Town and Country

Our rental was near the city of Wells, the "smallest city in England", so we decided to drop by for a visit.

I really didn't know much about the town, except that it has a cathedral and Bishop's Palace. We walked through a small door in a big gate and this was the sight greeting us. For some reason I was so surprised. I expected the Bishop's Palace to be more like a big house, not a castle complete with turrets and moat.

Then we started walking around the path around the moat and find green fields with sheep grazing in the background! And swans gliding along the moat! I found it all overwhelmingly idyllic.

Is this not one of the cutest streets you've ever seen? It is a cobbled street built in the 1360's.

 And the cathedral itself is not bad either.

 Other bits of Wells I can't resist sharing.

This picture of Camille walking through the town of Wells was actually taken a different day. We decided our girls would enjoy the drama and compactness of Wells. I won't comment on how that went.

We passed this village on our way to our next stop, Cheddar Gorge. I took a picture of the sign because I thought their village motto was so cute - some town council sometime had sat around and decided that they as a village were going to focus on being thankful. But I looked it up later and found there's more behind the sign. In World War I, every village in England sent men to fight. Out of more than 4000 or so villages, only 42 had all their men come home. Those villages were designated as "Thankful Villages."

The same day as our Wells visit, we headed over to nearby Cheddar Gorge. It's the largest gorge in England. Actually, compared to the many canyons we've been to in the United States, it seemed a little quaint. But size isn't everything. It was definitely pretty and worth a visit.

We had every intention of walking to the top of the gorge, but it was so steep! I'm not sure if the picture shows it. We were a little nervous with the steepness combined with the slippery, wet path and so only made it up partway.

As a Plan B, the drive through the gorge was pretty too. If you ever find yourself in Somerset, I can highly recommend a day in Wells and Cheddar Gorge.