Exploring Stonehenge, Bath & Salisbury

Exploring the English countryside is a must when visiting England. The lush green fields, the towns and small villages that range in style, culture and traditions. One truly feels submerged in a novel as you pass by the rolling hills and we are there to simply take in the beautiful sceneries.

Today, we're discovering three particular places in this stunning country; Bath, Salisbury and Stonehenge. To begin the trip I flew from Madrid to Bristol (which is the nearest airport to Bath), and took a double-decker bus to the city center of Bath. Distance wise the trip should take about 20-30 minute, but this particular bus makes stops and passes by two other towns before arriving to Bath which makes it about an hour-long trip.

We arrived on the evening of the Champions League Final, so we were on a mission to find a pub playing the game featuring Real Madrid and Juventus. We ended up in Flan O'Briens next to Kingsmead square. With a pint in hand and a crowd of fans we enjoyed the game pub style.

Shortly after we headed out to find a place that would still offer dinner at 10pm, to our luck we found a Moroccan restaurant called Tagine Zhor near the Abbey. It was our first time trying Moroccan cuisine and we loved it, we had two different Tagines and being Mexican we love spicy food so this was right up our alley. From there we headed back to our hotel, a calm small hotel about 15 minutes from the city center of Bath.

I loved the façade of this hotel because you felt like you were staying in a manor from the 17th century, curiously enough this inn claims it has been there for over 700 years. Crazy, but believable. Places like the George Inn are what maintain the charm and character of a place, we felt like we were truly living the town and not just passing through. Our time in Bath was short but sweet.

The next morning we had breakfast at the Boston Tea Party, which we were all really pleased with, and then we were off to the train station to head over to Salisbury. Part of the simplicity and joy of traveling around Europe is the train system, in less than an hour and for about 10£, you get a great train ride with gorgeous countryside views, and arrive to a completely different town. Upon arriving to Salisbury we checked into the hotel and headed straight to the tour bus for Stonehenge.

When we arrived to the bus we got a package ticket that included the ride and the entrance. Again this was a double-decker that leaves from Salisbury's town center and in approximately 30 minutes drops you off at Stonehenge. It wasn't raining (yet) but it was quite chilly from the harsh winds. We toured the prehistoric monument and just as we were leaving to go back on the bus, it started pouring.

*Tip: don’t try to plan to go when it's not raining, the weather changes every five minutes, you're better off just going, it will be worth it regardless.

After Stonehenge we still had some time left in the afternoon to tour Salisbury, we headed over to see the Cathedral of Salisbury which is now one of my favorite Cathedrals, it's truly unreal and beautiful. After we decided to start searching for a place to have dinner, so after roaming through a couple of streets we settled on Italian at a little quaint place called Prezzo.

Monday we woke up around 6:30 to go experience the mass at the Cathedral. After a beautiful and exclusive service (not a lot of people get up for 7:30 mass), we explored the rest of the Cathedral, then headed back to the hotel for breakfast.

That concluded our countryside visits and midday we took a 1 hour and 30 minute train to London. Stay tuned for the post about my London favorites, till then.

Cheers,

-marina