Nature treated us to a wonderful sunset last night, and then an imposing display of stars. We never would have seen this had we not camped. The silk sheet that I placed inside my sleeping bag kept me warm and I slept better. After shaking off the morning dew from the tent, we took the street bus to Par, the neighboring town, and then the train to Salisbury. Come to find out that for £30 and proof of birth date, people over 60 years old can purchase a rail pass that provides a 33% discount on all trains in the U.K. When we asked at the tourist center yesterday, we were told that only citizens were eligible for this discount pass. When we arrived in Salisbury, we visited the Tourist Center there and asked them to contact the TC in Fowey; their misinformation cost us 18 quid.
We are staying at The Old House in Salisbury. This 16th century building was converted into a 10-room B & B by the present hosts a couple of decades back. It has lots of character, but I favor the meticulously-kept gardens. From our room, I can smell roses and honeysuckle. In fact, there is a floral scent throughout the city; the air is crisp without pollution, like after a spring rain. The center of Salisbury is a pedestrian zone with lots of eateries, markets and stores. We stopped for tea and pastries and watched the tourists walk by.
One of the stores on the street is The Last Bookstore, which made us comment on the life expectancy of print books. The majority of our books sales are e-books. When I started selling Women of the Way about a year ago, 30% of sales were printed vs. downloaded electronically; nowadays, the printed version is minimal. There was another bookstore in in town; it recently closed–another example of change resulting from technological advances.
We visited the 
Salisbury Cathedral. For more than 750 years, pilgrims have come here in search of inspiration and peace. In my opinion, it is much more attractive than the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. This was my first time in an Anglican church and found it less ornate (not so much gold and silver and fewer statues) than the ones I visited in Spain and Portugal. The church has beautiful grounds surrounded by a high wall with large oak gate entrances. It was a nice promenade to help us digest our evening meal.
The expression “Salisbury plain” came to mind as I read this. I’ll check on google to see if something happened there or if it’s from Shakespeare. I still sell more copies of my memoir in paperback than as an ebook. When I was in London in 2009, I went to a 1500-year-old Anglican Church to attend the first christening of an American friend’s daughter; they were living in London at the time.
Sonia, many of the old Anglican churches were Catholic until Henry VIII started the Anglican church. This is what happened with St Mary’s which is now the Salisbury Cathedral. And many of the Catholic churches were places of worship stolen from other religions.
Glad that you are selling books–either traditional or ebook.
I was right about Salisbury plain but it’s not the Salisbury where you are now but where you will be going when you visit Stonehenge.
You can look it up on google.
Enjoying your journal! Good info…
Religions, politics, economic, power…. Isn’t that interesting?