Jolly Ole England with Laura - Take 2
As we continue our tour through England's countryside, I want to show you a few photos of some of the quaint little villages that have some amazing shops dedicated to pets, tea pots, sweaters, witchery and so much more.
They are located in the Cotswolds, an area of some 200 miles that was untouched by the industrial revolution of England. The buildings are made from the locate stone and the color changes slightly from a grey to almost a yellow stone depending in the village. They even have great names like Stow on the Wold, Bourton on the Water, Lower and Upper Slaughter, Cheltenham and others.
The homes sometimes have thatched roofs and cross paned windows and always, always flowers and gardens behind the little fences and hedges. Life is slow in these villages and people stroll around the rivers and town centers with their dogs and drink in the day along with a few pints of ale at the local pubs. This is such a pet-friendly area, dogs are welcome in most pubs and restaurants.
They go to work with their masters and sit quickly behind the desk or on a doggy bed in the corner. They are always well behaved and enjoy a "pat" from a tourist along with a tail wag. It's wonderful to see all these dog breeds outside walking around the villages. There are even dog bowls of water beside many public drinking fountains.
My Jack Russell, Ivan the Terrier and I could spend many weeks here taking in all the sites and walking the fields, enjoying the pubs and the calm sidewalks of Cotswold villages.
The next stop on my 1500 mile trek through England was the ancient city of Bath. The Romans stumbled on the healing baths in this area around 55 B.C. and turned this area into a destination for exercise, taking on the waters, health and healing for the soldiers in the area and other Roman patriots.
You can still be the bubbling water coming up from deep down below the surface of the pools and the steam rising up. The Museum displays all manner of rescued antiquities from centuries past including coins, jewelry, pottery, carved pillars and alters, even artwork and a mummy of an ancient Roman soldier. It's fascinating to walk through the self guided tour of the Baths and Museum and know that Romans walked these same steps and pathways centuries ago.
The magnificent Bath Cathedral stands beside the entrance to the Baths and has flying buttresses along the sides and on each side of the entrance is a ladder with angels ascending and descending from heaven. It's hard to believe the detail on some of these basilicas and cathedrals that date back so many hundreds of years. The stone masons of the time had incredible talent to create this "art" with fairly simple tools.
The King Arthur legends come into play when I talk about my next destinations. Glastonbury Abbey was my next stop and included a tour around the huge (over a football field in length) abbey, now in ruins. The kitchen facility still stands intact and the abbey itself dates back to the mid 1100's. It is rumored that the remains of King Arthur and his queen, Genevieve were located here in 1191 and later relocated to a special tomb on the same property in the late 1200's. You can only imagine how majestic the abbey once was. It only housed between 40-80 monks but drew people from hundreds of miles.
The village around the abbey is home to all types of little shops and so many of them are witchery shops or fantasy stores dedicated to Merlin, the magician, medieval clothing or spells and potions. What fun!! Many people walked the sidewalks in period dress. People on my tour couldn't tell which ones were part of the tour or just dressed up for fun in capes, hats and lots of makeup.
From the burial tomb of King Arthur, I headed to the rumored original Camelot Castle location at Tintagel on the rocky cliffs of Cornwall. About one hundred fifty people would have lived in the adjacent village to this isolated castle which is located on eighteen acre island. The location stands a hundred feet above the water on a rocky cliff-side. The village was connected to the castle by a narrow bridge, making it nearly impossible to invade.
Β You could spend hours climbing all over these hillsides. Some of the paths are quite steep and the wind is blowing strong up from the water. I just can't figure how they managed to get the stones over the small bridge to build the castle. Maybe Merlin assisted in some way. Hmmm... Of course all the shops in Tintagel continued the theme of magic, knights in armor, castles and dragons.
I had to be physically dragged from Tintagel back to the motor coach to continue touring around Cornwall. I wanted to sit by the sea and image an earlier time with knights on horseback and ladies in long flowing gowns living in stone castles. I've enjoyed all things medieval since I was a child. It's a fantasy place.
The Cornish coastline is such a lovely area that reminds me of Virginia is some ways with it's rolling hills and valleys. I passed by the moors of Cornwall and thousands of sheep and cattle as I made my way around the coastline to the fishing village of Padstow and on to Lanhydrock House to view it's some fifty rooms, gardens and grounds.
The original Cornish Manor House dates back to the mid 1600's and was rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1881. There are some fifty rooms that are open for tourists to explore so allow plenty of time to wander around. There are stables, a chapel and extensive gardens to enjoy and the rooms are fully decorated.
Thanks for traveling with me today and if you come back to visit next Thursday, I'll have the final installment of my England's Treasures tour that includes Salisbury Cathedral with the tallest spire in England, Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and London. I'd love to have you come along with me and check out some more of my photos of this wonderful trip. As always, if you have any questions - feel free to ask. I love to talk about my travels and share what I've learned about the wonderful places I get to tour.
