Page 213 - Lonely Planet Europe’s Best Trips (Travel Guide)

fields from the hillside naves in Europe (164m), nave. In the north aisle
car park. and highlights includ- look out for a fascinating
ing intricately carved medieval clock dating
The Drive » It’s a 49-mile
trip to Winchester: return to medieval choir stalls, from 1386, probably the
the B4507 and drive southeast Jane Austen’s grave oldest working timepiece
to Ashbury and take the (near the entrance, in in the world. Don’t miss
B4000 southeast to join the the northern aisle) and the cathedral’s original,
southbound A34. one of the UK’s finest 13th-century copy of
illuminated manuscripts, the Magna Carta (www.
the dazzling, four-volume salisburycathedral.org.uk;
4 Winchester Winchester Bible dating Cathedral Close; h9.30am-
Set in a river valley, from the 12th century. 4.30pm Mon-Sat, noon-3.45pm
this ancient cathedral Book ahead for excellent Sun) in the chapter house,
city was the capital of tours of the ground floor, or a 90-minute tower tour
Saxon kings and a power crypt and tower. (adult/child £12.50/8; pre-
base of bishops, and The Drive » From Winchester, booking essential), which
evokes two of England’s hop on the B3049 then the A30 sees you climbing 332 GREAT BRITAIN 15 THE BEST OF BRITAIN
mightiest myth-makers: for the 26-mile drive west to vertigo-inducing steps
famous son Alfred the Salisbury. to the base of the spire
Great (commemorated for jaw-dropping views
by a statue) and King across the city and the
Arthur (a 700-year-old 5 Salisbury surrounding countryside.
copy of the round table Salisbury has been an The Drive » It’s just 9.6
resides in Winchester’s important provincial city miles northwest from Salisbury
cavernous Great Hall for more than a thousand via the A360 to otherworldly
(%01962-846476; www. years, and its streets form Stonehenge.
hants.gov.uk/greathall; Castle an architectural timeline
Ave; suggested donation £3; ranging from medieval
h10am-5pm), the only walls and half-timbered 6 Stonehenge
part of 11th-century Win- Tudor town houses to Despite countless
chester Castle that Oliver Georgian mansions theories about this site’s
Cromwell spared from and Victorian villas. Its purpose, ranging from
destruction). centrepiece is the majestic a sacrificial centre to a
Winchester’s archi- 13th-century Salisbury celestial timepiece, no
tecture is exquisite, Cathedral (%01722-555120; one knows for sure what
from the handsome www.salisburycathedral.org. drove prehistoric Britons
Elizabethan and Regency uk; Cathedral Close; requested to expend so much time
buildings in the narrow donation adult/child £7.50/ and effort constructing
streets to the wondrous none; h9am-5pm Mon- Stonehenge (EH; %0370
Winchester Cathedral Sat, noon-4pm Sun). This 333 1181; www.english-heritage.
(%01962-857225; www. early English Gothic–style org.uk; adult/child on-the-day
winchester-cathedral.org.uk; structure has an elaborate tickets £18/11, advance booking
The Close; adult/child incl cath- exterior decorated with £15.50/9.30; h9am-8pm
edral body & crypt tours £8/ pointed arches and flying Jun-Aug, 9.30am-7pm Apr, May
free; h9.30am-5pm Mon-Sat, buttresses, and is topped & Sep, 9.30am-5pm Oct-Mar;
12.30-3pm Sun) at its core. by Britain’s tallest spire at p); it is one of Britain’s
One of southern Eng- 123m, which was added great archaeological mys-
land’s most awe-inspiring in the mid-14th century. teries. The first phase of
buildings, the 11th- Beyond the cathedral’s building started around
century cathedral has a highly decorative West 3000 BC, when the outer
fine Gothic facade, one Front, a small passageway circular bank and ditch
of the longest medieval leads into the 70m-long were erected. A thousand
211