Do you know about books?

Today we took the bus to Wells to see the cathedral. Wells Cathedral is special for a few reasons. This cathedral has one of the largest collections of medieval statues in Europe; it was the first church to be built in Gothic style; and it is the smallest cathedral city in England.

Before we went into the Cathedral we decided to visit the Bishop's Palace. This is where the bishop of Wells and Bath lives. This place has a moat! Here are a few photos of the ruins of the Great Hall.

 

 

Libby's hair demonstrating the effects of the weather. Pity.

West wall of the ruins of the Great Hall

Cathedral tower from view within ruins

From the Great Hall we walked around to the gardens.

the moat

The well from which Wells gets its name.

After the Bishop's Palace we headed to the cathedral.

Jesus on top, and the twelve apostles below. Making a more prominent appearance is St. Andrew who is in the center holding an X cross, the type of cross he was apocryphally martyred upon.

The Nave and western scissor arches.

North and South scissor arches.

The clock was built in 1392, tells not only the time but the phase of the moon, and was only repainted in the 17th century.

The quire and organ. The organ was built in 1857, and the quire was the first part of the current building built and in use before the 13th century.

Steps to the Chapter house (right) and bridge spanning the street to the Vicar's Close.

 In Wells Cathedral there is a library and reading room. Some of the really old books are actually on chains so they can't be removed.

Books on chains. But do we know about books?

Apparently people weren't able to just pay a fine, or for just the book outright if they lost it in the 16th and 18th centuries. The lady that was working up there struck up a conversation with Tommy and I, during which she literally asked us "Do you know about books?" The first response that popped into my head was,  "Well, I know how to read them." I said something to the effect of, "Sorry?" and she explained that they get some very learned people in that library. I wonder what she was trying to imply...

The East end of the cathedral and flying buttresses.

Cathedral from the north and the northern transept.

The Vicar's Close. Europe's oldest continually inhabited street.

The pictures really don't do this place justice. To me there is something far more impressive about these buildings when comparing them to even our far more larger modern buildings. That people could build at such scale without any of our current technology and to do so with such skill (as represented in all the details throughout the cathedral) is awe inspiring.  

Tomorrow we are off to Oxford and the next day we will spend at Blenheim Palace; the home of the Duke of Marlborough. We hope you are all doing well and still enjoying the posts.

Roman Baths and a little walk around Bath

Hello all! First, two notes before we get into the post for this evening. The first thing I'd like to note is I changed over to the more traditional Blogger blog option. It was on this newer "dynamic" layout which I liked more aesthetically, but it has proven to be more buggy. The second is that, for those of you who didn't see the P.S. in one of the earlier posts I have opened up comments to all, not just those who have registered. Now, on to the blog. . .

Ahem. Today we spent about four and a half hours at the Roman Baths. My feet (Tommy would like to me clarify that this is Libby writing, Tommy's feet are fine) are still recovering. We got to the baths right when it opened. The day started out really nice, we even had a little sun! The sun didn't last long though and it poured off and on for the rest of the day. Lucky for us some of that wonderful sun was out when we were on the terrace above and surrounding the great bath. Here are some photos from the terrace.

The photo everyone has... plus ducks.

From left to right: Vespasian - Emperor, Ostorius Scapula - Governor, Suetonius Paulinus - Governor, Julius Agripola -Governor , Head of "Roma" - SPQR (Senatus Populusque Romanus), Hadrian - Emperor

After the terrace you wander through the museum and ruins of the bathing complex. Here are some photos from that.

This is what the baths would have looked like to the Romans. Out of frame (to the left) is the temple and the temple courtyard.

Temple Pediment with Gorgon. Interesting note: A gorgon traditionally was a woman. This, however, is most clearly a man, as it has a beard.

Part of the original temple courtyard entrance.

Gilt bronze head of  Sulis Minerva. Discovered in 1727 it indicated the Roman settlement was not a typical one.

Sacred Spring where the water rises at a temperature of 114 degrees.

Overflow drainage

Now out to the Great Bath and it's adjacent pools:

The inlet to the Great Bath. 

As you can see, it's pouring.

The cold plunge pool to close the pores. It was the last stage in the whole bathing process at the complex.

A warm room. The floor would have been on top of the piles of brick and there would have been steam underneath to warm the floor and the room.

Libby in front of the Great Bath

Tommy listening too much to the audio guide.

Rain and Tommy being a dork.

After the Roman Baths we grabbed a quick lunch and joined up with the free walking tour. Our guide was a little old lady who was very nice but lost her train of thought a lot and she couldn't talk very loudly. We did get to go into the Assembly Rooms. In the Assembly Rooms are chandeliers that are insured for £1,000,000!

After the tour we went back to the B&B to figure out what we wanted to do for dinner. I decided that we should go to Las Iguanas, a Latin food joint. I.E. Mexican and tapas. Our dinner was SO good!

I had chicken gringos and Tommy had an enchilada. Their refried beans were SO good

creamy caramel cake, YUM

If you ever see a Las Iguanas restaurant, go there. That was our day, hope you enjoyed it :)

P.S. Editors note: if you're interested in any of more historical or cultural bits we saw in the museum request it in the comments and I can oblige. I took a bunch of pictures of stuff in the museum. I won't in the least bit be offended if no requests are made. :-)

Mad Max

Today we went on the "Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles full day tour" with the Mad Max Tours group. It was great and our tour guide, Charles, was far and away better than the one we had in Scotland the last time we took a driving tour. The agenda was: Castle Combe, Avebury, Lacock, and finally Stonehenge.

When it comes to quaint and picturesque villages I don't know that Castle Combe can be beat. There is a little creek that runs through town, and a tiny church called St. Andrews which was founded in the 13th century. It is only one street that forks at the old medieval market cross where the poorer people would trade goods. Apparently the scene in War Horse where the horse gets traded (I haven't actually seen the movie) was filmed in Castle Combe. Also, Stardust and the original Dr. Dolittle were filmed in Castle Combe. Anyway, enough talking, here are some photos.

going into town

500 year old door
the U.S. is 235 years old

market cross

St. Andrew's church

We spent about 30 minutes in Castle Combe; 15 minutes walking up the street and 15 minutes back to the van. From here we drove to Avebury and on the way we passed Silbury Hill. This is Silbury Hill:

taken through the front of the tour van

Silbury Hill was built 4,800 years ago. Underneath the mound of earth is a pyramid made of chalk. Why it was built, nobody knows. 

Now, on to Avebury. An interesting fact about Avebury - Stonehenge could fit inside ONE of Avebury's smaller inner stone circles. Another fact, Avebury is over 1,000 years older than Stonehenge. The only thing about Avebury is the stones are much more spread out so you can't capture it all in one photo. So here are a few:

Tommy trying to get close to the little lamb

there is a ditch and a hill all around the stone circle

It was very windy, cold and wet while we were in Avebury. After Avebury we drove to Lacock (pronounced Laycock). On the way to Lacock we passed the Cherhill White Horse. This was carved into the chalk hillside almost 300 years ago.

The village of Lacock is over 1,000 years old and used to be a prosperous wool town. While we were here we ate lunch at The George Inn, a pub that has had a license since 1362.

remnants of lunch

Some more photos of Lacock:

Harry Potter's parents house in a couple of movies

the town of Meriton in the proper version of Pride and Prejudice

After Lacock we went to Stonehenge. It was also very windy and cold there but we were able to tough it out to get some photos. 

Ok, enough photo overload. Tomorrow we are going to the Roman Baths! Goodnight!