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(all photos are thumbnailed)
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I just can't fathom it, but London is a 2,000-year-old city. I don't think the United States even has rocks that old! We hit as many tourist sites as our limited schedule would allow (of course, on a double-decker tour bus!). The two pics in the second row were taken in the Tower of London. Long live King Jeffrey I! (That has a nice ring, doesn't it?) The third row shows a couple of exteriors of some of the buildings within the Tower of London complex. The bottom row is a couple of facade views of the giant Westminster and St. Paul's Cathedrals.
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Glastonbury is about a hundred miles west of London. It's claim to fame (in addition to its annual rock festival) is the Glastonbury Abbey. An abbey has existed on or near this 37-acre site since at least the 5th century A.D. The most recent, a Catholic church built in the 13th century, was destroyed in 1539 on orders from Henry VIII as part of his 'reformation' (kind of what the ACLU would like to do to America's churches). The previous abbey was destroyed by fire in 1190, and during the clean-up, two ancient coffins were discovered, which were believed to contain the remains of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. (Arthur's marked grave is the lower right picture.) The ruins in and of themselves are quite impressive. One can only speculate on how much moreso was the abbey at its peak.
The bottom row is the kitchen roundhouse. They've set it up as it would have appeared hundreds of years ago. The light coming in through the stained glass windows is something nobody can duplicate.
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Here are some shots of Meare. Like so many towns, large and small, churches were once integral to the town's identity and way of life. The gentleman attending his garden on the sunny Saturday morning I visited invited me to some in his yard to get these shots. The church in the next couple of rows was holding a social event; I felt as if I had stepped into another world, one of a British TV show...complete with the church key! (And the beautiful stained-glass windows; bottom row.) For a few shillings you could go up the narrow, winding staircase and check out the view from the roof. I was surprised to find that for -- literally -- over a hundred years, people had been scratching their names on the first available out-of-sight surface! (It also made me wonder what else had gone on on that rooftop!) If you look closely at the hilltop in the center picture of the last row, you can see the Abby.
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Vicars' Close (above, right) |
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Wells Cathedral School |
The Bishops' Palace |
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About 25 miles from Bristol, in western England, lies the town of Wells, so
named for its natural springs. It is the home of the magnificent and ancient
Wells Cathedral. Construction of the cathedral began approximately 1180. The
original building took about 60 years to build, using stones from a quarry eight
miles away. It was consecrated in 1239 and Rome granted the building cathedral
status in 1245. The first phase of major construction was finished in 1306.
Already outgrowing its purpose, extensions were built in successive years. Vicar's Close is
the oldest continuously occupied street in Europe. It was built to house Vicars Choral
(originally
Deputies of the Canon) who have sung in the Cathedral since
about 1140. The homes were
complete by 1363; the chimneys were raised and crowned about
1470. The narrow, winding streets of the city lead to the cathedral are lined
with shops both quaint and modern. There was a carnival/street faire in progress
on the day we visited.
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Dunkswell is a tiny town that, like so many others just like it, was the home of a United States Navy and 8th Air Force base during World War II. Located near Devon, it is at the end of a long series of narrow, winding roads that are better suited to mountain goats than cars. (Don't even think about bringing a 1967 Imperial anywhere near this place!) My friend, Jeff Glasser, and two of his friends pooled their resources to purchase it for private use. It now serves as a multi-function civilian airport. The picture in the lower left shows a similar former USAAF installation a few miles away.
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North of London, near Cambridge, sits another small town that was the site of yet another USAAF base: Chelveston. This one is special to me because my father was stationed there during World War II. (see my Tribute page.) You go up the hill. Turn left. Walk a few hundred feet and you'll see a sign off the left side of the street. It's pointing to a picturesque treed-canopy walkway on a church grounds. You emerge from the walkway to the church cemetery and directly in front of you you'll see a plaque on the church wall commemorating the men of the 305th Bomb Group, a B-17 unit. This is the only clue they were ever here. The airfield itself is all gone. I walked down the road several more miles to the site of the old base to find that it was now a housing complex. I stepped over the fence on the edge of the complex and set foot on the current use of the base, which is property of the Ministry of Defence. It also doubles as a cow pasture. There must be some kind of top-secret stuff going on because they discourage you from entering by posting a warning sign -- and letting the cows drop their own land mines wherever they may. The church is your average, ordinary church built in the 1200s. Check out the bulletin board...a universal church fixture!
Click HERE to see the Norway page.