Wending Our Way Home

WELLS CATHEDRAL


VICAR'S CLOSE

By forgoing a cooked breakfast we managed to get an early start this morning. We heard that snow is on its way to the UK, expected to hit on Monday especially in central and eastern areas. We hoped to get home and collect Ginger before the winter storms arrive. First stop was Wells, actually in the opposite direction of the way home, but very easy to reach from our B&B, situated on Wells Way. Wells is England's smallest city; it claims city status through its magnificent cathedral, the seat of the bishop of Bath and Wells. As is the case on Sunday in most all towns and villages in the UK, Wells was quiet and virtually deserted. Only one or two establishments were open...a news agent here, a cafe there. A shame, because we passed so many enticing shops on the high street, including many charity shops that boasted display windows to rival many of the other high street shops. We wandered around the grounds a bit while I snapped away with my camera. It was bitterly cold this morning. I had to stop to replace the batteries in my camera and my fingers got so cold I thought they would fall off. We also wandered over to Vicar's Close, built in the 14th century, it is Europe's oldest complete street. As we expected, there was a service going on inside the cathedral, so we sat in a rear pew for a little while and admired the interior, including the cathedral's famed scissor arch (a graceful solution to a sinking foundation). Then we stopped of in a little cafe to warm ourselves with a nice cuppa before hitting the road again.

We took a different route home than the one we had come in on. This time we drove up on the western side of England and then shot across the Peak district. How different and dramatic the scenery was in the Peak district, an area we'd like to explore at another time, but today we just wanted to get home. The sky was overcast with dull gray clouds, but there was a splash of sun making its way through the clouds off in the distance, lighitng up a patch of the landscape with a warm glow. We drove through some more little villages that looked a bit more working class and industry-oriented than those in the Cotswolds. We had picked up some sandwiches at a petrol station and kept looking for a nice place to pull over and eat them, but there really weren't any convenient lay-bys on this route. We finally made our way over to the M1 near Harrogate and that's when we hit the weather. It was rain mixed with snow. We decided we'd better go straight and pick Ginger up; conditions could be worse tomorrow. I called the cattery and they said yes, sure, come on and collect him. So we did. We're all back home again now, snug and dry and cozy.