LaCock Abbey and Malmsbury

Saturday, June 22

 

Like most other days the forecast included a good chance of rain but today it actually did rain, although we were fortunate that the downpour came when we were already inside Lacock Abbey[360°].  It was only about ten miles from the cottage and we arrived just before 11:00.  

There are three stories connected to Lacock, it's formation in 1232 as a nunnery by Ela, Countess of Salisbury, being the first.  The second is how it was remodeled after the Dissolution by its new owner, William Sharington, who purchased it from Henry VIII.  The third is as the home of William Henry Fox Talbot, the pioneer of photography who invented the negative around 1835.  Much of the nunnery survives including the cloisters and the modifications made later by the Tudors and Victorians still managed to preserve much of the earlier bits.  The upper floors were very sumptuously decorated and a 20th century heiress of Fox Talbot wrote a book describing her struggle to preserve the estate that she had unexpectedly inherited.  Afterwards we had lunch at the Lacock Abbey cafe, toured the beautiful town of Lacock and saw the photography historical exhibit at the Fox Talbot Museum.  Lacock had been a very good way to spend nearly five hours.

We then drove about 20 minutes to Malmsbury Abbey which had once been a rival in size to Salisbury Cathedral before lightening caused its central spire to collapse and destroy a large section of the church around 1500.  Then the cloister had to be removed as required during the Dissolution a few decades later and doing so weakened the front of the Abbey causing it to collapse.  What remained of the nave became a rather odd looking church that is uniquely beautiful.  The photos below show the outside and inside of the surviving nave where the crossing would ordinarily have begun; the third image probably best illustrates the original abbey with what survived in white.

The town of Malmsbury was very nice to walk through but we only had paid for an hour of parking so we had little time to really explore it.  We grabbed a few items for dinner from our local Sainsbury's, including some gluten free Yorkshire pudding, and watched the remake of “The Manchurian Candidate” starring Denzel Washington.  

Salisbury Cathedral and Avebury Stone Circle

Sunday, June 23

 

We arrived in Salisbury at 11:30 and walked to the Cathedral [360°] that dominates the town.  This is my favorite cathedral in the South and its spire is the tallest in England at 400 feet.  Today I would see it like I'd never seen it before on the Tower Tour, but first we strolled through the cavernous interior, had lunch in the cafe and viewed one of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta in the Chapter House.

Our guide on the Tower Tour was so well informed on the construction of Salisbury Cathedral that it made me wonder if he might have been a retired engineer.  After a few minutes on the floor of the nave our group of about twenty climbed a narrow circular staircase to the rafters above the left aisle.  We could see that much of the structural support for the cathedral relies on wood that is already a thousand years old and looks like can easily be good for another thousand.  Going through a passage put us on the rim of the nave and we had a spectacular view that must have been from at least 60 feet above the floor. 

From there we move to the interior of the nave roof and then to the interior of the central tower.  After climbing two wooden spiral staircases we reached the top of the tower where the spire began.  We had about ten minutes each on the outside of the tower on both the east and north sides to see the commanding views from about 200 feet up.  We had gone to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral in London but this tour was much more interesting because you really got into the "bones" of the building which were explained by someone really knowledgeable on the fascinating subject of medieval cathedral construction.

We drove by Stonehenge for a quick look from the car but quickly pressed on to Avebury Stone Circle which we had almost to ourselves when we arrived at 6:30.  Avebury is the largest stone circle and is from the same era as Stonehenge, but the boulders are spread out on a much larger area and are not fenced off from visitors.  The village of Avebury sits partly inside the henge which is the earthwork with banks and ditches nearly 1400 feet across where most of the stones are found.  In addition to the stone circle, Avebury has two "avenues" of stones that radiate out from the circle.

Also found within the circle are grazing sheep who usually run away but two approached us completely fearlessly and nibbled on Marnie's sleeve.

 

After an hour at Avebury we headed back to BoA but stopped briefly in Devizes where the Caen Hill Locks [360°] are located.  This is a series of 16 locks that allow narrow boats using the Kennet Avon Canal to climb a 200 foot hill.  It takes several hours to do that and each lock has a pool where boats park to wait their turn when there is traffic.  It would have been a much more interesting place except that no boats were passing through the locks at such a late hour.

 

We got dinner pulled together quickly at the cottage and watched the first half of the 1994 version of “Frankenstein” before going to bed.  There was still a little light outside and it was nearly ten.

 

Tintern Abbey

Monday, June 24

 

We drove into Wales and up the Wye River Valley to arrive at Tintern Abbey [360°] [360°] just before noon.  This is one of the many religious institutions which were shut down by Henry VIII during the dissolution in the 16th century.  What sets its ruins apart, along with two similar monasteries in the north, is that a shell of a cathedral size church remains while other closed monasteries were stripped for building materials.  Without a roof, floor and windows these monastery churches are magnificent to behold.

 

 

Marnie experienced "a chill" as she walked through one of the entries to the church and atributes that to something very bad that happened on that spot.  Perhaps long ago one monk went medieval on some other monk on that spot. 

 

 

Afterwards we had a late lunch just accross the road at the Anchor Inn (seen above on the left) and found a spot to park which overlooked the Wye River.  Fatigue caught up with us today so we abandoned our plan to go to Cardiff and just rested in the car for an hour like so many retired British couples I've seen who are out for the day to see some historic sites.

 

We drove further up the very scenic river valley to Monmouth (photo above) arriving just before 5:00.  After knocking about the town center awhile we thought it would be nice to see the sea and drove half an hour to Newport.  We eventually realized that the reason we weren't finding the shore is that Newport isn't quite on the shore.  About and hour later after driving back over the Severn Bridge into England we found quiet Severn Beach tucked inside an industrial area.  We climbed an embankment, saw the sea and almost immediately left for our BoA cottage which was still nearly an hour away.  Tintern had been wonderful, but unfortunately too much of the rest of the day was unproductive driving trying to find a good spot on the sea.

 

We had a late dinner (8:40) and watched the second half of Frankenstein which seemed to drag on well beyond the two hours it advertised.  Kenneth Branough both starred in and directed it and we both agreed that he stretched himself too thin on this movie.  It started well but went south in the middle.

Biking Along the Canal to Bath

Tuesday, June 25

 

I had a nice early morning walk around BoA as part of an errand to a cash machine.  We should try to find some more time to stroll around town again before we leave.  The weather is bright and sunny so it was finally time to break out the shorts even though it still won't reach 70 degrees.  When I got back I discovered that Marnie had figured out how to open the bathroom skylight which should end the steam buildup we've had whenever taking a shower.  One more mystery with British equipment solved.

 

We hired mountain bikes just around the corner at the canal path and set off for Bath at 10:30.  We met a nice, elderly gentleman at the Avoncliff Aqueduct who had been following a swan and its young offspring for several days and he pointed them out to us as they sat far below the Aqueduct.   This Aqueduct and the Dundas Aqueduct allow the canal to fly over the river and train tracks twice as well as make any further canal locks unnecessary on this stretch of the canal.  You can see us at the Dundas Aqueduct here:

 

 

In the course of the ten mile ride we probably saw nearly a hundred canal boats of varying conditions including a very luxurious double wide canal boat that was for sale for £80,000.  Many people live long-term in their boats much like people in their RVs but short-term rentals are available too.

We parked our bikes at the museum just off the canal at Bath and crossed the Putney Bridge[360°] to eat lunch at another branch of La Tosca before tackling the Roman Baths.

 

 

The tourist experience at the Baths has been enhanced with audio guides which include the option of listening to supplemental commentary by Bill Bryson, my favorite travel writer.  Videos around the baths also help tremendously in visualizing what they originally looked like as do the faux walls that hang down from the ceiling in what had once been a wide, open area in my previous visits.

 

Afterwards we realized that the museum where we had parked our bikes would probably soon lock its grounds so we retrieved the bikes hoping to relocate them.  But vacant bike racks are in short supply and after we finally found a one we discovered that the bike lock was faulty and the bikes had probably not been locked back at the museum.  So rather than return to see Bath Abbey we instead relaxed on the riverbank for a few minutes and then rode back to BoA.  The canal boat residents were relaxing and having their dinners outside their boats all along our canal route back.  

We hit Sainsbury's again when we got back to BoA at about 7:30 and then had our own dinner while watching the first half of "Brassed Off".

Wells Cathedral and Bath Abbey

Wednesday, June 26

 

There was some kind of traffic back-up all morning in BoA which didn’t affect us directly but may have explained why the gift shop at the Tithe Barn didn’t open as advertised at 9:30.  We strolled along the Avon River using a path we hadn’t previously taken and returned to the gift shop a little later to get the gifts we had spotted on our previous visit.

 

The town of Wells is only slightly larger than BoA but when we arrived it sure seemed much larger.  It was a 45 minute drive and there was quite a bit of competition for parking.  We did finally find a space and walked a short distance to the Cathedral [360°] which is one of the more memorable ones in Britain.  It is unique for a number of reasons including the large number of medieval statues that survive in the niches on the west front and the Vicars’ Close [360°]which is a 14th century street that remains largely in its original form.  The Chapter House [360°] is also memorable, partly for the long stairway which leads to it and bends to the right just at the entrance.

We had a quick bite on the run and then headed back to the parking lot as our time expired.  The parking lot was a lot different at that hour, there actually were several open spots, but driving to Bath I decided I didn’t want to both battle traffic and search for parking in the center of that much bigger town.  So we used the Park & Ride which work out well except that the other Park & Ride lot would have avoided much of the time we spent afterwards during rush hour just trying to get across to the other side of Bath.

 

Bath Abbey (1) is not as old as the other major churches having been built in the 16th Century but it is just as beautiful.  Coinciding with our visit was an art exhibit in the Abbey and 15 minutes of organ practice which made our visit more interesting.

Afterwards we walked to the Circus [360°] and the Royal Crescent where we sat and rested on a park bench.  We watched a very energetic black dog running all over the park meeting people and racing other dogs.  On the way back to the Park & Ride bus stop we ran across an easily overlooked small walled garden open to the public that we had to all to ourselves.

I then had the dilemma of whether to drive out from the center of Bath, which would mean driving several miles before being able to turn east, or to drive into the center so that we would be headed east for BoA which is only ten miles from Bath.  I did the later thinking that at 6:00 the worst of the evening traffic would be over.  Turns out that traffic was still bad and it took the better part of an hour to return to our cottage, which somewhat defeated the purpose of the Park & Ride option.  Probably the best option would have been to have simply returned to BoA after visiting Wells and taken the 15 minute train ride into Bath.  Oh well, we got back with plenty of time for dinner and some packing before turning-in.  But the driving during the last two days made me appreciate the drawbacks of driving in Britain.  One of those drawbacks is that on most rural roads you'll only average about 35 MPH which is why it took so long to get to Wells at the start of the day.

There and Back Again

Thursday, June 27

 

We left BoA just before 9:30 and when we got to Heathrow at 11:15 we probably had less than a gallon still left in the gas tank.  This worked out fine with the gasoline refill option that I had chosen but I was getting a bit anxious about having enough gas to get there.  The shuttle got us to Terminal 1 quickly and after checking our baggage we hit the duty free shop for some Pimms and Bailey’s to take home.  We actually discovered when we got home that they both are cheaper back in the states.

 

We got to the gate 45 minutes before the scheduled boarding and took seats in what started out as a quiet spot.  But after a while a group with at least a dozen teenage boys arrived and it was a relief to finally board and not find them seated anywhere near us, although we managed to get right behind them during the hour it later took to get through customs at SFO.  I have to respect their chaperones' patience; I could never tolerate so many teenagers for even one day.

 

We found that, unlike the flight over, we had a wealth of free entertainment options including the first episode of Season 3 of Game of Thrones.  But after a few hours the ten hour flight began to drag on and on and my eyes were too bleary to do any reading.

 

Eventually we did reach SFO where we had a three hour layover, but after an hour spent getting through customs and another half hour going back through security again it didn’t seem like we had all that long to wait for our short flight to Sacramento.  Once airborne on the 30 seat turbo prop it took less than 25 minutes before we landed.  We found that our luggage was almost immediately available and Jack was curbside about five minute later and he got us home just before 9:30.

Our cats had been on our minds for the past 15 days but they were fine thanks to the excellent care they received from our next door neighbors.  It took the next three days for me to get rested, although this was partly because it was so hard to sleep that first night with the cats so excited about us being back. 

 

This vacation was an excellent adventure but it also made me recognize the hobbit inside of me who really likes to be home.  I no longer feel the urge to travel very far -- at least not until next year.