Thursday, we got up early (again) for our last trip of R&R week, as well as our final all-programme trip-- Glastonbury and Wells. As soon as we got on the bus, Lindsay started playing "Hot Fuzz"-- a movie that I've come to love; a spoof on ridiculous cop movies which stars Simon Pegg, and was filmed in.... Wells!
Once we arrived in town, I immediately recognized quite a few sites from the film:
The fountain where the "hoodlums" are hanging out at the beginning.
The hotel where Sargent Angel lives.
The Cathedral (where the fundraising carnival was held).
Apparently, the film was set in Wells because the writer grew up there, and so it became his model for the town which won the "Village of the Year Award" for like 12 straight years or whatever it was in the film. Anyway, this makes the fifth town/city that I've been to in England where a film I've seen was filmed. Pretty cool.
Andrew Butterworth gave us a lovely tour of the town and cathedral (yay Andrew Butterworth! I've gotten to see so much of him this past week... it's wonderful). We started off with a quick look around the Bishop's Palace (yes, the man got a palace. And apparently, he only stayed there maybe once a year. The current bishop spends a considerable amount of time there though-- and I don't blame him. If someone gave me a palace to live in, I'd be all over it!):
The Bishop's Palace. And oh yeah, it has a moat. A MOAT! With swans in it. And a little bell on the side of the palace for them to ring when they want to be fed. I kid you not.
Then we took a look down the oldest street in Wells-- a medieval street with two rows of medieval townhouses, all attached to a dining hall and connected to the cathedral by an above-ground corridor, in which the choristers and priests and such used to live.
The precursor to modern suburban townhouse developments, where everything looks exactly the same.
If you look to the left above everyone's heads, you can see the bridge that connected the cathedral to the medieval street residences.
And then, on to the cathedral! It was built only a half-century before Salisbury Cathedral (remember all the way back to Salisbury? Fittingly, it was our first all-programme trip, and this was our last...); however, it did take a bit longer to build (60 years instead of 45). It's a very impressive building, but has a dramatically different feeling from Salisbury-- it is very horizontal, as opposed to vertical, very light, uncluttered (no plaques and memorials covering all of the walls and floor), and almost contemporary-- it has wonderful scissor-arches in the space covering where the nave and transept meet, with big circles... sorry, it's very difficult to describe, but it looks decidedly ahead of its time (it was built in the 13th century, I believe). I can't show you any pictures of the interior (they charge 3 pounds for photography, and I'm sorry, but that's what I pay for lunch, which is considerably more important), but you might be able to look it up online.
Highlights of the interior: a church cat (an orange tabby that was curled up under a chair), the chapter house with a fan-vaulted ceiling that looks like an enormous tree (where we sat in the seats of the bishop's councilmen), elaborate stone carvings, and the most famous of all, the clock.
This clock, my friends, was incredibly cool. It is the original clock from when the cathedral was built (so we're talking something like 800 years ago), made by the most renowned clockmakers of the day. the outside circle counts the hours (all 24 of them, not just 12), the middle counts the minutes, and the inside keeps track of the lunar calendar days (which helped me in my countdown to Chanukah). When the clock chimes on the quarter-hour, above the clock, two circles of knights on horseback begin to spin contrariwise to each other (they are jousting), and every three seconds or so, one knight gets flattened by the jousting stick of the other as he spins by. On the hour, the knights continue jousting, but there is also a watchman-figure seated a little ways away, who hits a bell with a hammer at each chime whilst turning his head and kicking his feet. It's still impressive today-- I can't imagine how people must have reacted when it was first made!
This is the outside of the clock. Somewhat less impressive from out here, but still very pretty.
Some of the impressive stone carvings on the exterior columns.
Ta-da! Big Cathedral.
Also, in the town, we saw a marker for the record-breaking olympic women's long-jump made by a Wells-born athelete-- 22 feet!!!
Andrew Butterworth then attempted to recreate this long-jump... he did achieve it; however, it took him about five or six jumps to do it.
So then we had an hour to walk around the town. Rachel, Sasha, Erin, Kathryn and I decided to have tea-- in a considerably less-rushed manner than we did in Winchester. It was lovely, and we had some of the best croissants that I've ever eaten. Mmm.
We got back on the bus and headed to Glastonbury. As we were driving along, looking at the pretty scenery, Jonathan pointed to an exceptionally large hill with a tower on top. "That's where we're headed!" he commented gleefully. This is when our suspicions were first aroused.
When the bus stopped on a flat street, in view of a hill, we got a bit more nervous. When we were told to hop off the bus and bring whatever waterproof items we had, we got considerably more nervous. When we walked over to the bottom of an absolutely enormous hill with a steep, winding path of stairs, we were officially freaking out.
"You want us to walk to the top of that?!"
"Yes, that is precisely what we are doing. Come along, then."
"Oh, you have got to be joking."
"Oh, you have got to be joking."
Well, we started climbing up the hill of doom. This hill of doom was about the same steepness of the hill of doom on which my house is situated, but goes on for about twenty minutes of speedy walking. I normally only have to deal with a one-minute hill. So that was really fun. My quads were just so happy with me, they probably would have gotten me flowers if they could have. Yeah.
But despite all of my complaining, it was 100% worth it.
This is the view from halfway up the hill.
Trekking up the hill.
Success at last!!
Huzzah!!!
The views were unbelievable.
Yeah. 'Nuff said.
Oh, and I didn't find this out until we were about to leave, but this hill (called "Glastonbury Tor") is actually the legendary Isle of Avalon. All of the surrounding lands used to be underwater, and they are still rather marshy. King Arthur supposedly sailed here after being wounded at his last battle, and today it is considered a holy hill. We saw a whole bunch of hippie-types hanging around, and the town below is full of magical amulets and crystals and such...very new-age, very strange.
How priceless is this picture? The "Man" is a random old guy, the "Myth" is Jonathan (our programme director), and the "Magik" is Andrew Butterworth. Love it.
Our wanderings around the actual town of Glastonbury began with a late lunch at a nationally-acclaimed fish and chips place. It may have looked simple, but it was the best fish and chips I have ever eaten.
And it came with the world's most adorable ketchup packet!
After lunch, we made our way to Glastonbury Abbey... or what used to be the Abbey, anyway. It is now in ruins (but it is oh so picturesque), and it is the site where King Arthur and Guenevere's grave was reportedly found.
There it is. Very matter-of-fact.
Let me backtrack for a second. Right outside of the Abbey, when Andrew Butterworth was giving us an introduction to the place, he explained that the monks who built the Abbey inherited these "huge tracts of land," and had to figure out what to do with it, because it was all swampland. This set Sasha and Rachel and I into hysterics, because we had just seen Spamalot the night before, and we are big fans, so of course we know all the lines. The phrase "Huge tracts of land" is featured, verbatim, in the musical as well as the movie that it was based on ("Monty Python and the Holy Grail"). Poor Andrew had not seen the show with us, so he was very confused as to why what he had just said was so hilarious. (If you aren't sure what I'm talking about, watch the first minute of this video clip.)
Anyway, back to the Abbey. We wandered through the ruins, went on a quest for Arthur's grave, and did a teensy bit of illegal ruin-climbing. It was lovely.
This was pretty cool-- not only did this part of the Abbey not have a ceiling, it didn't have a floor either. So we could see and walk around in) the crypt!
After traipsing around the Abbey, we headed out into the town for a little while, where we poked around the weird magic-y stores, had some coffee, and explored an old records store, and then we headed back to Bath. I got off with the downtown people, because I was having a sleepover in Flat 4 again (but this time, I was prepared)!
As soon as we dropped our stuff off in the flat, we ran back outside and up to Milsom Street (the major shopping street in the center of town), where the festival for the Bath Christmas Light Switch-On was occurring. The street was absolutely jam-packed, but we somehow got relatively close to the stage/giant screen, enough so that we could actually see what was going on. For half an hour, we watched various singing groups doing Christmas carols, none of which were particularly fantastic; however, the Bath Rugby team actually got up to "sing with" one of the women's groups at one point, which was pretty hysterical.
The rest of the night was pretty low-key, just hanging around, having some dinner, chatting... 'twas lovely. We went to sleep early, because we were getting up very early the next morning for....
As soon as we dropped our stuff off in the flat, we ran back outside and up to Milsom Street (the major shopping street in the center of town), where the festival for the Bath Christmas Light Switch-On was occurring. The street was absolutely jam-packed, but we somehow got relatively close to the stage/giant screen, enough so that we could actually see what was going on. For half an hour, we watched various singing groups doing Christmas carols, none of which were particularly fantastic; however, the Bath Rugby team actually got up to "sing with" one of the women's groups at one point, which was pretty hysterical.
Bath Rugby player awkwardly trying to sing "The Twelve Days of Christmas"... so adorable.
So many people.... ahhhh.
But then, the moment we had all been waiting for.... the celebrity switcher-oner. Last year, they had "Hollywood royalty" (their phrase, not mine), Nicholas Cage, and this year, they had "real royalty"... Princess Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (wife of Prince Charles).
This is her on the big screen-- she's much smaller in real life. (I could actually see her, but couldn't get a proper picture.)
Turns out, Camilla gives horrific speeches. But she was capable of pushing a button, so in the end, it all worked out. The Christmas lights which overhang all of the major streets, as well as the lights on the tree outside of the Abbey, were all turned on. It may not compare to New York, but for a city of this size, it's quite wonderful. And just like that, Bath is now in full-blown Christmas mode.
The rest of the night was pretty low-key, just hanging around, having some dinner, chatting... 'twas lovely. We went to sleep early, because we were getting up very early the next morning for....
THE HARRY POTTER 7 PREMIERE!
They apparently don't believe in midnight showings in Bath, so we booked tickets for the earliest show that we could-- 9:30 am. We were actually standing around waiting for them to open the gates to the theatre, we showed up so early. I didn't dress up (I didn't have anything with me that would be suitable), but neither did anyone else there, so it was fine. Sasha did lend me her "casual wand" though, which was pretty hilarious.
Disclaimer: I have not read books six or seven (I know, I know-- please don't throw things at me), but I certainly intend to after having watched this movie. It was FANTASTIC. Gahh.
Post-premiere, we had a spot of lunch, then headed to Nelson to work. I did mostly all of my research for my Jane Austen paper, but that's as far as I've gotten (and it's due Monday.... heh). By the time I was finished working, it was dinnertime, and Flat 4 invited me back for dinner. And if you invite a Vanessa to dinner, she is sure to want to stay the night too... so that's what I did. :)
I already had all of my stuff there, so I simply stayed another night-- no point in dragging myself back home. We watched two more movies--"Clueless" and "The Remains of the Day"--both of which people had to watch for class, so I wrote it off as working. I don't think we could have had a more divergent movie selection for the day if we had tried.
This morning, I woke up with a terrible sore throat, and so did Sasha and Rachel, whose room I was staying in. We attributed it to the drafty room and messed-up radiator, and went on our respective ways, convinced that we would make a full recovery within a few hours. Sadly, after getting home, I realized that I was not only not recovering, but I had gotten considerably worse. I slept for four hours, and woke up feeling worse still.... so I'm gonna venture a guess that I am much more sick than I thought I was. Ew. And the best part? That paper due Monday-- I don't know how on earth I'm going to write it. But I'll deal with that tomorrow, I suppose. For now-- more sleep, epic quantities of tea, and lots of medication.
Two weeks of papers and class coming up, so my posts may become less frequent again, since I'm sure you won't want to hear me whining about how much work I have to do. But I'll update every so often, so keep up your excellent blog-checking! (I'm up to 750 page views, which is really wonderful, and also a bit intimidating...) Until next time, fair readers, I leave you with this:
Damnit Jim; I'm a saint, not a pigeon-holder!
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