Choir's Day Off

Thursday was the choir's day off from evensong responsibilities, so we all piled onto the bus early in the morning and headed out for more sight seeing.  Our first stop was in Glastonbury. We walked around town, stopping in a couple bookstores to feed our book habit, and then picked up some pasties at a local bakery for lunch.  The highlight of our time in Glastonbury was climbing the Tor and visiting the Chalice Well and Gardens.

Here are some photos of Rick, Ed and me climbing Glastonbury Tor.  The Tor is 521 feet high, and its steep sculptured slopes have generated much speculation about the origin of the Tor in legend.  Excavations in the 60s uncovered occupation as early as the 6th c.  Other discovered objects suggest Christian monks' cells between 900-1100.  The present tower is dated to the 15th c. and associated with the monastic church of St. Michael.  Richard Whiting was the last abbot of Glastonbury, and the last hold-out in the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539.  He was killed by hanging on the Tor.

The Chalice Well and Gardens contain the ancient red spring of Avalon, a "natural sanctuary of peace and healing" as they call it.  I drank some of the water, hoping for some healing of my cold!

We decided not to pay the pricey admission fee to tour the Glastonbury Abbey ruins, but here's a shot of it from the parking lot.

After visiting the Glastonbury gift shop, we invited Jim our bus driver to join us for afternoon tea - clotted cream....yum!  Here's a pic of Ed with Jim.

We re-boarded the bus mid-afternoon and drove the short distance to Wells Cathedral.  The weather was perfect, with blue skies and lots of sunshine.  We decided to stick around for evensong at 5:15 - it was a treat to sit and experience evensong, as opposed to having to do all the work for it!  Here are some pics from Wells...

After evensong, Jim drove us through Cheddar Gorge.  He's a masterful driver, taking us on the winding paths through the gorge - beautiful sights, but I'm afraid they are only in my memory.  We didn't stop, and taking pics from a moving bus usually don't turn out...