On the Move - A Weekend in Cheddar

We had a lovely weekend away here in England, something we've been meaning
to do more often.

On Friday I went down to King's Cross and picked up a rental car. They were
having a weekend deal, such that I had to pick it up that day, even though
we weren't planning to leave until Saturday morning.

After dropping the car back at our place, we took the tube into town and had
dinner at Yo Sushi! It was the best we'd ever had there and they even had
hamachi, my favorite, which is very hard to find here.

We strolled down Charing Cross Road, stopping into Blackwell's to buy some
books, and got to the Garrick Theatre just a few minutes before the
curtain. The play was _This Is Our Youth_, a drama about two stoner New
York Jewish kids and this girl they know. The three actors were Anna Paquin
(who won a Best Supporting Oscar for her role in _The Piano_), Jake
Gyllenhaal (who starred in _October Sky_ and _Donnie Darko_), and Hayden
Christensen (who plays Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode II). That was
the real reason I wanted to see the show, to form an opinion of
Christensen's acting ability before seeing him on the big screen. He was
pretty good, although Gyllenhaal's performance was the real stand-out.

On Saturday morning we left the house around nine and drove straight to
Cheddar, arriving around noon. We got some fish & chips and then bought our
Explorer Ticket that covered our admission to most of the sights in town.
We started with a visit to Gough's Cave. Re-discovered in the late 19th
century, the cave held the remains of "Cheddar Man," a 9,000 year-old
skeleton, as well as other bones and artifacts indicating that the cave was
used intermittently by prehistoric humans. It was carved out by an
underground river and had some very lovely rock formations. After that we
walked through the smaller Cox's Cave just down the hill. We decided to
skip the "Crystal Quest" medieval adventure cave and went back to our car
and headed off to Chewton Mendip, trying to find a dairy that offers tours.
We had a lovely drive between the rockfaces at the narrow end of the gorge,
but found that the Chewton Dairy no longer gives tours. So we went back to
the Cheddar Gorge Cheese Factory--a fairly touristy place on the main
street--to see their explanation of how the local cheese is made. This
includes the process called "cheddaring" that involves cutting the drained
curd into blocks and squeezing it to eliminate more of the whey before
milling it and pressing it into "truckles," or wheels. We decided to skip
the cheese store, figuring it was better not to set out on a three-mile hike
with a couple of pounds of cheese in our pockets.

Climbing up the stairs to the rim of the gorge, we set out on the route
around "the largest gorge in England." It was a pretty steep climb, both up
and down, but we got some lovely views of the gorge and of the surrounding
plain. South of the mouth of the gorge is an enormous reservoir that is
circular and raised--it took us a long time to figure out what it must be,
since it most resembles some kind of UFO landing pad when seen from above.

By the time we worked our way around the gorge and back to the main street
running through its center, the sidewalks were rolled up and
everything--including the cheese store--were closed. We picked up our car
again and drove into the center of the village to the Market Cross Hotel
(across from the medieval market cross, appropriately enough). We settled
into our room--small, but lovely, with a very comfy bed--and then went down
for dinner. We had two choices at each course, so we'd ordered one of
each. I ended up with the rich tomato soup with basil, a lovely salmon
steak with hollandaise sauce, and a sweet sponge pudding for dessert. Jason
had the grilled portobello mushroom with tomato and cheese, a very moist
pork chop with apple chutney, and a rich berry summer pudding. The sides
were cheesy mashed potatoes, broccoli with parmesan and carrots with
tarragon. It was all very tasty. We were the only ones having dinner that
evening, despite the hotel being all but full--three separate people stopped
by to check on availability while we were at table, but decided against the
one room available, as it did not have a private bath.

We went back up to our room right after dinner and went right to bed. It
was really nice to just sleep and sleep, without all the usual distractions
that keep us awake too late at home.

In the morning we were treated to one of the best full English breakfasts
we've had, complete with wonderfully creamy local yogurt. Fed up, we headed
out for the day.

Our first destination was Glastonbury and we could see the tor (hill) and
its tower from miles away, across the Somerset Levels. The levels are/were
wetlands and marshes until people drained them extensively, starting in the
11th century and continuing today. Before that, Glastonbury Tor would have
been essentially an island and legend connects it with the fabled island of
Avalon. At one point a grave was uncovered at the abbey that was alleged at
the time to be that of King Arthur. Legend also says that Joseph of
Arimathea came to the area trading for lead and tin and brought the young
Jesus with him (inspiring William Blake's poem, "Jerusalem"). Supposedly
Joseph returned after the crucifixion with the holy grail and built a small
church on the site of the abbey. Some of this legend was certainly enhanced
by St. Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury and Archbishop of Canterbury in the
10th century.

We started at the abbey museum, then strolled out around the ruins of the
abbey church. It was an enormous place in its time, but was destroyed after
the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII and its buildings used
as a quarry for stones needed for local building projects. Very little
remains today.

Hopping on "The Tor Bus," we were whisked out through the fields surrounding
the town and dropped off at the foot of the path leading up to the top of
the tor, where the 14th-century tower of St. Michael's is all that remains
of the church that once occupied the summit. The wind was very strong and
after a look around at the charming countryside, we headed down the other
side of the hill, back toward town.

Just as we were approaching the bottom, I slipped and skinned my knee pretty
badly. So our first stop back in Glastonbury was the Safeway, where I could
buy band-aids and use their restroom to clean up. That task completed, we
found a nice little cafe for lunch. I had a very comforting bowl of
vegetable soup with a sandwich, while Jason devoured a Cornish pasty.

After lunch we hopped back in the car and went up the road to Wells. As we
arrived, the bells at St. Cuthbert's were playing and we were overtaken by
the post-lunch nap impulse, so we stayed in the car drowsing for about half
an hour. Reinvigorated, we wandered through town to the cathedral complex.
We went inside the cathedral and listened to the beginning of evensong
before deciding to visit the other areas of the complex and return to the
church after services, when more of it would be open to visitors.

The Bishop's Palace is a lovely place. The outer walls are still surrounded
by a moat fed by St. Andrew's Well, from which the city takes its name. The
ruins of the Great Hall are very picturesque. The bishop's chapel and the
formal rooms open to the public are not terribly exciting, but the walk out
around the well is both beautiful and interesting and the view of the
cathedral from the gardens is stunning. The archbishop of Bath & Wells
still lives in part of the palace complex.

We wandered back through the churchyard and gardens, parts of which surround
the ruins of previous chapels on the site. By the time we got back into the
church, the service was just ending and we were able to see the famous
14th-century clock chiming the quarter hour, when four wooden knights emerge
and joust. We continued through the quire and the eastern end of the church
and then up into the stunning chapterhouse, with its gorgeous 14th-century
ribbed ceiling, a predecessor of true fan vaulting.

Leaving the complex, we wandered back to the car and drove over to Bristol
in search of dinner. After strolling across Queen Square--the largest true
square in Europe and somewhat reminiscent of Harvard Yard--we sat by the
harbor to enjoy the sunset for a bit and then found pizza at a place called
"Bed." We got back to Cheddar just before nine and read for a bit before
turning in.

This morning we had another full English breakfast and then got on the
road. We drove through town, hoping to find the cheese store open, but it
wasn't. So we managed to spend the whole weekend in Cheddar without ever
having any of their cheese! :(

The drive back to London was fairly painless, except for some heavy traffic
just past Heathrow. I dropped Jason at home with our stuff so that he could
accept the grocery delivery and drove back over to King's Cross to drop of
the car and tube home.