This summer we spent a day and a half in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on our way from Devon to Gatwick. It was quite a coincidence that we ended up there; we were looking for somewhere to spend the last night not too far from the airport, and our first choice, Winchester, didn't have a single available room anywhere ("it's the wedding season", one B&B hostess explained). So Old Sarum it was, and we found rooms at a very respectable B&B, the Victoria Lodge, with a cheery, formidable and serviceminded landlady.
This was located a ten-minute walk from the city's market square, and we could walk along an idyllic riverside path, watching ducks, swans and other birdlife with their offspring on the way.
Salisbury turned out to be just the sort of English city I like; not very large so that you can walk rather than drive around; good restaurants (we had fantastic Italian food at Strada, and "the world's best hamburger", according to my son, at the Best Western Red Lion Hotel Lounge & Bar - it looked distinctly unpromising at first, but we were hungry and it was late, and it turned out to be a very good choice), very decent shopping facilities (this was where I finally found my "Keep calm"-mug) and a cathedral of really outstanding beauty. There was a Sunday service on when we went to see it, so we even got to hear the choir sing.
Civilised, extremely civilised.
