My day with Fletch

On Friday, Andrew and Christine went into London, so Fletch and I had the day to ourselves. I decided that we should take a trip to Glastonbury ... its only 40 miles away and the Glastonbury Abbey is supposed to be beautiful, plus its surrounded by a huge garden and dogs are allowed to walk through, as well as humans :) I also wanted to visit Glastonbury Tor which is a large hill on the edge of town; at the top is St. Michael's Tower which is the only remain of a 15th century church. Also, it is reputed to be King Arthurs' birthplace.

According to legend, King Arthur and his wife Guinevere are buried in the Abbey garden. Sometime during the Middle Ages a group of monks excavated the spot where they supposed the graves to be, and once they dug down seven feet they found a foot long lead cross that said (in latin), "Hic iacet sepultus inclitus rex arturius in insula avalonia", "Here lies buried the renowned King Arthur in the Isle of Avalon". Some smaller bones and long hair were found adjacent to the main grave, and these were assumed to belong to Guinevere. As a side note, the Isle of Avalon is the name used for Glastonbury in legend and other mythical stories because it was "where the sea met the land", back when the Bristol Channel covered more of England than it does now. A small plaque marks the spot that was excavated.





The other legend about Glastonbury Abbey is that after the Crucifixion of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea came to Britain carrying the Holy Grail (the chalice that Jesus drank from at the Last Supper). For safekeeping, Joseph is said to have buried the chalice in the ground just below Glastonbury Tor at the entrance to the Underworld. Years later, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table would make it their mission to find this Holy Grail.


So, enough about legend and myth ... on about our day! We left at noon, and I was mistaken in believing that it would take no time to get there - there was so much traffic on the highway (one lane) that we didn't get there until 2:00! Needless to say, Fletch was dying to get out of the car and finally go for the walk we had talked about. So, we made our way through the town to the Abbey. Once we were in we took the long route and walked around the entire garden including the duck pond (Fletch scared all the ducks away), and the fish pond (Fletch wanted to go in). We checked out the remains of the Abbey and also the site of King Arthur's supposed burial. I took several pictures, including some with the timer so that Fletch and I could both be in them!




One thing I didn't consider before travelling with Fletch for the day was what I was planning to do when I had to use the bathroom. This became a bit of an issue toward the end of our walk becuase I really had to go!! So, I found the bathrooms, which were a separate outdoor building, so that was good. I tied Fletch to a post and went in; now, I have to explain that the main door of the bathroom was propped open, and the distance between Fletch and my 'stall' was about 6 feet maximum! However, the minute I closed the door he started whining and crying and pretty much freaking out! I had to talk to him through the stall door to calm him down! Thankfully, no one else was around :) I've posted a picture of him standing outside, I was standing in the entrance to the stall, so you can see how close I was! What a mommy's boy :)


Anyway, after the bathroom incident, I decided that Fletch had had enough and it was probably better to just head home. Thinking I was smart, I decided to take an alternate route home so that it would be faster ... it wasn't! It still took us two hours to get home, but at least Fletch was more relaxed and was laying down most of the time. So, it was a fun day ... a little hard trying to walk around while carrying a camera, purse, pamphlet/map for the site, and bag of 'dog waste' AND walk a 100 lb. dog ... but the quality time together is what really mattered ;)



Team PM