Important Info

Planned kilometres: 13 (cummulative 351)

Kilometres walked: 17 (cummulative 380)

% Completed (based on 1800km trip): 21.1%

Weather: Overcast

Pubs visited: Rose & Crown

Pints: 2 (cummulative 37)

Kms per pint: 10.3

Blisters: 0 (cummulative 2)

Street to Wells

Today’s walk was short so the plan was to spend time being a tourist. It was very chilly 6 degrees when I left the hotel this morning and the night time low last night was 3 degrees.

 

My first destination was Glastonbury to visit the Glastonbury Tor which is visible from miles around.

At the bottom of the path to the Tor is the Chalice Well whose water is supposed to have magical healing powers. There were people filling multiple bottles with the water to take home, so as I needed all the healing I could get, I filled up one water bottle and returned to refill both after climbing the Tor.

 

To get to the top of the Tor requires climbing a path and steps to elevation of 158 metres. Not a problem normally, but it’s a bit more of an issue when you are carrying a full pack and the higher I got the windier (and colder) it became. At the top people were huddled inside the 14^th century remains of the church. I spent about 10 minutes at the top before I decided to get out of the cold and head back down. It felt like the temperature was 10 degrees colder at the top due to wind chill.

I then started the walk to Wells via country back roads and the scene that greeted me as I walked through a farmer’s paddock was the Wells Cathedral in the distance.

Walking into town, one street was decked out in Union Jack flags. I am not sure why this street was the only one with flags on it, but it looked great.

I checked into the White Hart Hotel to find that I couldn’t have picked a better location. I walked out of my hotel and through the gate and took the following photos. The first is of my hotel through the gate and the second is turning around 180 degrees was a view of the west front of the Cathedral. If I thought Wells Cathedral looked impressive from the farmers paddock, it was so much more impressive up close.

The Cathedral was built in the 12^th century and is massive. I did a tour of the cathedral and will let the photos below give you some small idea of the inside.

The large stained glass window is called the Jesse window and dates from 1340.

For the engineers reading this the Scissor Arches were a medieval solutions (1338-48) to sinking tower foundations.

I took a couple of photos from the side of the Cathedral to try and give some impression of its size.

I also visited Vicars’ Close which was completed in 1363 and is the only completely medieval street left in England.

Not a bad day as a tourist.