Christmas carols in Salisbury Cathedral

Though I’m not a religious person, one of the highlights of my Christmas holiday, staying with my friend Sarah in Somerset, was the Christmas Carol Service we attended at Salisbury Cathedral.

The Cathedral is an extraordinary building and was beautifully decorated for Christmas, with candles large and tealight-size lining the aisles. (I do wish they’d turned off, or at least dimmed, the main lights so we could’ve enjoyed the atmosphere with just the candles, though.)

We had to queue for an hour in the cloisters to make sure we got a seat – the place was full to bursting, and then sit inside for another hour before the service started but it was definitely worth the wait.

Though it was interesting to observe the process, I admit I ignored most of the religious part of the service. Sarah and I were there for the singing, though as we both had bad colds, the sounds we uttered were more like squawking and shrieking than anything remotely resembling singing (I even apologised to the man in front of me at the end of the service!).

(If you’re interested in seeing more of this stunning building, I blogged about my previous visit early in 2017, the cathedral by day here and by night here.)

Salisbury Cathedral by night

When I went to Cornwall for my Christmas holiday, I went via Salisbury, which is a bit of a dog-leg journey from Cardiff but there were good reasons, and one bonus of travelling that route was spending a night in Salisbury on my return to Cardiff. It was early evening when I arrived there and freezing cold, with a light ground mist swirling around, but no sooner had I checked in to my hotel than I headed out again. These photos are the reason. Salisbury Cathedral is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen.