England- Glastonbury Who Knew there was soemwhere more groovey thn Santa Cruz!?

The words above say it all about Glastonbury, England

We flew from Amsterdam to London. When we got off the plane I had a moment of sadness realizing this would be our last country. The next plane trip would take us back to the US and the trip will be that much closer to the end. As I write this it is a week until we get on that last international plane flight. We are all wondering what being home will be like. We each have a long list of things we can't wait to do: have a chai, play disc golf, go to yoga class, cook our own food in our own kitchen, get DVDs to watch together, fix up Hogwarts, (you guess which of us wants to do what), but I think we also each have some apprehension. This has been an incredible year full of experiences. What will it be like to be home staying in one place? How will it be to not be together everyday all day long? Of course having a break from each other sounds great, but it will be sad too, to not have the time together we have had this year. And how do we not just fall back into our old lives but find time to reflect and absorb the experience we just had? Where will this experience lead? More on this later for now back to the trip!

To get from Amsterdam to Glastonbury England we took a taxi, to a plane, to an airport shuttle, to a train, to a bus, to another bus. It was a long travel day. But we arrived at our friends Helen and Aiden's house in Glastonbury in the early evening. We met them in Panama about four or five years ago and traveled together for a week. Anika was nine and Aiden was five when they met. Now they are nine and thirteen. They still got along great as we did with Helen. They have a lovely large home in a pretty part of Eastern England. Glastonbury is even more groovy than Santa Cruz if you can believe it. You can have your aura or your colon cleansed, work with a Shaman, take yoga classes, get in touch with your inner goddess and participate in any kind of therapy or spiritual quest you can imagine. We felt right at home. Unlike Santa Cruz the town is very old with some buildings and the Abbey ruins dating back to the 1400s or earlier.

Glastonbury pub from 1400s

We were lucky that Helen could take some time off to show us around. We walked the main street the first day and popped in to part take in a "Buddhist "based energy rest. You lie down on this special lounge chair hold these crystal and copper Buddhist power objects and listen to their guru (who claims to be the next of incarnation of the Buddha) chant invocations to you. Dave lasted the longest. Turns out this guy is former truck driver who has been discredited by the Dali Lama and lives in the US. Welcome to Glastonbury.

Bath

One day Dave and I went to Bath which may be my favorite town in England. It feels like you are in a movie and Jane Austin characters are going to walk around the corner in period dress. We visited the Abbey which was beautiful and interesting in itself. But it also had a very striking art exhibit of abstract fabric art pieces paired with elaborate calligraphy each representing a part of the Jesus story by a local woman. I suppose this is devotional art but I found it really striking. I wish I could have gotten good photos of them but I didn't. To much glass glare.

Bath Abbey

Angles climbing to heaven on Bath Abbey. One of the head priests dreamed of them and had them added to the front of the Abbey.

We then took a bus tour, one of those double decker things. Unlike our last try at this in Buenos Aries where the passengers almost revolted this one was excellent. The live guide was witty, knowledgeable funny and knew how to pace things. We got a good feel for the town and noted what we wanted to get back to the most. We easily could have spent more than a day here. After lunch we went to the Roman baths. Get it Bath, baths, that's why the city has its name. This is the only natural hot water in England and has been in use since before the Romans got here but they elevated it to an art. The museum that encompasses the baths is really good integrating modern interactive technologies and the ancient ruins seamlessly. It leaves you felling like you went back in time to when the place was thriving. But it was a bit crowded and we were ready to leave when we did.

Two other tourists listening to audio tours and looking out at the baths

The main Bath at the Roman Baths

You know we had to try the hot water. The thermal spa was good but Baden Baden was better. The highlights here were the roof top bath with views over the town and the steam rooms. There are four steams rooms each with different aroma therapy scents. We enjoyed moving from one to another and cooling off in between in the showers or on the roof terrace. This was a bathing suit place, all coed and very modern in design. It was fun but couldn't beat the elegant pampered feeling we got in Baden Baden.

Front of the Spa

Metal work sculpture on an old fountain in Bath

Helen took us to Wells where she grew up, right down the road from Glastonbury. The big attraction here is the cathedral which is impressive. We went inside and admired the architecture, walked the grounds a bit. One thing we are awed by here, as with else where in Europe, is how old things are and how well preserved. People here take it totally for granted. But when you pass a still functioning pub lets say and it was built in the 1400s it just seems like, well, they built things to last. And they must not have earthquakes. And they must want to preserve the past because even though there are many parts of Europe where things were bombed to dust during WW2 there are still lots of preserved places in every country we have been to.

Wells Cathedral

Passage way

Scissor arches, an unusual feature

We did some things with Helen we never would have found on our own. One of the most interesting was attending a presentation and talk at Ebenezer Chapel. This funky former chapel is now filled with mis-matched sofas, art and artifacts of all kids ( from paintings in every style to stuffed animal heads) and hosts a variety of offerings. We saw a documentary made for people in rural Uganda and Malawi to help them deal with the effects of climate change on their traditional agricultural practices. This was shown on a new pedal powered portable projector set up ( Dave helped supply the energy for the evening) that is going to be used to bring the movie to rural areas without electricity. This was inspiring in many ways. I am glad there are people on the planet trying to help each other and being so creative about it.

View from Glastonbury Tor

One day we climbed the Tor the ancient and current focal point of cosmic energy in Glastonbury. Fantastic views of the area from up here. From there we headed to the Chalice of the spring which has Christian and Arthurian history going way back. That was followed by the Rural Life museum which gave a us a better idea of how people used to live in the area before and during the industrial revolution. And before it became the hub of new age-ness it is now.

The Tor

Part of Chalice Spring

Stone carving of a winged lion on Rural Life Museum barn

This is a beautiful old barn inside and out at the Rural Life Museum

The same action packed day we also attended the Orchestra on the Green festival at the Glastonbury Abby, a day and night of music outside on the lovely grounds of the Glastonbury Abbey, another place steeped in history. During the day we went to the talk tent and listened to some TED like talks on a variety of subjects including the relationship between math and music, collecting traditional folks songs from fringe populations and this improvised presentation I can't even describe by a man from South Africa who uses music to promote social justice. The highlight of the evening performance was Tubular Bells performed live. If it hadn't been raining on and off all day it would have been perfect.

Someof the Abbey ruins on the Abbey grounds

Maybe our best day with Helen and Aiden was when we went to Lyme Regis and looked for fossils. Some people may remember this place form the movie the French Luitentent's Woman. This area was made famous by Mary Anning the first woman paleontologist who found a complete dinosaur skeleton here that rocked the world's understanding of evolution. We found stuff too and enjoyed one of our only days with some real sun.

Even the light poles reflect what can be found at Lyme Regis

Large slabs of rock like this cover part of the beach and are strewn with fossils

Dave and Aiden digging for fossils.

View from the fossil beach back toward the town

I was also fascinated by the beach huts that you can rent or even own so you can be at the beach and have some protection as well as privacy. Why don't we have these in Northern CA? We also went and had real fish and chips in West Bay nearby. Two big treats in one fun day.

Older couple in their hut. They were in the exact same postion when we passed by later in the day!

Beach huts and...

More beach huts

Price list for renting a beach hut

After six nights with Helen and Aiden we were off to North Wales. But little did we know we would be back on the South coast of England sooner than we thought.

Anika and Adien after a long day of fossil hunting

Helen trying not to be blown away at West Bay beach

After six nights it was time to say goodbye and head for North Wales and my cousin Almut.