It’s our last day here in England and we started off the morning by visiting the local Salisbury market and shopping for last minute gifts for our friends (as well as for ourselves). Following that, we proceeded to the Salisbury Cathedral, the 3rd cathedral that was built in Salisbury. The first two cathedrals were built at Old Sarum before it was moved down to Salisbury due to the lack of space.
The cathedral was built in the 1200s and it took a mere 38 years for the completion of the building (a short amount of time considering the lack of technology that they had back then). The cathedral is the 5th largest cathedral in the United Kingdom and has the tallest spire (pointy thing at the top of the cathedral).
The architecture of the building was regal and refined, making it look impressive and graceful at the same time. Stones were used in the building of the cathedral, and some of the stones came as far as Ireland! It’s mind-boggling to learn that the ancestors of Salisbury somehow managed to carry and transport the stones from Ireland to Salisbury, and then transform it into a magnificent cathedral that has been standing for centuries.
We also climbed up the spire of the cathedral, and we got a bird’s eye view of Salisbury. There were 369 steps to the top (we know cause we counted, hee hee) and we were exhausted by the time we reached the top. Our guide was very insightful and knowledgeable, and provided us with many facts of the Cathedral.
The Cathedral also houses the oldest working clock in the world, and the clock is basically a metal machine that moves and rings the bells to tell the locals of Salisbury the time (the clock tower chimes every quarter of an hour, or every 15 minutes).
We learnt from our visit to the Cathedral that although we may be lacking in something, be it technology or information, we will still be able to achieve our goal if we put in consistent effort and though into it. The people of Salisbury managed to build a Cathedral with the limited resources that we have, and this proves that we can achieve the impossible too.
Following the visit to the Cathedral, we headed over to St. Edmund’s for lunch and to give them a presentation of our school. After the presentation, we played some games with the senior prefects and we taught them how to play Double Wacko!
Chaos ensued as we didn’t know the names of everyone, and all of us were laughing and giggling as we watched our fellow Cedarians or new found friends get whacked! We also played Wink Murder, and ended off the visit (and out trip to the United Kingdom) by giving our buddies the gifts we got for them, and took pictures them.
-Shereene, Maria, Zhuoen, Jingwen & Margie
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