Salisbury, Wiltshire, England (Nov 23)

With summer well and truly over and Christmas fast approaching, we saved a date in the diary for a gathering of our six kids and their partners, in an AirBnB, in the city centre of Salisbury.

With no particular plans other than to meet up, relax and have a good time, the weekend just slotted into place and seemingly without too much effort. We were also able to celebrate Natty’s 18th birthday too.

We spent a couple of evenings (which turned into late nights) in our accommodation playing silly party games, and most of Saturday simply wandering around the city.

Together with the tallest cathedral spire in England, Salisbury has a huge market sure and a ridiculously large number of pubs in the centre, many of which are built alongside the banks of the River Avon.

Thanks to “the kids”, we found an ancient oak-beamed pub next to the cathedral called the New Inn where we spent a good three hours or more chatting, sampling it’s wares and challenging each other to pool. We sat at the end of the bar next to a roaring log fire, where we kept nice and toasty.

The pub was built in 1380 so was full of character with lots of nooks and crannies.

We then headed next-door to the “Cosy Club” for a meal, another place full of character being an old former arts college. It was Sarah who had scouted the restaurant, and it turned out to be ideal both by location and the quality of food. The cocktails were amazing!

Salisbury has a has a wonderful vibe, and given Xmas is only a month away, we were able to enjoy the Christmas market at night, where we had mulled wine and/or Baileys chocolate.

Now, if I have ever visited the Cathedral, it was probably as a kid and I have long since forgotten it, so a few of us grabbed tickets and explored it in full. We were able to take a close look at one of the four surviving original copies of the Magna Carta in the process. I was reminded that my mother first visited this place in the summer of 1964 when she stopped here on a cycle trip to Cornwall with her good friend Margaret, who was later to become my Godmother!

We had not been able to organise a family gathering like this for a while on account of a couple of Emma’s kids being in the USA last year. This summer had also proved to be a bit of a challenge given everyones diary commitments – so we selected November, a traditionally quiet time of year!

That said, some last minute and unrelated broader family issues for a few of us threatened to curtail the trip. But in the end, we were thankfully all able to make it and I’m so glad we did.

It’s not every weekend we can get this lot together, with individuals journeying in from London, Bristol, Hampshire and Buckinghamshire.