This is the third and final part of My Glastonbury Adventure. The day comprised of visiting Glastonbury Abbey before heading off home. Here are the links for if you missed Day 2 – Cheesy Caves or Day 1 – A Drive and a Climb. I hope you enjoy this final part, My Glastonbury Adventure Day 3!
An Abbey And A Tour
The next morning we woke to have the same amazing breakfast as the day before, and the same terrible weather. We were up early, as we wanted to see Glastonbury Abbey before heading off home, so wanted to budget plenty of time! We asked the owners of the Little Orchard B&B if we could leave our car there, so we wouldn’t need to find parking in the town. They were more than happy to let us leave the car – a big relief!
So after the amazing breakfast we headed to the Abbey. We paid for the entrance and were told we had about 20 minutes until the next tour left. Obviously, we wanted to do the tour! So we spent the time looking around the displays in the entrance building. The entrance building has a kind of small museum too.
At the appointed time we headed to the area where the tour was to start from. The tour guide was in costume – I love how old places have tours in old traditional dress. At the start the guide went through the general history of the Abbey showing us bits in the little museum part. Then we headed outside. I won’t go through all of the tour, as that’d ruin it for those that go on it in the future. But I will tell you about bits I found interesting or stuck in my head!
We headed to the Lady’s Cathedral. The building around the door is very ornately carved. It has carved into it the story of the Nativity and pictures of daily life. The pictures of daily life are a little weird, as there are things you’d expect like farming. But then there is one that looks like a woman hitting a man… Domestic violence?
The crypt in the Lady’s Cathedral is next to a well. So the crypt flooded on many occasions! Inside would’ve once been more colourful. You can see the decorations, but they are very faded.
Back into the open and the guide told us how all the picnic benches are on top of grave sites. Not sure I’d be too comfortable eating there! He also should us the spot that is meant to be the tomb site of Queen Guinevere and King Arthur. However, this is not proven and very disputed, as it was destroyed during the Desolation of the Monasteries.
The tour finished and the guide advised us on building not to miss. The tour guide was very good and happy to answer questions.
A Mystery Solved
Me and Dave decided to have a walk around the grounds, as it was actually a fairly sizeable area. Walking around we came to the ‘Wildlife Area’. Here there is a badger set, obviously it being day the badgers weren’t out. The badgers had to actually be moved to this spot as their original set was near a wall and had caused part of the wall to collapse!
There were also some very pretty flowers, but I have no idea what they were! Further along we can to a duck pond and there was a duck and her ducklings on a bridge. They wouldn’t let us cross! Well, it’s more when we tried to cross mum got a bit stressy, so we didn’t want to upset her! Then there was also a fish pond. All the shops in the town selling duck food and fish food in small loose bags now made sense…
The Final Building
The last part left to explore at this point was the kitchen. This area was really fun. They had it all set up like an old working kitchen. There were loads of displays of herbs and different foods, bits you could smell and recipes. Lots of things to play with. I love displays that are more interactive and not just reading (even though I do like reading information…)
And that was the end of everything we needed to see in Glastonbury Abbey. Obviously we went for a nosey around the shop, be rude not to!
As we walked backed to the B&B to get the car the sun came out. A happy end to an adventure (although the plan to miss the traffic failed. We still got caught on the way home).
Want to visit Glastonbury and see the Abbey? Check out nearby accommodation on Tripadvisor!