Great Monday

Us5 on tour again: Today we started a trip to Salisbury, a very nice town near Southampton. We did some sightseeing, shopping and we had a nice cup of coffee in the one and only Starbucks.

the Cathedral

us5 discovering the city

Afterwards we visited the world famous garden Stourhead, a perfect place to relax and to stock up some sun, I must say.

exploring the garden

in the background of the left picture: the farm shop and on the right picture: an impressive building

There we also enjoyed a talk about the National Trust. The National Trust is an organisation that protects historic places or natural beauty in England. Unfortunately there is no institution like this in Austria, so we can't compare it. So let me explain the National Trust to you: The charity was founded in 1895 by Robert Hunter, Octavia Hill, and Canon Rawnsley. The Trust has 3.5 million members and more than 43,000 volunteers. They have a very complicated organisational structure, so I can't explain it to you in detail. But if you want more information, check out

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-trust/w-thecharity/w-how_we_are_run.htm

during the presentation about the National Trust

It was quite interesting for us to hear that 4 out of 5 protected sights are running at a loss. We were also very surprised about the plannings to make Stonehenge a more attractive place for tourists. The Headgardener of Stourhead gave us a little insight in his work. For example he told us that at the moment he is worried about a beautiful tree which is going to die and that he will make the fell of this tree a public event.

But the highlight of the day was definitely the karaoke-performance of Caro and Jo and some other guys in "The Royal Oak". And I swear by the apple struddle of my mother - this was Anthony Kiedis himself singing "Dani California" in the pub. No doubt - I swear ;) aaanthooonyyyyyy......

our Jofux