Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Essentials
GETTING THERE Connections to Glastonbury are awkward using public trans-
portation. No direct train service runs to Glastonbury. You can, however, take a train
to Bristol Temple Meads (trip time is 1 3 4 hr. from London Paddington, costing around
£59 for a round-trip), where you can catch bus no. 376 to Glastonbury. Buses run
twice an hour from this station, half of them direct and half requiring a change in
Wells; journey time to Glastonbury is around 1 1 4 hours. See www.firstgroup.com/
ukbus for timetables.
If you're driving from London, take the M4 west, and then cut south on the A4,
via Bath, to Glastonbury.
VISITOR INFORMATION The Tourist Information Centre is at the Tribu-
nal, 9 High Street ( &   01458/832954; www.glastonburytic.co.uk). It's open Octo-
ber through March, Sunday to Thursday 10am to 4pm, Friday and Saturday 10am to
4:30pm; and April through September, Sunday to Thursday 10am to 5pm, Friday and
Saturday till 5:30pm.
SPECIAL EVENTS Every June the place really comes alive for Europe's most
feted outdoor music event, the iconic Glastonbury Festival . It's been run-
ning since 1970, and always attracts the leading names from the rock and indie music
scene, with occasional surprise guests. If you want tickets, you'll need to plan early:
Register for festival information at www.glastonburyregistration.co.uk about a
year ahead of time. There is no festival in 2012.
Exploring Glastonbury
In recent decades, this ancient Christian town has had its spirituality spiced up
with some New Age ingredients: The High Street is lined with psychic readers,
hippie bookstores, street flautists, tarot parlors, and all things hemp. The best
views across the Somerset Levels are to be had after a short, sharp climb up 155-m
(509-ft.) Glastonbury Tor . Topped by 15th-century St. Michael's Tower, the
Tor (meaning “hill”) is visible for miles around, looming above the town. In the
same building as the Tourist Information Centre (see above) is the Lake Village
Museum ( &   01458/832954 ). A small collection attempts to recreate the life of
the Iron Age settlers in the surrounding Somerset Levels—at the time mostly
marshy flatlands. Admission is £2.50 adults, £1 seniors and children. The museum
opens April to September daily 10am to 5pm, and October to March Monday to
Saturday 10am to 4pm.
Glastonbury Abbey ABBEY Though no more than a handsome ruined sanc-
tuary today, Glastonbury Abbey was once one of the wealthiest and most prestigious
monasteries in England. It provides Glastonbury's claim to historical greatness, an
assertion augmented by legendary links to such figures as Joseph of Arimathea, King
Arthur, and Queen Guinevere. It's also the reason there's a town here at all: Glaston-
bury largely grew up to service its abbey.
Joseph, so it goes, erected a church of wattle and daub in Glastonbury. (The town,
in fact, may have had the oldest Christian church in England, as excavations have
shown.) At one point, the saint is said to have leaned against his staff, which was
immediately transformed into a fully blossoming tree; a cutting alleged to have sur-
vived from the Holy Thorn still blooms each Christmas and Easter. Some historians
trace this particular story back to Tudor times. A large Benedictine Abbey of St.
Mary grew out of that early wattle church. St. Dunstan, who was born in nearby
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