Quintessential England

Quintessential England

Tiny little house in Cheddar

Cheddar Gorge

Wells Cathedral

Market Cross

Dad and daughter with the beautiful flowers in Wells

Looking at Cheddar Gorge from the reservoir

Sunset over the reservoir

Wells Cathedral

Vicar’s Close Wells

Beautiful windows inside

Gorgeous old door

Let the holidays begin!

All is now right with my world! I am well, I am on holidays, I am travelling….how could I not be happy?

I love visiting England, it is so different, in so many ways,  from our little part of Australia and the fact that our daughter lives here is always a bonus! The only problem is that it is so far away which means long, long flights. I do wish Doctor Who would franchise the Tardis as a time travelling machine, it would make life so much easier!

We started out on Friday afternoon with a three hour drive,

followed by a one hour flight on Saturday morning,

then a wait of 6 hours (which we filled in very easily catching up with family),

then an eight hour flight,

followed by a quick run from one gate to another to get onto the next flight for a further 13 hours.

We arrived in London later than scheduled so missed our bus and had to wait for two hours for the next  one. The two and a half hour bus trip had me dozing off before a short wait for our lift and a final 45 minute drive. We had arrived!

By this time it was late on Sunday afternoon in England but well into Monday back at home. We were in surprisingly good form despite the extended travel and after a well deserved (and needed) freshen up we went out for a walk into the English village of Cheddar.

Cheddar

We know Cheddar very well, having lived here for 12 months, many years ago, while on a Teacher Exchange. The fact that our eldest daughter now lives here is one of those weird things that somehow just happen. It is a small village with a beautiful natural gorge as its main draw card.  It is pretty, green, has a market cross, a few nice pubs and is reasonably close to other lovely places like Wells, Glastonbury, Bath….

On our first afternoon we walked through the village checking out the changes and up to the gorge. It was a lovely warm sunny afternoon with most of the touristy shops shut and the tourists on their way home. We always enjoy seeing the gorge, it’s a great place to walk with outstanding views over the Somerset countryside.

Wells

Another of our favourite places is Wells, a lovely Cathedral city with history just pouring out of it. (The movie Hot Fuzz was filmed there which is just a bit weird!)

Although religion doesn’t play a large part in our lives we love the history of the Cathedral, the amazing architecture and the feeling of something special. We walked around in the sun, visited Vicar’s Close a beautiful street of old houses that are now used as music rooms, given the sounds emanating from them; walked the high street; had lunch in an old English pub; enjoyed the colourful flower baskets that are everywhere, and drove back through narrow roads bordered by high hedges and houses so close to the road that sometimes they actually are the edge of the road.

Later in the afternoon I walked around the local reservoir, joining the many locals walking their dogs (another very English thing to do) and felt very lucky to here.

To me this area is quintessentially English – it’s green, lush, old, pretty, full of history – and I just love it all.

I also love the word quintessential 🙂

Debbie 🙂

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