Amazing Adventures

 SPACE RACE: Today was our weekly trip to Shoreline for a couple hours of math and science classes. As a fun bonus activity, the school is holding a math-focused "Space Quest" activity. Each week the kids will answer math questions and make progress on an intergalactic journey.

They were pretty thrilled to get their very own "Captain's Logs!"

BROWSER: We had a few minutes to spare between math and science classes today, so I basically ordered the kids to go find a book in the library to check out. Annabelle fetched a collection of Jack Pruetlesy poems. The title is "My Dog May Be a Genius," and she said, "Clearly this isn't about our dogs." Have to agree with her on that.

Of all the books in the library, CJ honed in on this gem.

Different strokes. :)

ACCIDENTAL TOURISTS: I continue my spasmodic travelogue of our September trip to NYC and the UK by recounting our visit to the Salisbury Cathedral on the morning of Sept. 16.

The Salisbury Cathedral wasn't on our official list of things 'to do,' but as we drove around near our inn between Stonehenge and Old Sarum, we kept seeing this really tall, pointy church spire in the distance and we were intrigued.

On our last (and only) morning in Salisbury, Christian pretty much insisted we stop by. I was a bit reluctant, since we had a ferry to catch to the Isle of Wight. However, we pointed our (now slightly banged up) rental car in the pointy spire's direction.  Getting there was a bit tricky - narrow, one way roads, and lots of auto and foot traffic darting about. And when we grew close, we couldn't find an entrance or parking. I was ready to call it quits, but Christian pulled into a spot and we basically sprinted out of the car toward the cathedral, about four blocks away.

I'm glad we stopped. Turns out the place is a Pretty Big Deal - in addition to being just plain big!

Can you spot the kids? They're tiny specks in the photo above, on the cathedral's west front.

So, you know that pointy structure I mentioned we'd been spying for a couple days? Turns out it's Britain's tallest spire. You can see it behind the cathedral entrance above. And to the right in the photo below.

Per the cathedral's Web site, "Salisbury is unique amongst medieval English cathedrals having been built in just 38 years (1220 - 1258) in a single architectural style, early English Gothic. The tower and spire (Britain's tallest) were added about 50 years later."

It's awfully darn gob-smacking as you enter, that's for sure! Even before entering, I was awfully glad we stopped.

Once inside, OMG! (seems appropriate, given it's a cathedral, right?). AmAzInG. Stunning. Breath taking. We could have spent a day or days there. I was instantly kicking myself for not knowing about the place beforehand and only having like 45 minutes to see it 'all.' We told the kids to open their eyes wide and see as much as they could during our whirlwind tour.

This row of statues was one of the first jaw-droppers we encountered. I love this photo of CJ contemplating them.

And early in our tour our eyes landed on the world's oldest working clock, from 1386 AD. 

Can you believe it?! We accidentally saw the world's oldest working clock! Like other clocks of its era, it had no face. Rather, it rang out the hours on a bell. This clock was originally in a bell tower that's long gone (1792). It was moved to the Cathedral Tower, where it rang out the hours until 1884. Then it was stuck in storage and long forgotten, until 1929. It was restored and placed back in to service in 1956.

One of the cathedral's newest features (2008) is a lovely water feature, The Font.

I wish we could have lingered there longer.

There are a whole bunch of people buried in the cathedral, many of the former bishops of the cathedral. However, many others are buried there as well, and the markers and monuments range from stones in the walkways to lifelike statues.

Below is the crypt of William Geoffrey, canon and Chancellor of the cathedral between 1554-8.

Thomas Wyndham merited a larger than most memorial. He was named Chief Justice of Court of Common Pleas in Ireland by King George I and later the Office of the High Chancellor of Ireland. Wyndham, who died in 1745, was Speaker of the House for the Irish Parliament. 

The final resting place of  John Wordsworth was my personal favorite. Nephew of poet William Wordsworth, he became bishop of Salisbury at age 42, in 1845. The bishop has one heck of an eternal view.

Not all of the people who are buried there are from ages ago. In fact, one of the most famous people buried there is Sir Edward Heath (1916–2005), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and parliamentary member from 1950 to 2001. He lived in the Cathedral Close for the last twenty years of his life.

In addition to the tallest spire, the Salisbury cathedral also has the largest cloister (a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walks or open galleries) in Britain (pictured below, via Wikipedia). Yup, we accidentally saw that too. ;)As we made the rounds, at one point one of us spied a sign that said something about Magna Carta. Huh what?!?!?! "THE Magna Carta?" we asked one of the docents on site, believing the answer would surely be 'no.' 

Imagine our surprise when the answer was "Yes!"  

We made our way to the octagonal shaped Chapter House, where it was kept. The building has a slender central pillar and decorative medieval frieze.  The Magna Carta is kept in the back of the building, under the watchful eye of a full time "guard" (a super friendly 75-ish year old woman on the morning we visited).

Photos were not permitted, so this one is gleaned from the Internet. ...

The 1215 proclamation (the "great charter") is considered the founding constitutional document of the English-speaking world. Its 63 clauses are written in Latin on an 800-year old parchment and let me tell you, the penmanship is ridiculously amazing! 

("Social studies" aside - only three of the original clauses in Magna Carta are still law today. One defends the freedom and rights of the English Church, another confirms the liberties and customs of London and other towns, and the third is the most famous. The docent made sure to point it out to us:

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled. Nor will we proceed with force against him except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.

The cathedral's Web site has an interesting history of how the Magna Carte came to Salisbury. It reads

At Runnymede King John was urged to accept the demands of the barons and agree Magna Carta by his half-brother, William Longspeé, whose Effigy is in Salisbury Cathedral. Also present at Runnymede was Elias of Dereham, who at the time was steward to one of the key players in the crisis, the Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton. Elias himself was a skilled negotiator and was at the very centre of the discussions between the King and the barons. Once Magna Carta was agreed and sealed he was entrusted with delivering ten of the thirteen copies made, one of which was given to the original cathedral at Old Sarum. Elias later became a Canon of Old Sarum before masterminding the building of the present Salisbury Cathedral.

So the historical document was at Old Sarum before it came to the cathedral, just like us. ;) Fortunately, it wasn't damaged by a motorhome at Old Sarum. :)  How thrilling to be able to see it!

Thanks to the magic of the Intertubes, you can take a 360-degree virtual tour of the cathedral online. It's gorgeous, and I'd really encourage you to do so. Here's the link:  https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=51.064905,-1.79758&spn=0.001372,0.00294&sll=51.064933,-1.797677&layer=c&cid=14380366614161135822&panoid=-fwJtqdUYsw8WS4DDn0AZw&cbp=13,91.15,,0,0&gl=US&t=m&z=19&cbll=51.064905,-1.79758
When you do it, make sure you look UP! The ceilings are NOT to be missed! This area of the cathedral is called the Nave. This picture doesn't do it justice.

I kept reminding myself and exhorting the kids to "Look up! Look up!"

All in all, it was a pretty decent one-hour stop on our whirlwind visit to the UK. :)