Today was a nice kinda slow day. We had a relaxing lazy morning at the house. Catching up on photos and doing a bit of laundry before heading out. We decided to head to Gloucester Cathedral and Sudley Castle today. Gloucester Cathedral is not only beautiful but nerd points it was used in the filming of Harry Potter. Due to the Easter Holiday there were limited tours on going at the Cathedral today. We were in time for the 2:30 Bell Tower tour that took us to the top of the Cathedral and told us the history of the bells and the building of the Cathedral. We were a bit early so we were able to walk around the inside and outside of the beautiful building. 

It was again a beautiful day and we sat outside for a while enjoying the sunshine. Of course we had to have the token silly sunglasses picture. 

We walked around inside a bit more enjoying the stained glass work and beautiful features of the grand cathedral before climbing the 265 stairs to the top of the bell tower. 

Our tour guide for the tour was awesome. He had retired and then decided to be a guide for the last 17 years. We learned all about the history of the bells and how to ring the bells. It's apparently quite challenging and there is some serious math involved.  We learned about how the main bell in the tour was actually cast in the church yard and installed while the tower was being built. I have read Ken Follet's pillars of the earth several times. It's a great book about the building of one of the great Cathedrals. It was very cool to see the inner workings and how they built these massive buildings so long ago. There was one original beam that was holding up part of the bell tower from when it was originally built. The tree to make the beam had to have been at least 250 years old to have been that big. Basically it was a tiny acorn growing in the nearby forest when the cathedral was started to then make its way to be part of the structure and is still there today. 

We kept climbing after hearing the big bell chime 3 and had beautiful view from atop the bell tower over Gloucester. It was a bit hazy today but still lovely. 

Once we got back down to the bottom of the narrow 265 steps we realized that it was quite late in the day and that Sudley Castle was going to be closed. Paul felt really bad that we didn't get to go so to make it up to me he took me on a scenic ride home and we got to see a field of the cutest baby lambs. They were so many of them and so bouncy.. there is a few videos at the end.. so cute!!!! The mom's all had numbers spray painted on them and the babies matched so they could tell who belonged to who. 

We headed back to town to go out for dinner and drinks with some Garret and Kim some of Pauls cricket team.. A relaxing and beautiful day.. Off to Stonehenge tomorrow.