largest cloister and largest cathedral close. It houses the world’s oldest working clock and has 4 original copies of the Magna Carta. As legend has it, the spire served the Nazis during World War II as a directional beacon for the bombing of Britain.

Unfortunately, I can’t pick my weather days but I did get some fairly good shots in and outside of the cathedral. This one doesn’t show the tall spire but it does capture the grandiose archways and detail from inside its courtyard. As always, I have other photos I may share another day. Although the cathedral is showing its age, it is in immaculate condition in the interior and the stone exterior is seemingly not eroding as one might suspect.

I have to say that having visited various churches in England, I’m awed by the sheer magnitude and detail of these structures. Often they would take decades to build. One has to wonder how the power of belief can build monuments that outlast the builders’ lifetimes.