I love Glastonbury, too. A couple of locals there have told me the place has a sort of glamour to it, and that even when you think you're past all that and know the place well, it can still work this glamour on you...that would certainly explain all the new age stuff! Although a lot of the hippie types seem fairly grounded and real once you get to know them; many of these folks are simply into alternative healthy lifestyles (there are more organic food shops per square mile than perhaps anywhere else in the world outside Berkeley, California or Ithaca, New York!)

Some of the shops are really great, actually. I dislike Nag Champa incense so I have to overlook the fact that most of the shops burn this crap incessantly...but I am very fond of Glastonbury Romantics (the poster shop in the alley with the Assembly Rooms), Starchild (same location, a wonderful place that makes herbal incenses and oils), The Goddess and the Green Man (nice jewelry etc.), and the used book shop on the High Street. There is also a great bakery (Burns the Bread) and some excellent vegetarian restaurants.

I enjoy walking in the area, it's really beautiful. I love the old orchard at the base of the Tor, though a lot of the trees have been cut down recently (I think some of them fell in a storm) and there was a nasty patch of Japanese knotweed there last summer (this non-indigenous thug is ruining woodland in the Northeast US, too; it resembles a reddish bamboo and grows very quickly and entangles in the root systems of trees, sucking up all their water).

I have an opportunity to live in Glastonbury for six months next winter, taking care of a friend's B&B while she goes on a healing course...I hope it works out, as this would be such a wonderful thing. I can't think of a better place to escape city life for a time than Glastonbury...I was there for ten days this past January and it was extremely rejuvenating. Mind you, it gets a bit annoying during the height of the summer tourist season!