5/16/11 Day 8: Wells & Glastonbury

Wells Cathedral

Today we started in Wells, at the cathedral there. It has one of the oldest clocks in Europe. The clock is the oldest one with all working dials.  My favorite part was the interior architecture, and the cathedral cat, Louis. I found a coat of arms for the Bakers, so far nothing for my family. I've heard once that I don't have one. Hopefully my last name is just rather obscure.


The Penn Bar

For lunch we ate at the Penn Bar, which used to belong to William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. He would speak to crowds just outside the building. I had a roast beef and horseradish sandwich that wasn't all that spicy.

Glastonbury

Then we went to Glastonbury. I really wanted to go up to the Tor, but the route was really long, we didn't have time to walk it, and I didn't want to pay three pounds for a van ride to the top. The tor has plenty of legend surrounding it. Supposedly the Holy Grail is buried somewhere on the hill. It could also be the entrance to hell, take your pick.

It was really cool to explore the ruins and go to the hippie part of Glastonbury. History records the abbey standing by 600 AD. Until it burned down in 1184, the abbey was the largest in England. In its heyday, Glastonbury was called "the Second Rome" because so many Christians in the religion's infancy came on pilgrimages to this sight. St. David and St. Patrick have both been said to make visits here. The current ruins date to 1539, when Henry VIII destroyed it in his dissolution of the monasteries.

Glastonbury is more down for being the burial place of King Arthur Suffering mortal wounds from his last battle, Arthur was brought here by boat. In 1191, monks dug to find his and Guinevere's remains in the cemetery south of the Lady Chapel. The chapel itself was said to have been built by Joseph of Aramethea when he brought the young Jesus to England. He also supposedly planted his staff, and it grew into a thorn tree.

Whitney and I shared rum-flavored ice cream. Yum.