Glastonbury Abbey & The Tower of London

 We had a lovely day out visiting Glastonbury, and in particular the ruined abbey. I don't know what it is, but there is something so magical about exploring a ruined abbey. Especially if you're the only ones there, and it feels like you are just discovering it for the first time.

Glastonbury abbey is one of the most famous ruined abbey's in England, not just because of its proximity to the festival grounds. The abbey itself was established in the 700's, and after a destructive fire it became one of the wealthiest and most notable abbey's in England. However, with the suppression of the monasteries by Henry the eighth and years of being robbed of it's stone for local building projects, the abbey is now a shadow of its former glory. But let me tell you, it has a wonderful atmosphere there. It's also widely believed (but never proven) to be where King Arthur was buried. But it's worth having a good look around when you're there, and don't forget to visit the Abbots kitchen, which is one of Europe's best preserved medieval kitchens.

Some of the beautiful stone carvings on the archways

Inside the Lady Chapel.

The outside of the lovely Abbots kitchens.

What I love most is that even the ruins have this beautiful sort of symmetry to them!

We visited on a Saturday in December and was pleasantly surprised to find there were 3 other people visiting asides our selves, so we really did have the place to ourselves!

The abbey is open all year round, and entry is from £12 as an adult (although there is a small discount when pre-booking online which we did)

Check out their website www.glastonburyabbey.com, and get your visit booked in!

And on New years eve, we headed up to London to visit the tower of London. Something I had always wanted to do, but never got round to.

Word of warning, the tower gets incredibly busy, there were queues left, right, front and back, and we seemed to spend ages waiting to be able to do anything. However aside from that, it was a nice experience.

We had a lovely wander there from Monument station, and there was a fog in the air which hid the top of the shard too.

It does beg the question, does anyone need a codpiece that big? Also, keep an eye out for the chapel, it was divine in there, and a nice moment to take a seat and rest before heading back to explore the packed tower.

The little square surrounding the tower is full of these charming buildings.

A nice view of Tower bridge against the snow clouds. It was threatening to snow frequently, there would be sleet in the air, but it never seemed to amount to much.

My new friend waving to me!

Now, a word of warning. The tower gets incredibly busy, so please don't expect to be able to just walk in and see things when you arrive there. It's also expensive, yes there's a lot to see and do there, but at £35 for an adult ticket, it seemed very steep. And avoid the gift shop at all costs, stuff in there cost more than the ticket did!

While we were walking back to the tube station, I came across this, a piece of the old Roman wall, one of the few pieces still left in London (albeit with a load of medieval stonework stuck on top of it). To think it has not only survived 2,000 years, plus Boudicca's revolt and the blitz, made this small piece of wall seem all the more special.