A day off and a day out . . .

We had a lovely day out last week on my day off. We went to do a 'recce' of the holiday home that we've booked for Christmas.

We couldn't find anywhere available right in the New Forest where we wanted to be but found a very acceptable place not far from Salisbury which is a beautiful Cathedral city and not that far away to drive into the New Forest for exploring (weather permitting & fingers crossed!) on days out.

We don't take the opportunity often enough to have a day out as a couple, I think, and it was good to be just the two of us for a change.

We were lucky to have chosen a beautiful sunny day for our outing and having located the cottage, we then set off to explore Salisbury. I can't remember if I've visited the town before but I was very impressed. I think most Cathedral cities are very attractive with a good combination of historic buildings and modern amenities.

We strolled through the town and everyone seemed to be enjoying the sunshine -what a plethora of fantastic coffee shops and patisseries - my idea of heaven!

On my 'to do' list was also 'find the nearest Catholic church' so armed with my printout from the web we located the nearest Catholic Chapel in Downton (no Abbey in sight!) and also the beautiful Pugin church of St Osmund in the centre of Salisbury. We're hoping that we'll be able to go to Midnight Mass there on Christmas Eve.

The Cathedral has a very interesting exhibition of life-size sculptures of people dotted around the Cathedral (outside) and they were even to be found in the cloister and the quadrangle.

We didn't want to be too late getting home so set off on the return journey in the early afternoon. We found a lovely pub for a super very late lunch on the way home - one to remember for our trip in December.