Holiday trip 4 - Wells and Glastonbury

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Our next holiday photo spot stops were Wells and Glastonbury. I liked Wells. Very pretty and the people were very friendly. We stopped at the supermarket there to buy some bits - mostly snacks. I must add here that yes, we did pass through the edges of major cities like Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham on our way down, but none of us are city folk and we mostly avoided going anywhere near them. All cities, in my opinion, look alike. A shopping mall is pretty much the same in Africa or the UK. Same goes for tall buildings, motorways, industrial areas, supermarkets and large ports.

We took two photos of Wells Cathedral before heading off towards Glastonbury.

At Glastonbury we spent most of our time pottering around the ruined Abbey. Glastonbury Festival was on that day, with a special birthday tribute to Nelson Mandela, and the countryside was PACKED with people, tents, and fields of parked cars. it was HUGE. Just so many fields of people and tents it seemed to go on forever. At least this year they had good weather!

At the Abbey we had lunch at their outdoor tearoom. I had a Brie cheese and cranberry sandwich... because it sounded so interesting. It was very nice. My mom had ham and it was real ham - big chunks of roast meat with salad. This first photo shows the view from our table under the trees.

Close up of the doorway you can see in the above photo.

After lunch we headed for the Abbot's Kitchen. A separate structure with the most amazing roof! Here's the outside view...

A bit of the inside, which has everything exactly as it would have been with tables of bread and food, herbs hanging drying and an area for smoking fish and bacon etc. The pigs are fake, but the breads and herbs were real... as was some of the fish by the smell of things!

Outside in the gardens there was this gorgeous Copper Beech. For foreigners as confused as I was at that name - these trees start off with copper coloured leaves in Spring that slowly darken to this rich liquorice colour. To get an idea of size look at the park bench on the lower left. These trees are enormous!



The copper beech and park from a distance...

Another side view from the Abbot's Kitchen door. :-)


And from the opposite side...

Sunken ruins of the dining area where the monks would have eaten their meals.

:-) Hubby and myself posed in front of the original doors, now in the museum display area. The dark dots on the doors are big iron nails that once held fancy wooden carvings on top of the door. Only a few bits of that survive. You can see a tiny bit on the tops of the doors.
As we were leaving we were very lucky to bump into the Glastonbury Town Crier. We had a long chat to this delightful and very informative man. He was one of the highlights of our day. :-)

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