Visit the cathedral. All sources agree that if you only have time for one thing to do in Gloucester, the cathedral is the thing.
The Fodor’s Guide calls it “magnificent” and says the church “consecrated in 1100 . . mirrors perfectly the slow growth of ecclesiastical taste and the development of the Perpendicular style.” The fan-vaulted roof of the 14th Century cloister, the guide says, is the finest in Europe. And as usual with any place where Harry Potter touched down, the guide notes that part of the building appears in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”
The “CityLife” guide from the Gloucester City Council (passed out at the media tour on Sept. 16 at Rugby School) says little about the cathedral, but Lucy Wright, manager of the Tourist Information Centre, told me that Edward II was buried in the cathedral, which she too recommended as the top attraction in her city.
But she could not stop there. She also recommended visiting the Gloucester Dock with its Victorian warehouses along the Gloucester-Sharpness Canal. Look at the tall ships, she said, and have a seat on a bench and watch the boats go by.
We are headed to Gloucester on Sunday for the USA-Japan game and hope to at least take a walk through the cathedral. Doesn’t sound as though this one is a YAC.
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