I've gotta put Days 3 and 4 together as I haven't had access to a computer since Wednesday. Anyway, Sal(Yvette) and I set off mid morning Thursday and visited Even Swindon, also known as Rodbourne, where my mate Graeme was born. We took pix of his old Junior School...Even Swindon Junior School, which is over 100 years old, and is due to be demolished soon!!! much to the chagrin of the locals who have had relatives going there since it was build, they said it should be a listed building! Following that short visit, we ventured off to find Avebury and the Stone Circles there. On the way we passed the White Horse and the Long Barrow near Kennet, but we couldn't take the walk to the Long Barrow due to me ankles
Never mind, we took lots of shots of the Stones and the Sheep (tons of sheep!) grazing at Avebury, and we also visited Silbury Hill and saw a Crop Circle in the distance
witcombe.sbc.edu/earthmysteries/EMAvebury.html ...Sally was still determined as ever to spot the Golden Wheatfields before they were harvested.
We carried on our journey towards our destination, Glastonbury, via Stonehenge, and visited Woodhenge which is close by...
www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/455 we were a little disappointed to find that, after paying £2 car parking fees across the road from Stonehenge, which we were told would be refunded upon admission, the cost of actually going beyond the high fence in front of Stonehenge it would cost us a further £5.95 each!!! We felt this was a touch expensive, as you still cannot go anywhere near the stones anymore, so we joined the other paupers..lol..and took piccies from the side of the road instead...
We finally got onto the final leg of our 3rd day's journey, and after being only slightly delayed in a traffic jam just outside of Glastonbury, we reached the Down Tor Guest House
www.downtor.com just in time for tea. What a beautiful guest house it was...pity they could only put us up for 1 nite. The room we had was the Opal Flat, named after the Opal crystal which they had in a display box in the flat. Although we were only staying for bed and breakfast, there was a fully fitted kitchen with a proper cooker and microwave, toaster and fridge etc!! The room was lovely with little cherubim all over and chandelier lighting and wall lights which were controlled by dimmer switch. Had we been staying for 3 days or more, the staff would have been able to offer us the use of a jacuzzi (I think that's what they call it!) and various healing sessions, from Reiki, to Ear Cupping! We ate our evening meal on the High Street at a little (expensive but special) cafe called The Hundred Monkeys, before searching for accommodation for Friday night, after learning that the one and only Joss Stone was going to be performing at the Glastonbury Abbey 10th Anniversary Musical Extravaganza!!!! I was well excited, Sally didn't know who she was, but took my word for it that it would be well worth seeing. We spent the rest of the evening hoping that tickets would still be available, and that we would find somewhere to sleep after the event.
And so...onto Day 4! Sal ate her breakfast quickly and shot off down to the town centre and the Tourist Information Centre, to find out about the Tickets and Accommodation situation. She managed to get both...fortunately, and I was overwhelmed when she returned to the guest house with the news. She said the guest house opened at 12, and suggested we go there and relax till teatime in order to be ready for the show, but I was determined to make the most of our day in Glastonbury. Our guest house was situated at the foot of the Tor, so we were within minutes of reaching the climb. We decided that we would have a go at getting to the top, and took a nice, steady climb up the pathways...I was a little afraid, as it looked very steep in places, but we both finally reached the top and took pictures of the Tower and of the surrounding countryside and hills...wonderful views from up there...very windy though...we stayed there for a short time, then climbed down and visited the Museum of Somerset Rural Life...which was cute. There were displays of many of the tools which the local vets used for the farm animals, a farmhouse kitchen, and reconstructions of fishing and cheese making amongst others. Outside a man was demonstrating how to make Rag Rugs...me and Sally took our turns too, I was hopeless as usual!!! Just the thought of using needles in any sort of stitching work turns me into a jellyfish!!! LOL. We finished our visit there with a Ploughman's Lunch in their very inexpensive cafe. That was delicious too...made with locally produced cheese.
Sally was becoming anxious of the time, because she really wanted to rest up before the concert, so we quickly made our way back to the High Street where I took a few pictures of St. John's Church, we called in at a 2nd hand clothes shop...but it was 2nd hand designer gear, so too expensive for us...some great hippy stuff there tho! After that we returned to the Tourist Information Centre, to ask about the time we could be admitted to the concert in the evening, and I spotted that there was yet another tiny museum attached to the T.I!!!! LOL...I couldn't resist persuading Sally to come into it with me...it was all about the Glastonbury Lake Village People
www.glastonbury.co.uk/visitors_guide/history.htm ...as apparently, much of Glastonbury (Avalon) was under water for years, and was just interrupted with little isles...the Zodiac Isles...so people used to occupy these isles and lived there for years. The foundations of these villages were discovered in the 19th Century and were excavated.
www.glastonburytic.co.uk/glasarea.phpSo, after (by coincidence) having our guest house call the Tourist Info Centre, while we were there! to see if we still wanted our accommodation, as we hadn't arrived at 12, I promised Sally that this would be the final place we would visit in Glastonbury, before returning for the concert...she was relieved!!!
We made our way to our Guest house in Street, Firside, and rested a short time before catching a cab back to Glastonbury to join the queue for the concert at 5.30pm. I had had vain hopes of being seated very close to the stage, but as with all of these events, that is rarely what occurs. We queued only for a short time, then we joined the snake of people crossing the abbey grounds until the stage was in sight...it felt like such a long walk as my feet were very tired, but it was only a few minutes really! We got a good spot...not close to the stage, but this didn't matter as there were very large 'daytime' screens at either side of the stage so our vision was not impaired at all. The newspapers described this event as more civilised than the usual Glastonbury Festival, as the people all brought their own chairs, tables and food and drink, and in some cases that meant Champagne and strawberries! One family had put together 3 tables and had it laid out like a great big buffet for the evening. There were the usual burger stalls and others too, but we didn't need them...we brough a quiche each and joined at a 4 litre carton of Cider...silly Sally thought we should have brought 8 litres but she learned her lesson when she drank a little too much of the 4 litres we took, and felt sick...teehee...
Joss Stone was due to appear at about 9.20 but she was supported by 2 acts...I will attempt to remember their names...the first was a guy from Ireland...Vance Joy(I think), and he has his own website http://www.joysnoise.com), if the link doesn't work it's cos I've copied it from memory! He sang blues numbers, and in some was reminiscent of Van Morrison...his first EP is due out shortly. The next act was Emmilliana Torriono!!! (Bet that is definitely spelt incorrectly!!!), the lady from Iceland who sang the Gollum Song in LOTR...she was great too, very mellow....I didn't sit thru all of her act, but listened to her in the background as I took shots of Glastonbury Abbey Ruins...lovely stuff.
Joss Stone needs no introduction, of course...she was absolutely brilliant!!! Sally loved her and wants some of her music now...she sang her hits, including Right to Be Wrong...and danced around and joked with the audience as she belted out her soul/blues numbers. I hoped that she might perform her tribute to Janis Joplin, but unfortunately this wasn't to be, but it didn't spoil the show for me...the evening ended with a long, long, fireworks display...absolutely fantastic!!!
So, the end of the evening, and we were waiting on Magdalene Street, opposite the Abbey, trying our best to flag down any taxi heading to Street, and waiting for the local bus which didn't show up! Obviously there was the usual collection of stoned young men, falling all over the place...nearly knocking Sally off her feet...and Sally was very concerned because we hadn't rung the guest house to say we could be later home than expected. That didn't worry me too much as they had said they were okay till around 1am anyway...we finally managed to sneak into the queue for the free Shuttle Bus which dropped us off in Street's Clarks Village, but when we got there we didn't have a clue how to get back to our guest house!!! I must take a second to tell you about the bus driver...he was fab! Really really funny, he spoke with a very strong Somerset accent, and was telling jokes throughout the journey...I loved the way he asked "Did any of you travel here with I?" and his use of the word he instead of him, and other local terminology...he made the inconvenience of waiting in the crowds and all that came afterwards worth it!!! We panicked and started asking tons of people if they were either going that way or knew the street at all...nobody did, and there were no taxis around. Finally we got some directions off one or two people and set off walking...we had been told by our landlady that it should only take us about 5/10 minutes to walk back to the guest house, but the people giving us directions said it would be more like half an hour...or more likely 2 hours in my state!!! Anyway, we were soon joined by a group of drunken local lads who were more than willing to show us directions, in all directions! LOL...by another coincidence (Sally is convinced it was God performing miracles), a car drew up just at that moment, and another guest at our guest house, and her daughter were lost too, looking for the guest house...she knew that we had been to the concert, as she had spoken to our landlady who had told her, and when she saw us with our portable chairs and heard us asking directions to Middle Grove, she confirmed that we were her fellow guests and invited us into her car for the remainder of our journey!!! We were sooo relieved. Now we could help each other, as we had just received some good directions, which we followed, and we could now travel comfortably. We still had to ask further directions as we approached the street we wanted, and we finally arrived back at 00.15 which wasn't too bad at all, as the concert had finished at around 11pm. So, that's what I can remember about yesterday and Thursday!!! Sal will fill you in with any missing bits, and hopefully I will be posting some pix on here to show you all!!! More tomorrow...
Just another link to Glastonbury-Isle of Avalon, so you can read all about it's glorious history!!!
www.isleofavalon.co.uk/avalon-history.html 
Never mind, we took lots of shots of the Stones and the Sheep (tons of sheep!) grazing at Avebury, and we also visited Silbury Hill and saw a Crop Circle in the distance 