Summer Holiday 2021 Part Three - Wells

 The final part of our summer holiday was to Wells. We stayed nearby, and had the day in the town, which is just sublime. It's a stunning and magical place, and somewhere you can just lose yourself in. You can see why so many artists & writers have been inspired by the place, it has a level of beauty and medieval charm that is irresistible. 

The charming Vicar's close, famously inspired J.K Rowling for scenes in the Harry Potter books. (I do not agree with any of her personal views, I just want to make that clear)

Inside Well Cathedral, as you can see it was empty, so quiet and peaceful. We had the place to ourselves, and could explore to our hearts content. I love the way the ceiling is so light and airy, it really makes the ceiling seem a lot taller. I know the last time I posted about Wells cathedral, that I hated the central cross brace in the middle, with it's almost brutalist style and I still do!

The charming ceilings, and below, the real highlight, the main staircase to the chapter house. The stairs are sublime, and they have this wonderful naturalistic feel to them, almost like they have water running down them. They lead to the stunning chapter house, which was unfortunately closed during our visit. To see pictures, find the previous post of June 2019 to hear me talk about it!

Entry to the Cathedral costs £15, and you can visit as many times as you like in a 12 month period, which is pretty good value. It helps to continue conservation projects on the building, and allows us to enjoy it for years to come. And talking of enjoying it, make sure if you're visiting on a nice day, to check out the cloister. The cloister itself is lovely and cool, and you can admire this beautiful tree in the middle of it from the arches. If you're wanting to visit the Bishop's Palace as well, there is a combi ticket for £20.

We then grabbed ourselves a little snack for lunch, and sat on the wall by the Bishop's Palace to eat, and noticed we were surrounded by hungry pigeons. Ever happy to oblige and share the bird seed in James's bag, we had lunch with them.

Pigeon's clearly didn't get the memo about social distancing, although otherwise it was an orderly affair.

That was until it turned into an excitable mob, and suddenly there was pigeons all over James, who needless to say was quite surprised!

This one didn't even want to wait for the food to be put down on the ground. From bag to beak in under a second. Talk about pigeon efficiency!

This is the view of the Cathedral from the Bishop's Palace. The ruins of the former great hall are a real highlight, poking in between the trees. There's also lots of piece of art around the place, as well as a walk around the ramparts.

There's not much inside, but we did see this room, that had been set up for an event. They can host weddings and other events there. What a magical place to tie the knot!

The stained glass windows sending colourful light across the floor.

I couldn't resist a picture across the beautifully mowed lawn of the Great Hall ruins and the main palace building. How do they get the lines in the grass like that?

And this is a final bonus picture, of James trying to remove the pigeon who had climbed into his bag to see if there was any food left. Alas, they had cleared us completely out! Must remember to bring a bigger bag with us next time, we can't have an all you can eat pigeon seed buffet without birdseed!