Visited 24th April 2011.
The sun's out, so the bike is out. Only this time I have Mrs S. with me. The plan was to head off down to Swanage and spend the day soaking up a few rays and maybe visit a couple of Wetherspoon pubs on the trip. As usual, things did not quite go to plan! After about forty-five minutes I felt a thump on my back, the normal method of communication for Mrs S. when travelling as a pillion. I decided to ignore it and push on, I wasn't quite ready for the "Are we nearly there" questioning. Fifteen minutes later and the thumping was becoming more insistent. I pulled over and was informed, quite forcibly, that we needed to stop soon as Mrs S. was getting tired and needed a break. I set course for Salisbury knowing there was an, as yet, unvisited 'spoons. We eventually arrived in Salisbury and set about looking for the pub. I knew we couldn't spend to long looking as my back was starting to get sore despite the safety armour in my jacket! What luck, we managed to ride past it, all we needed now was to find somewhere to park up within walking distance. Again luck was on my side, just around the corner we found a large car park with convenient motorcycle bays. Ten minutes later, we were sat in the pub wondering what to order for dinner. I opted for something slightly different for me, a plate of chilli and a large Pepsi with Mrs S. opting for an all day brunch and a large Pepsi (come on Tim, still no free refill policy). What can I say about the pub? Well, it seemed huge, lots of nooks and crannies to explore, the loos were pretty decent, the staff were too, the food arrived quickly and it's set next to a very picturesque stream. I would definitely have to put 'The King's Head Inn' in to my top ten list of Wetherspoon pubs. Or at least I would, if I had a top ten list!
I guess the mistake I made was actually stopping before we arrived at Swanage. Of course we never made it, in fact we never got any further than Salisbury. The city looked quite interesting and Mrs S. felt we should stay a while longer and take in the sights, get the feel of the place, soak up the atmosphere... Put off getting back on the bike for as long as possible... Eventually she felt we had seen enough and we set off back home again, only stopping twice for rests, although one of those was for over an hour at a pub near Baisingstoke! As I said at the start of this post, the day didn't quite go to plan but Salisbury and 'The King's head Inn' more than made it worthwhile.
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