Wells and Glastonbury

After the morning in Avebury I ventured Westward. My first stop was Wells for its cathedral. I first noticed the chain bridge that offered passage between the Vicar's Close and the cathedral.

The West Front is covered in figures built in the 1200s. 

The inside is even more impressive.

A whimsical mechanical clock inside dates from 1392. Beyond the time, it also shows the position of the planets and the phases of the moon. On the hour small figures move along the top and another figure rings a bell further along the wall. 

Wells Cathedral is best known for its beautiful scissor arches, which look modern - or even futuristic - despite being more than half a century old. 

This is one of the most understated signs I've ever read.

The chapter house beyond the worn steps was elegant.

I'm still a sucker for old ornate wooden doors...

...weird sculptures of mythological creatures...

... and creepy coffin lids of emaciated holy men. 

The nearby Bishop's Palace looked like a castle.

The moat is fed by the city's namesake wells, and was home to ducklings on the day of my visit.

My last stop of the day was Glastonbury. The main draw was the ruined abbey, which was home to as many  myths as stones. Joseph of Arimathea, the guy in the bible who donated his prepared tomb to Jesus. According to British legend, Joseph took the holy grail to Britain. He is traditionally said to have founded the christian church on the isles (despite all historical records to the contrary). Also, according to legend, when he placed his staff in the ground in Glastonbury it miraculously grew into a tree, the Glastonbury Thorn. The cathedral is also supposed to be the burial place of King Arthur and  Queen Guinevere. Their bodies were found there, right after a fire damaged the cathedral and money was needed for repairs. Seems legit. 

My favorite part of the tour was the more recent history, particularly the description in a real estate advertisement for the property when it was sold along with a neighboring mansion: 'a grand house with a ruin in the garden'.

A short walk away stands the Glastonbury Tor, a hill also steeped in legends. It is the home to a faery king, the Celtic ruler of the underworld, and is the spot that a mortally wounded King Arthur was taken and will rise again - the once and future king. A medieval church once topped it, but only the tower remains.

Despite my usual inclinations, I did not climb to the top. I needed to catch the last bus to Exeter. I had a quick glance at Exeter's cathedral before heading to the hostel for the night. 

Avebury Stone Circle

Avebury is home to the largest stone circle in the world. It isn't as regular or photogenic as Stonehenge and is thus far less well known than the younger monument, but I found the visit far more enjoyable. 

I was able to walk among the massive blue-grey stones alone in the morning mist. 

I'm torn about the town that was built among the stones. On one hand, it's a shame to interrupt the ancient sacred place with houses and churches. On the other hand, this medieval dovecote is really cool:

Actually, the church and dovecote are outside the ditched circle. I don't at all approve of the roads, houses, and restaurants put within the standing stones.

I should mention that these stones are huge, especially the Portal Stones near the processional entrance.

The processional route is lined with more stone pillars leading out from the circle.

Past the procession a ways lies Silbury Hill, the largest constructed mound in Europe. Your guess to its purpose is as good as, well, anyone's. 

Also in the area is a long barrow. The burial mound once held fifty skeletons, dating from 3500 BCE. 

As much as I loved the ancient ruins, I hurried onward to England's Southwest arm.

The Cotswolds

When I arrived in Cheltenham, my hosts took me out to see some live stand-up comedy. All but one of the performers were pretty damned funny. Some of the lines that stuck with me were: "I wanted to kill someone and some people want to die: why can't there be a system to get us together?" and a gem spoken after determining that two people with notable attractiveness disparity who were sitting next to each other were not in fact dating: "If you were together I'd suck his cock just to taste you."

There was little in Cheltenham itself that interested me, except for a statue of Gustav Holst (the composer of The Planets Suite). It was mainly a base from which I could head out to the lovely old villages of the Cotswold region, an area full of medieval villages. 

First I headed to Tewksbury to see its abbey and timber-framed houses. 

The buses were on a hub system out of Cheltenham, so I passed through it again on the way to Gloucester. Upon reaching the city, I was struck by the architecture of the St. Nicholas Church. 

Of course, the cathedral was even more impressive.

I loved the curves of the support structures.

The beautifully ornate cloister was used for the filming of an area of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies.

After another bus exchange in Cheltenham I arrived in Painswick. It was full of pretty stone cottages.

Back in Cheltenham yet again, I wandered up the promenade to a park build around an old overly grand pumphouse. Then I caught yet another bus to Swindon. On the way I looked out the window at Circencester, a Cotswold town that hadn't quite made the cut but which I think I would have enjoyed even more than the towns I actually visited. So it goes.

There isn't anything to see in Swindon. At all. In fact, the bus driver actually asked me, an obvious tourist, "Why would you want to come here?" The answer was that there are no couch surf hosts in the small towns near the Avebury stone circle. My generous and entertaining host was an American working abroad. Over the dinner he provided, we discussed travels while listening to international music. Afterward we listened to some Lewis Black routines while playing with his kitten. 

I told him many of my blog followers would get more excited by the diminutive feline than any other picture of my trip. What say you? Are you not entertained?

Oxford

Like any scholar, I dreamed of entering Oxford as a student, preferably one who received a Rhodes or Marshall scholarship. Nonetheless, I was happy to enter the city at all, and to bask in its architecture and academia. The University dominates Oxford, where even the taxi cabs are educational since they are emblazoned with the periodic table of elements.

My first day in Oxford I simply wandered the streets, taking in the architecture and visiting several of the colleges. As always, I loved the grotesques, some of which are rumored to have been some of the inspiration for C.S. Lewis as he wrote The Lion, the Witch, and the wardrobe.

I also happened to be there as the cherry blossoms were blooming. 

The Radcliffe Camera, which houses one of the many libraries here, is one of the more distinctive buildings in the city and so everyone takes pictures of it. I was no exception.

I'm always heartened when the schools of logic and metaphysics look as impressive as I think they should:

That night I watched a Korean horror (or perhaps comedy) film with my couchsurf host. 

The next day was full of museums, at least after I spent some time marveling at 118 miles of shelving at the Bodleian Library. The University Museum holds the first dinosaur bones discovered, among other treasures. As I visited, a Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson exhibit cataloged some of the author's personal effects, as well as exhibits from the museum's history that had been inspiration for him. He used to take Alice here and tell her stories about the taxidermied animals, such as the dodo. Oh Lewis Carroll, a (possible) example of how pedophiles can be adored by society so long as they never act upon their desires (other than with marriage proposals that people could pretend were in jest). 

The attached Pitt Rivers museum was stuffed with curiosity cases, full of loot taken back by Victorian explorers. Some of my favorites included shrunken heads, skulls decorated with stones, paint, and feathers, and unusual body modifications like shaped skulls that are altered when baby's skull was still soft.

Next up was the Ashmodian Museum. Highlights included a Roman coin printed from gold taken from the Temple in Jerusalem, Rodin sculptures, and the displays of the Neolithic Egyptian period -- which lasted from 1,000,000 to 10,000 BCE. A somewhat more recent Nubian Egyptian burial chamber left me standing in absolute awe. 

After a full day, I headed out to Cheltenham, my base in the Cotswolds.

Kenilworth, Warwick, and Shakespeare's Grave

Jens accompanied me to a couple castles. The first was Kenilworth castle. The place is probably best known as the home of Robert Dudley, a man who loved and was loved by Elizabeth I, though how far he actually got with the 'virgin queen' is unknown. The castle has a great exhibit on the extent of the relationship that is known. 

The neighboring castle is far more popular, though I imagine only because of the marketing. Warwick castle is an amusement park, and a low quality one at that. It is overpriced, crowded, and has little of historical note because it has all been remade to fit the commercial look. Jens and I gave a scathing review at a kiosk that asked for feedback at the end. 

The timber-framed Lord Leycester Hospital made the trip to Warwick worthwhile. Though never actually a hospital, the grand buildings have been retirement homes for soldiers and their families from the days of Elizabeth I to the present. 

Stratford-upon-Avon was only a short bus ride away. I'm sure i would have enjoyed more of the town, but there was a sudden downpour. As the birthplace of Shakespeare, you would expect plays to be going all the time, but unfortunately they were long since sold out. Thus, I merely trudged through the rain to Shakespeare's grave and then back to the bus station.

I forget sometimes how wild I look after traveling for a couple months. I'm amazed my couch surf hosts all took my appearance in stride.

There was another fun misericord in this church:

I made my way to Oxford, where I had some Indian food before meeting up with my couch surf host, who introduced me to the movie Brick. Brick is a film noir style mystery set in a current day high school, with brilliant witty dialogue. I highly recommend it.