A Week in Somerset #1 - A Trip to Wells

Hi there everyone 😀

Following my holiday cottage review of Courtyard Barn earlier this week, this is the first in a series of posts about the week we spent in Somerset back in November last year.

We awoke on our first full day to clear blue skies and bright sunshine so decided to make the most of the weather and head over to Wells. It was about a 20 minute drive from where we were staying and we got the best views ever of the cathedral and the Bishops Palace as we drove in, but sadly we couldn't find anywhere to pull in and capture it.

We did manage to find a sneaky little parking spot on the side of the road on the way in though, along side the walls to the grounds of the Bishops Palace Gardens.
We backtracked a little and found a footpath that took us around the back of the Palace and followed the walls and the moat ... which looked beautiful in the autumn sunshine ...

To the other side of us the views were pretty decent too ... looking out to open countryside with plenty of autumn leaves for kicking our way through ...
We rounded the corner of the moat for more spectacular views ...
... and plenty of local characters ...
Did I mention what a glorious day it was? Just look at that sky ...

The path took us round to the front entrance of The Bishops Palace, which was fairly busy and, whilst we had no plans to pay to visit, we did take a wander across the bridge and under the entrance arch, to be greeted by the sight of a huge swathe of bright red remembrance poppies ...

There was also a bit of a memorial exhibition in memory of those lost from the county on the
Somme ...

Before moving on from The Bishops Palace we did have a climb up onto the walls for some good views across the roofs of the town and across to the cathedral ...

... as well as being able to see plenty more of the local wildlife ...
The cathedral was our next port of call, but not before a visit to the cathedral cafe for lunch ...

Inside is pretty impressive with lots of beautiful features to admire ... the high vaulted roof ...

... stunning stained glass windows ...
... which, with the sunshine shining through, cast strange yet subtle colourful patterns across the stone walls ...
I think the bright sunshine outside definitely helped us to see the inside at its very best ...

It was beautiful from the outside too. We made our way around the sun dappled cloisters ...

... and into the peace and tranquility of the Camery Garden ...

Having thoroughly enjoyed exploring the cathedral we headed out into the main street to find a bustling traditional artisan market in full flow, against the backdrop of the Bishops Palace. It was a real treat ...

We wandered down the high street in search of the almshouses, which we found ...
It was time to start making our way back so we retraced our steps up the high street, not being able to resist a couple of stops for me along the way ...
We were heading for our last port of call ... and made our way back past the front of the cathedral and around the side to discover Vicars' Close. According to the cathedral guide it was completed in 1363 and is the only completely medieval street left in England.

It was designed as lodgings for the men of the cathedral choir, though I'm not sure who lives there now, and it is really striking, with a cobbled street and lots of identical looking cottages with uniform tall chimneys ...

It was time to make our way back to the car. We'd loved Wells, the weather had been fabulous and we'd walked our socks off.

We were chuffed that we'd put dinner in the slow cooker so headed back to Courtyard Barn for a nice relaxing evening before our big day out to Longleat the following day 😀

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