Read my Wolverhampton travel logue here.

After a brief hiatus, I am back visiting the 27th city on my list: England’s smallest city or so they say: Wells.

You will find Wells in the county of Somerset 133 miles south west of London. Wells has a simple enough etymology. It takes its names from three holy wells or springs dedicated to Saint Andrew. Wells, being a cathedral city, has been a city since ancient times.

My journey to Wells began on the 07.57 Great Western railway from Paddington. This took me to Bath Spa. From here I would get the bus to Wells. Wells used to have two railway stations, but in the 1960’s they fell to the Beeching Axe – an effort to nationalise the trains.

Now if you want tor each Wells, you have to get the train to either Bath or Castle Cary and a bus from there. All very unnecessary. However, my journey to Bath was smooth. I arrived at 9.20 and I caught the 9.40 173 bus to Wells. You can use your contactless card to pay £3.

From here I went on a magical journey where I witnessed some of the Great British countryside. We went past swanky houses, cute colleges, farm land with animals galore – we also smelled that standard country smell – manure. Insert pictures. We also went down narrow country lanes and up and down windy hills. For part of the journey, we were stuck behind a learner driver.

I learned to drive in London which is said to be one of the most difficult places to learn to drive, but I wouldn’t much fancy learning to driving in the countryside where you need to navigate huge tractors and narrow roads. Anyway, the bus driver and the other passengers were very respectful and patient of the learner. If this were London, there would be 4 letter words and middle-finger salutes. Maybe that was just my experience of learning to drive in London.

I think the bus journey was something like twenty miles with well over sixty stops. Thankfully we didn’t stop at them all. Some had quite sensible names like the Granary or the Britannia Arms. Others were called Bus Shelter or Chip Shop. I think they were running out of ideas toward the end of the journey.

Anyway, an hour and a half later, I arrived in Wells

I was greeted by a charming and clean town centre.

It made a good first impression. Just like when I arrived in Hereford or Ely. It had just gone eleven by this time and I was keen on finding some lunch. However, I always start my trips by looking around the city cathedral, so this was my first trip.

But I was disappointed to see they charged a £15 entry fee. That was more expensive than Winchester. Too expensive for me. Plus the nearby museum was closed. Disaster. But don’t fear, I spied another church on the horizon, so I headed there while scoping out places for lunch. I saw a few cafes charging on average of £8-15, which seemed to be the standard. I also saw an old sign showing where beggars would collect money. Nowadays we just mumble out apologies to make ourselves feel better about not giving them any money. Or is that just me?

I also went charity shopping where I treated myself to some new socks. I always seem to go through socks really quickly.

Anyway, at half eleven I reached the church – St Cuthbert’s Parish Church. Unlike the cathedral, it was free to enter.

Of course, it wasn’t as fancy as the cathedral, but neither did it need to be. It ha da little chapel, a children’s play area and plants for sale. What else do you need?

Well, somewhere for lunch would have been nice. Instead, I found a nerd shop where I was hoping to buy some Pokemon cards for my little nephew’s birthday, but alas they were sold out. But I did find the Queen’s Street Deli which had a lovely selection of baked goods, cheeses, sandwiches as well as other local produce. A good place for lunch. For £8.04 I bought a turkey, brie and cranberry sandwich, some bred pudding and a slice of goat’s cheese. I was treating myself again. Lol.

I returned to St Cuthbert’s to eat this.

Upon leaving the church, I saw a warning about pigeons as well as aliens harvesting the sun. Which aliens I wonder? Nordics? Insectoids? Avians?

From here, I headed to the nearby Bishop’s Palace by the cathedral. I’m guessing this is where the bishop used to live. I can only guess as I was too cheap to pay the £15 admission fee, but at least I got some good photos of the moat and some swans. By now it was half one and I realised my cheapskate ways had backfired on me.

Thankfully, I could do a very nice country walk starting from the palace.

I walked through these fields into some nearby woods and it was lovely. England is giving through a heatwave and it has been HOT – thankfully it wasn’t too hot today.

Anyway, I would have quite happily continued walking through the forest, but then I saw a series of pentagrams painted on trees.

I didn’t much fancy being sacrificed to the devil, so I noped out of there, crossed the field and continued walking into the nearby Dulcote Village where I made friends with some locals. And by locals, I mean a whole herd of cows. I saw cows in Winchester, but they were too skittish to be petted. The ones in Worcester were braver. As were these ones. if anything they were too friendly. They kept drooling and spraying me with their cow slobber. All worth it to pet the cows I guess.

Alas I could only go on my walk for so long, before I had to turn back.

I returned to the city centre where my mind turned to dinner. I did a TGTG bag with the deli I bought lunch from. I was rather hoping for a big bag of pasties. Instead I got six cannoli and a loaf of fig bread. Don’t get me wrong, I love cannoli, but they’re not really suitable for dinner. I did another TGTG bag with a bakery-cum-greasy spoon and this has to be one of the best TGTG bags I’ve ever received – I got 4 bread rolls, 2 sausage rolls, a Cornish pasty, a loaf of bread and an iced finger. Way too much for just one person.

After a quick stop at Superdrug to buy some face masks #treatyoself and seeing a barber with an upside down sign

I returned once again to St Cuthbert’s Church to plan my next steps. My train home from Bath was at 19.43. I deliberately picked a later train to allow for the hour long bus journey.

Initially, I was planning to take the 17.34 174 bus, but as I had officially ran out of things to do and I didn’t fancy sitting in the church for two hours, I figured I would get the 16.28 174 bus to Bath and kill a couple hours there. At least that was the idea except 16.28 came and went, but no bus arrived. According the locals, the buses were often late. In my case, they didn’t come at all.

Instead, I took the 17.14 173 bus back to Bath. Yes, waiting around forty five minutes was annoying, but comparing my transfers here to Chelmsford, Stoke or the nightmare that was Worcester, things were far easier and more straightforward. I arrived in Bath at 18.36. I had an hour to kill before my train home, so I went to get a drink in the city’s Wetherspoons.

Except I couldn’t find it. Instead, I found the Bath river, Bath Abbey and some nicely decorated streets. I also found a homeless woman whom I was able to give away some of my TGTG baked goods. It was far too much for me.

Anyway, unlike my 174 bus, my train home was on time and I returned to Paddington by 21:00 hours.

Overall, I enjoyed Wells. Weird pentagrams aside, it was a gorgeous city situated in some spectacular countryside. The locals were super friendly, as were the cows. Yes, it was a little pricy and annoying to reach, but I would recommend making the journey at least once. It was the first of my nine remaining cities that I saved until last because of their cost, distance or difficulty reaching. Did I save the best until last? Maybe so. What city’s next? Let’s go to Yorkshire. Either Ripon or Bradford.