As we hadn't
visited any English towns for a while - this bank holiday seemed
like the perfect opportunity to hire a car and go to the countryside.
After a
bit of research I found that Wells came highly recommended up
there with the likes of Oxford, Cambridge and York. I'd agree
to a certain point.
I found
a lovely hotel that was also a vineyard - Coxley
vineyard, and we certainly enjoyed sampling some of their
wine in their fine restaurant. Be warned though, their restaurant
is closed on Sunday nights as we found out upon arriving for
dinner.
Wells is
the oldest and smallest (pop 9500) of England's Cathedral cities.
And so of course it had a fantastic Cathedral. Built between
1180 and 1508, there are 356 statues on the west side. Quite
similar in style to the Notre Dame. I must admit however, I
am getting quite Cathedralled out.
The oldest
complete medieval street (from the mid 14th Century) known as
Vicar's Close can be found in Wells. It originally housed people
from the church. Number 22 has not been modified at all and
you could clearly see the medieval features such as pointed
top windows and doors. The rest of the street's houses have
been slightly modernised which is a shame. Still there is quite
an interesting feel to the street. Very atmospheric.
There is
also a moated palace that once belonged to the bishop, complete
with draw bridge. We could walk around the outside and marvel
at the ruins left standing, but were unable to go in as it was
closed when we visited.
As we had
the car we made the most of it and visited a few places nearby.
The first of these being Bristol. Not much to write home about
actually - just another large city with all the same shops.
We did enjoy watching a friendly pre-season rugby match between
the Bristol Shoguns (a premiership side) and an Irish premiership
side Ebbw Vale (the w is not a mistake - the just spell things
funny over there). This gave us an opportunity to see Agustin
Pichot the Argentinean half back in action.
We spent
Sunday underground - as if we don't do enough of that in London!!
Our trip began at the Wookey Hole caves. These caves were inhabited
50, 000 years ago, and continued to be so up to the 15th century.
There are about 26 different chambers but you can visit about
5 - the other involve diving and I wasn't that keen - or qualified
to do. My favourite chamber is known as the Witches parlour
(there is a legend about the a witch that lived here in dark
ages, if you're really keen you
can read about that here). The witches parlour is the largest
known natural underground dome - there are no columns or pillars
supporting it and it looks fantastic. The picture is one I stole
off the wookey hole website - shhh don't tell anyone. It was
caused by the water rising and forming whirlpools. The other
chambers were beautifully lit to show off the colours formed
by calcite etc and the amazing wax like flowstone. These look
like wax blankets draped over the cave sides. I really enjoyed
these caves.
There is
also a Victorian Papermill there where they still hand make
paper with a wire frame. They use some Victorian machinery to
get the fibres into a pulp like state, and a Victorian press
to extract the water. The guys demonstrating were so quick,
there was a real rhythm to it. The Queen and Tom Cruise buy
the paper so it most be good. It is made out of fibres rather
than pulp. Because of this the paper last a lot longer than
pulp based stuff. In Victorian times they used old rags and
cut them up.
To finish
off at Wookey hole there was a penny arcade with old arcade
games, mirror maze (Thankfully I didn't bump into any mirrors,
but I saw some people doing it) and a hall of mirrors - couldn't
find any miracle cures for weight loss though in fact most were
worse.
Cheddar
After a drive over the Mendip hills - nice scenery, scary roads
- we arrived in the fantastic Cheddar gorge. The photo's probably
don't do it justice. It is in fact a million year old Ice Age
river bed.
Underground
again we went to see Cheddar man, Britain's oldest complete
skeleton. Thought to be 9000 years old and discovered in 1903.
They did DNA testing and found living relatives of the skeleton
still in the Cheddar area. Wow! People lived in these caves
also, but only 40, 000 years ago this time. These caves seemed
a lot more commercial and not as natural as Wookey hole. There
were a couple of interesting reflection pools though. You couldn't
tell where the rock finished and the water started the pools
were so still.
Once above
ground again we decided to go even higher and climb Jacobs Ladder,
274 stairs and there wasn't even a view at the top unless you
went up the tower on the top - yep more stairs. We gave it and
the queue a miss.
We continued
down the gorge to the small town and went to a cheese shop -
unfortunately the queues were too long for a taste of real cheddar
cheese, but I can buy it at Sainsbury's any way so nevermind.
Cheddar is also famous for cider and we did try that. Very moorish
I thought.
After such
a busy day we decided to play tennis. The local courts were
in fact the high school, free and empty. A complete turn around
from trying to get a court in London. And just for the record
it was 6 -1 to...........Gavin of course. Please note the 1
that I got, quite an achievement.
On our way
home to London we visited Glastonbury saw the hippies and their
abbey ruins. I kept seeing signs to the Tor and had no idea
what that was. We discovered it was a hill. Exciting ahh!!!
Well it's apparently no ordinary hill. It's visitors often experience
inner changes and strange happenings (or is it in fact all the
drugs they take while there?). It also the home of the King
of Fairies - mmmmm OK! The Celtic tower at the top looked pretty
cool anyway. The maze like pattern around the hill reminded
us of a Maori pa with all the steps.
We also
visited Street - yes no mistake that is the name of the town.
And I thought the Irish used strange names. In Street there
was a factory village where we purchased a few goods and then
continued on our merry way home to London, all the happier for
some fresh air, good wine, stale air (the cave stuff) great
views, Tracey taking a game off Gavin in tennis and strange
hills.
