The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
Wandering Through Wells
The projects of the day are 1) to see a bit of the city of Wells, 2) to do a bit of grocery shopping, and 3) to see if I can
find socks! Spoiler alert: we managed to accomplish all three! (I'm not sure why that should seem like such a big win, but
it does!) I guess I am re-learning not to take anything for granted.
Our genial hostess for these few days is Caroline Wood, who fits my mental picture of the "nice English lady". She has a lovely soft energy, loves tending her garden and having afternoon tea with friends under the trees. Her property is impressively tidy. She's been most anxious to make our stay a pleasant one without injecting herself into it -- truly a fine skill. As we were heading out for Wells today (at the crack of noon!), she offered some great suggestions on what to see and a clue that the most convenient place to park was in the Waitrose supermarket parking lot. I do so love being able to tap into local knowledge!
For some reason, when we set the GPS for Wells, it took us down narrow back lanes through the farm country, past some places that looked inviting ... and at least one that didn't! Fortunately, we didn't run into many cars/trucks/tractors coming the other way! It was a good reminder of how closely this area is still tied to agriculture.
The first stop was for a pub lunch. The first pub we passed was the Globe Inn which fit the bill
perfectly. I didn's ask the age of the building but it has obviously been there a couple of centuries. The bar was full of
locals watching the Rugby World Cup matches. That event started in England yesterday and runs for the next few weeks. We
found a quiet room in the back, watched a bit of the games and had our major meal of the day -- fish and chips for me and a
massive hand-formed burger for Margene. A pint of local ale and all was well in the world.
My only observation on the place as a restaurant is that waiting half an hour for our meals to arrive after placing the food
order (at the bar, of course!) seemed unnecessarily slow. We hadn't ordered anything that should have taken that long to
prepare. Is that just my American sense of timing or is it just the way things are done around here? Would sales have been
higher if they sorted this out ... and do they care?
Properly full, we headed toward the main attractions -- the Cathedral, Bishop's Palace, and the Saturday market. A sporting goods shop on the High Street had the socks I was looking for, Margene bought yet another scarf (the second in two days) and we wandered across the moat to the Bishop's Palace, only to realize that we only had an hour left on our paid parking at the supermarket to had to make a choice between the Palace and the Cathedral.
Wells is the smallest city in England. Lest that sounds odd, to be considered a city a place must
have a cathedral and Wells has that covered big time. They prohibit taking photographs inside the building unless you purchase
a permit, so I tapped the Internet for shots of some of what we saw. They're probably better pictures than I could have taken
anyway!
The most notable feature of the Wells Cathedral is the scissors truss in the nave, a clever feature added in the 1200s
when they noticed that part of the church starting to settle. While I am not a devotee of religious art or architecture, I am
always impressed with the craftsmanship and engineering these buildings represent. The effect is moving and subtle clues like
how stone stairs have been worn away by countless footsteps over the centuries gives a real sense of place and history.
© 2015 Restaurant Doctor
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