Water runs through it....

Today my adventures led me to a tiny village in Somerset called Wells.  Wells is knows as the smallest city in England.  This tiny little city is full of history and grand buildings.  It also lives up to it's name of Wells with great amounts of water running through it from a natural spring.  When I hopped off the bus after my hour long ride to get there I was thrown straight into the market square that was alive with tons of stalls set up selling everything from vintage jewelry to seasoned bones labeled "spare body parts"  Nope that's not a joke....it was actually labeled "spare body parts".  I tried to get a photo but the stall owner kept standing right by it and I did't want to be that tourist.  I also was afraid he might try and explain it and I wasn't sure I wanted to know.  I had a bit of a wander around the market square then headed to the meeting point of my morning walking tour.  As we headed out the history of

Wells Cathedral

Wells began to unfold.  Our first stop was the Cathedral.  To arrive at it you must pass thorough penniless porch which is an archway created by the bishop for beggars to sit and ask for money.  Stepping out from under the pass through into Cathedral Green you can't help but be struck by this massive Cathedral.  It is so overwhelming but very beautiful.  The original building did not have the 2 top side towers....they were added later.  If you cover them up in the photo you can see what it looked like before which I think is much more beautiful but apparently they felt they needed the extra towers.  My favorite part about this cathedral was

Adam, Eve and the Apple

  the stories that it tells.  No really...it literally tells stories.  Not verbally obviously but through pictures.  If you look at the photo of the cathedral you can see that there are 3 levels.  At the top of the bottom level there are lots of openings.  Inside each of these openings is a picture describing a story in the bible.  If you start at the left of the Cathedral and work your way right carving by carving you would be basically reading the bible.  Because many people at this time couldn't read written word they would come and sit in front of the Cathedral for hours and "read" the bible.  Next time I think I don't have 5 minutes to sit down and read I will remember these people who would make hour long trips just to read the side of a cathedral.  One of my favorite carvings was the one you see in the photo.  It is Eve standing in front of Adam in the garden of Eden feeding him the apple with the snake watching just above their heads.  Pretty cool huh!  This Cathedral also contains the 2nd oldest working clock.  Just off the side of the Cathedral was a place called Vicars Close.  This is the oldest residential street still is use.  It originally housed priests of the church.  There is even a walkway leading straight from the front

Vicars Close

original building leading straight into the church so the priests did not have to be bothered by the debauchery of the world if they chose not to.  The big tall chimneys that you see in the photos were added a bit later when the boys choir was being housed here.  It was so that there was no smoke coming into the house to do any damage to the boys lovely singing voices.  I actually think these chimneys are what give this street it's real charm.  With out them it would look just like any other old village street.  The school that is connected to the cathedral that started in 900 is still going.  There were tons of kids running around in their uniforms.  The public bus in this town even does a special run to pick up all the kids and take them home....I know this because I was on that bus.  It wasn't as bad as you would imagine.  They were all quite well behaved for teenagers and every single one as they got off at their stop said Thank You to the bus driver.  Gotta love the manners!
As we left Vicars Close we walked around the corner and our guide had us stop in front of this skinny tall rock.  Random was my first thought but whatever....thought maybe it was a special landmark or something.  Our guide then asked for

Deal Sealed....lets shake on it.

 volunteers....ok,what is this rock gonna do that it needs volunteers for.  Now I know in the photo you can see the hole in the middle but we couldn't from where we were standing.  So, she gets her volunteers and the story goes like this.  Apparently back in the day farms would have rocks like this placed somewhere on them.  Say you have a few cows you are looking to sell and the farmer down the lane just happens to need them.  He comes on over and you guys make a deal on the sale of the cows.  Since this is a time before the common man was dealing in contracts but you wanted a little more security that the deal is final then just a statement....you use the rock.  Basically you and farmer down the lane stand on either side of the rock, stick your hands in the hole and shake on it through the center of the rock.  Deal Sealed...Cows sold!  I seriously want to know who came up with this.  Were there a bunch of farmers sitting around one

Palace Entrance

night sipping ale and said guys we should shake hands through a big hole in a rock when we make a deal.  I think the better explanation was some cheeky guy thought it would be a funny joke to do it once and it just kinda stuck.  Anyway, regardless of how it happened there it is...the deal sealing rock!
The final stop on the walking tour was the Princes Palace.  Oh ya, this one is legit...fortress wall around the entrance, full moat and drawbridge.  Don't forget about the huge swan...no palace is complete with out a huge swan.  Ok there is a reason for the swan...it's not just a cheesy decoration.  It was actually designed

Almshouse

for the Queens diamond jubilee last year and was a part of the celebration.  It's quite pretty up close but it does make the palace look a bit theme park-ish.  Anyway, aside from the swan it was quite pretty.  The interesting tid-bit of this palace is that there are real swans that live in the moat.  Now these swans have to eat right...how they get their food is the funny bit.  There is a small bell with a rope near the base of the fortress wall.  The swans just pull this rope to ring the bell and the gate keeper will bring out food for them.  Now that's what I call service.  Guess you gotta be a swan and live in a moat to get waited on.
The last thing I visited on my Wells adventure was the oldest almshouse in Somerset.  It is such a lovely building.  Looked just like a cute little cottage I would love to live in.  This little house was all the way at the other end of the town so I walked through town to get there.  Remember how I mentioned before that there is water from the natural spring flowing in this town well when I said flowing through town I meant it literally.  There are little channels along the road between where cars drive and the side walk.  Now this can make it a bit tricky since it would be quite easy to take a slight step towards the road off the sidewalk and Splash!  there goes your shoes into the water and you are stuck with soggy socks for the rest of the day.  I was quite cautious since soggy socks are something I despise.  I also feel lucky that my brother was not there with me because I feel as though the sibling instincts would have gotten the better of him (or me truth be told) and one of us would have ended up with out feet in the channel.  As I rode the bus home through the countryside I was grateful for this lovely day in this tiny village.