Salisbury

Salisbury Cathedral was built from 1220 to 1258.

It has the tallest church spire in the UK.

Other churches had taller spires, but they collapsed over the ages.

The main settlement in the area used to be at Old Sarum, until the Bishop of Salisbury left to built Salisbury Cathedral due to a dispute with the Sheriff of Wiltshire.

The world's oldest working mechanical clock, made in 1386, made in Delft in the Netherlands.

Regimental colors. The Wiltshire Regiment's colors were carried in Italy fighting Napoleon, America during the War of 1812, and lost and recovered during a hurricane in the Ganges in 1842.

Stonehenge is located eight miles from Salisbury.

The tomb of Robert Hungerford from 1459

Graffiti on the face... really?

The choir

The tomb of Thomas Bennet, a secretary to Cardinal Wolsey

Trinity Chapel

The cathedral also houses the best-preserved copy of the Magna Carta.

Another stunning British cathedral

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital of Wales and its largest city. Cardiff Castle is one of the main sights.

Cardiff was first settled in 6000 B.C., and ruled by the Celtic Silures until the Romans conquered it ~75 A.D.

Cardiff was inhabited by Romans until the 4th century, when Magnus Maximus took the legions from the region to usurp the Western Roman Empire from Gratian.

Medals and a pistol from the Indian Mutiny of 1857-1858.

It's a fact...

Another great Welsh regimental goat

Fort Detroit's colors were surrendered to the British during the War of 1812.

A Russian Maxim gun captured during the Korean War.

A more modern portion of Cardiff Castle was built by the Marquess of Bute in the 1800s.

A reconstructed Roman wall leads to a Norman castle built on top of the old Roman fort.

The Marquess of Bute built the Cardiff docks, which initiated Cardiff's rise to modern prosperity.

A 500 year old bombard

The Marquess of Bute was extremely wealthy due to lands he owned and the mines and dock he developed. William Burges was hired to convert that wealth into a Victorian masterpiece.

The ceiling in the Arab Room

By the 1900s the Marquess of Bute was far less wealthy, and sold the castle to Cardiff in 1947.

Cardiff experienced high immigration during the Industrial Revolution. Less than a quarter of Cardiff's population can speak Welsh.

The Welsh were split whether Caernarfon or Cardiff should be the Welsh capital, but Cardiff won out in the 1950s.

During its heyday Wales was the top coal exporter in the world, and Cardiff was its primary port. 

Cardiff houses the Welsh Parliament, called the Senedd.

I've run out of Cardiff facts. The castle is well worth a visit obviously.

The National Museum is more art than archeology focused.

A pagan park

We tried to get afternoon tea, but ended up with afternoon gin tea.

You can't go wrong with cask ale.

Cardiff has a lot of fancy bars.

A "hidden" bar.

A Cardiff Castle guard

Cardiff has an extensive marina with button-push to operate bridges.

A barrage encompasses Cardiff Bay

The extensive dam was completed in 1999.

Its a long walk across.

The Wales Millennium Centre, an opera house, is on the side closest to town.