UK Tourist & Leisure Attractions - Somerset

Here we are then at the holiday cottage we rented in Langport in Somerset all ready for our week's West Country holiday exploring the area's attractions.

On the 1st day we headed to the nearby Clarks Village shopping outlet in Street, mainly to buy some discount tickets at the TIC for Cheddar Gorge later in the week.

Mike tried some male bonding with a gorilla outside the Tourist Information Centre (TIC) in Street's Clarks Village!  Dunno what the gorilla thought but it was beating its chest - gulp! - so we legged it to...

...Glastonbury, just up the road from Street.  In the centre of town is the newly (2005) restored Market Cross monument, a reminder of Glastonbury's medieval past.  Check out our Glastonbury video.

We found some wonderful areas in Glastonbury, full of New Age type shops selling arts, crafts, gifts, crystals, herbs and such like.  Then we had a coffee...

...in a peaceful little courtyard at the Glastonbury Experience; here there were places full of candles and incense and some had little waterfalls running inside.

We explored the fascinating myths and legends that this area of Somerset, and particularly Glastonbury, is famous for with a look round its many psychic, mystic, druid, witchcraft and pagan type shops all with tons of books available on the subject.  Ooo ar!

Safely back in Langport, in the evening we enjoyed a delicious Indian meal at the Cardamom Indian Restaurant in town (video clip) where we piled up our plates.  The Cardamom Restaurant didn't look much from the outside (inset) but the food was wonderful!

Day two in Somerset and... rain... so we took off to the Fleet Air Arm Experience at RNAS Yeovilton to tour the Naval Aviation Museum.  The first area we visited was the Leading Edge Interactives with lots of buttons to press to learn all about how aircraft fly.

The Fleet Air Arm Museum consisted of four large halls containing military aircraft designed for use on aircraft carriers.  Here's the route through to the naval aviation development Hall 1; there was also a section on the Falklands War and an 'Island' experience.

Another picture in the bag, this one of a fearsome looking missile with a montage of war heroes behind.  Particularly fascinating was the 'between the wars' exhibit, relating what life was like during this period.

This Supermarine Walrus seaplane was interesting at Yeovilton's Fleet Air Arm Museum, we had a peek in the cockpit and thought it all looked rather basic, cramped and uncomfortable!  Moving on...

...to the World War II Hall 2 where we saw many aircraft had wings that folded to take up less room.  Fleet Air Arm is a working base (RNAS Yeovilton) and we took a peek out from the Airfield Viewing Area and observed military type guys training on helicopters.

After doing the awesome Aircraft Carrier Flightdeck (experienced a take off!) and 'Island' experience (behind the scenes on board!) in Hall 3, we emerged into yet another fascinating hall dominated by Concorde, yes, a real one!

We walked up inside the length of Concorde to the flight deck.  Mike was disappointed he couldn't take it for a quick spin round Somerset, still we did have a go on the SuperX flight simulator!
Fleet Air Arm Museum cost £10 on our visit.
Somerset related websites are in our UK tourist resources section.

However, he found an aircraft he could have a go on, but it had no wings!  See our Fleet Air Arm video.  Aircraft also in Hall 4 included a Sea Harrier, Handley Page HP115 and Westland Wyvern TF1.

Next page we visit Brean Down and West Somerset Railway on our West Country holiday >>>