| Week Ending September 7th |
| This year's Kite Festival was almost a washout. The Kite Festival was scheduled for the weekend of September 2 & 3 at the same area that the Balloon Festival was held a couple weeks ago. We had a major storm on Saturday with the rain persisting all day and wind, lots of wind. There wasn't a chance that anybody could have gotten a kite in the air. By early Sunday morning the storm hadn't moved on. But, the forecast called for clearing by noon. About 10:30 the drizzly rain stopped and it started to dry out. After lunch we thought we could wander over to Ashton Court and see if anything was going on. The old manor house is about a mile and a half from the flat as the crow flies. I had told Nancy that the kites would be at the same site as the Balloons. There is a fine view of the city from the Estate. |
| The problem was when we got to the Balloon area there was no sight of any kites. The wind was gusting such that in the unexposed places we were almost blown over. We could hear a public address system somewhere further up the hill, though. We asked a returning family if the Kite Festive had been cancelled - No, it's further up the hill, they said. The Ashton Estate has a herd of deer - not sure why, but they do. As we climbed the hill we came across the herd. Cute little guys. |
| This is about the same view of the city that is shown at the beginning of this page. You can get some idea how much further up the hill we had to climb |
| We climbed the hill clear to its top and there in a meadow was the Kite Festival. I was utterly amazed; hundreds of people had turned out for the kites. There were four different flying areas set up. Two were for registered participants and two for people who just wanted to fly their own kites. And, There were vendors and food booths, of course. |
| The wind was blowing like crazy, so I was surprised that anybody could keep the larger kites up. Even the most stable of designs were moving about uncontrollably and there was a lot of kites that got tangled with its neighbor. Most of the larger kites were adding drogues (like the cone on the white "man Kite") to try and stabilize the kites. And, a lot of them weren't even put up - too windy. The hilltop venue was a lot further than we had planned and so by the time we got home we were pretty well used up. Nancy figured we did at least 5 miles. We had only been home for a short time when it started to rain - again. Tuesday we went to the city of Wells with John and Eve. Wells is unique because it is the smallest city in England. To qualify as a city, a town must have a cathedral. Wells has a Cathedral. Not that we needed to see another Cathedral, but the Wells Cathedral is particularly spectacular, http://www.wellscathedral.org.uk |
| The front of the Cathedral was covered with an impressive gallery of medieval sculptures and concealed within the front facade were holes shaped like megaphones, through which the choir would sing. The cloisters were impressive because they still have their glass windows. Of all the cathedrals we've seen, this is the only one with its glass. One other feature of Wells is its clocks. There was a sundial, a clock on the north wall that had little men that banged on bells to tell the time and a rather nice clock inside the nave, that every fifteen minutes, had knights jousting. All in all Wells was a nice visit. Thursday we're off to Berlin to visit Martina and her family for the weekend. When we get home, we're starting to pack and get ready to head home to California. |
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