Glastonbury, Autumn 2001

 Well, another fabulous trip is coming to a close.  I am down to my last few days I have in the UK.  What a wonderful time I have had. But I have saved the best until last.  On Wednesday evening Phil and Ann came over and "collected" me.  This is such a treat for me, as I think they are some of the nicest people I have ever met.

The view from the top was just awesome.  I was going to say breathtaking but I didn't have even so much as a puff to spare at that point so I will settle for awesome. I tried to imagine what it must have looked like when it was all swamp and islands but my imagination just wasn't up to it.  There were quite a few people up there just laying around either snoozing or reading.  Ann and I went over to the edge that faces toward her house and waved.  We had given Phil an estimate on about what time we thought we might be at the top and he was going to go upstairs with a pair of binoculars and look for us.  When we compared notes later, he said at the time he looked he couldn't see us. At the bottom of the hill was a curious looking cairn with the mileage to Wells on it and some Celtic symbols on it.  We never did figure out that the point of it was.

After we left the Tor we drove down toward Glastonbury and parked in one of the car parks and walked into the town centre.  Next stop was the Abby.  I am not sure what I expected, but I was quite surprised at what was there.  I think I had something more compact in mind.  The ruins cover all of 37 acres!  According to the guide book (I ALWAYS buy a guidebook) It is traditionally the first Christian sanctuary in Great Britain, visited, so legend has it, by Joseph of Arimathea and Saints David & Patrick. Many believe that the Holy Thorn tree that can be seen in the grounds originated from Joseph of Arimathea's staff and others are convinced that King Arthur was buried in the Abbey beside his lovely wife Queen Guinevere. We spent some time browsing in the gift shop and then set off to explore.

The first thing we came to was the ruins of the Lady Chapel.  This was the most intact site on the grounds.  We explored it rather thoroughly and then set off to find the spot where King Arthur is supposed to be buried.  We never found it but it hardly mattered.  We just wandered around enjoying the lovely day until a little inner voice started reminding us that it was lunch time. 



We had lunch in a great little vegetarian restaurant on the high street called The Rainbows End.  Out back there was a garden seating area where we enjoyed a delicious lunch.  Afterwards we shopped the High Street.  The tat shops, book shops and the Celtic jewelry shops.  Ann had three lovely silver pendents on chains of various sizes and I told her flat out that I wanted some just like hers.  So we went from a jewelry shop to jewelry shop looking for just the perfect little Celtic pendents.  I finally found just what I wanted except for the chains. 

My Glastonburry Pictures