Day 6 - Caves, Trains and Abbeys, oh my!

Scones, wonderful scones! (Think ‘Food Glorious Food’ from Oliver, substitute scones and you’re good to go.) I won’t quite say that it was the height of my day to finally get my scone with clotted cream and jam, but I’m not sure I’d try denying it while hooked up to a lie-detector. Last year in Scotland (see blog at www.scottishadventures.blogspot.com) I was disappointed to find they didn’t clot their cream, but this year my results were way better. And not even at a fancy-schmancy tea shoppe, but in the snack bar at Clearwell Caves. I’m still in my happy place.

Oh, the caves? Ty had taken to picking up rocks everywhere, to the point that he’d yank our arms out of their sockets dropping suddenly while still holding our hands to shove two or three more into his pockets. We decided that if he was going to collect rocks, we’d turn him on to the good ones, minerals et. al. And so, we were off to Clearwell Caves because a) we thought he’d like them and b) they had a shop. The caves were interesting, all about mining, including backbreaking child labor and the free miners of Dean, who became so by blowing ‘thine enemy to bits…in his mercy’ – sorry, Monty Python moment – when they camped out in the Forest of Dean preparatory to mounting an attack. The skeleton on the wall wasn't put there to commemorate any hardship or death, but painted by some partying college students!

On to Perrygrove, where they have a small steam train and treasure hunt set up for children. We had to do the abbreviated version, since it was raining cats and dogs, but Ty had a good time scavenger-hunting clues to the box containing his treasure, which turned out to be chocolate coins, a pin and a balloon, then running around with the kids in treasure village.

Next was Glastonbury Abbey. There just aren’t words for the majesty and the beauty. The nearby tor was said to be the “island” of Avalon, surrounded at the time by water on nearly all sides. King Arthur was supposedly buried there. The basics can be read at http://www.glastonburyabbey.com/. Sadly, it was also one of the Catholic sanctuaries Henry VIII destroyed in his king-sized tantrum and determination to destroy the church that wouldn’t give him what he wanted – an annulment. Ty was livid that the king would destroy anything so beautiful and decided that he was a very bad man .

Glastonbury Abbey was remarkable not only for the peace and beauty, but because they went out of their way to do things for the kids. They had brass rubbings and an artifact scavenger hunt, where kids could find various objects in the museum and be rewarded with a pin of the Abbey. He also found some very nice girls (of course) to run around with while we chatted with the equally nice moms.

Happily, they had brass plates for adults as well and since my good husband had bought me a rubbing kit for my birthday, I went to town. It was nirvana.

Scones and Glastonbury Abbey all in one day. Life just doesn’t get much better.