CATEGORY: ENGAND
PHOTO: WELLS CATHEDRAL

When I got to Bath, I decided to take a side trip by bus to Glastonbury.  I wanted to climb the Glastonbury Tor.  It was a place that was treacle-thick with the myths and legends of King Arthur and the Holy Grail.  At the time I thought it was one of the many man-made Tors in England.  I was told it was natural, although there is still some mystery about its structure and origins.

Unfortunately, it was cold and rainy from the time I left Bath until the time I returned there.   As a result, I was never able to see the Tor at all, and didn’t want to climb it in the rain and fog.

The highlight of my trip was seeing Wells Cathedral from the window of the bus through a clearing in the mist.  The sun was shining on it from a break in the clouds: truly a vision.  I didn’t know at the time that it was the cathedral I had been able to identify correctly in a History of Architecture test many years before.  I thought it looked like a gigantic fantasia of artfully arranged vertical strands of blown glass.  This was before I learned that Glastonbury Tor was originally thought to be the home of Gwyn ap Nudd, the King of the Fairies, and that he lived on top of the Tor in a glass palace: probably the root of the name “Glastonbury.”

I have long been ready to go back and climb the Tor.  In fact I am still ready to explore the whole southeast corner of England including Tintagel Castle and the Isles of Scilly.  YES!!!!