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| Tintagel Castle |
First stop at the Arthurian Centre, Slaughterbridge, Camelford. Nearby this place lies a sixth century inscribed stone, said to mark the spot where King Arthur met Mordred for the decisive battle of Camlann, which brought to an end the fellowship of the Round Table. The stone was down a ravine in a small river, very green, mossy wet and not really worth the entrance fee.
The fierce battle is said to have turned the small river red with the blood of slain men, whilst Arthur and Mordred fought a hand-to-hand battle across the river bridge. Arthur slew Mordred but had already received a fatal wound from Mordred's poisoned sword, which, in minutes, saw him stagger to his death. This is the legend.Morte de Arthur dead? the British believe he only sleeps ready to return and help Britain in its times of need. We had a good walk in the field to discover the stone, this being a good opportunity for David to play the Monty Python Knight for a while the knights that go nigh, nigh... etc.
After this short stop, we headed towards Boscastle to visit the Witchcraft Museum. Really nice place, funny people, not many witches around, stunning scenery. Unfortunately the town was the victim of a devastating flood last year and reconstruction is taking place everywhere. Next we are heading towards Tintagel.
Tintagel's Old Post Office is one of the few remaining picturesque buildings in the area. It is a small 14th century manor, tumble roofed and weathered by the centuries. After trying the first Cornish pasty (awful) nearby, next target was the Merlin Cave and Tintagel Castle. The Merlin Cave was another disappointment - no sign of Merlin and we definitely looked everywhere in the cave. The castle is a massive yet greatly impressive ruin, sea birds glide above, masses of flowers below, waves crash upon the rocks all along the headland which the castle is perched upon. Tintagel Castle, or a version of it is featured in the film Excaliber.
Finally we arrived in Newquay and spent there the next two nights, we did not like it ( terrible town, almost impossible to find a decent place to eat, full of rowdy drunks, only the British know how to become so drunk, etc.)
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| Eden Project |
Anyway, fantastic tulips all around the outdoor place.
Inside the Domes that look as though they came
from the Moon, was an entire small rainforest!
And as if we did not have enough of gardens, we've
stopped to see another one - forgot the name - there are so many: at each
round about you get an option for a different one at each exit!
In the late
afternoon, still hunted by the previous day nightmare about finding a
decent place to eat, we headed towards Falmouth.
The weather was tricky -
fog everywhere when we arrived but nice blue sky a couple of hours later.
Had a nice dinner in a small posh restaurant The owner said he could
maybe, just fit us in, he expected the place to be full within the hour,
by which time we promised to leave, but as wee did so, no sign of the
crowds, no wonder as we looked at the bill!
Then went back to Newquay in the late evening.
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| St. Ives marina |
We were glad we were checking out from our lousy hotel in Newquay, loaded the luggage in the car and went straight to Padstow.
Lovely place. At first, we spent at least two hours around the town, shops, etc., waiting for things to happened, then David and Ioana decided to go in a boat trip. Wise choice as the ride was good and they found that the festival is actually taking place the next day : on Monday. Apparently when the first falls on Sunday, being a totally pagan event they move it to the day after so the 2nd of May was to be the festival.
After spending some more time on blaming each other for improper trip management, the wise decision was to go in St. Ives, find the hotel and have a look around the town.
The hotel was great but challenging. The town was the best of all the places we've seen. Small painting shops everywhere, souvenir shops, beautiful bay. A short walk on the beach then I convinced everybody we should visit the Tate Modern. It was so very wrong. I realize I will never have the sophistication ( hypocrisy:)?) to appreciate the modern art. So did David and Ioana. David said the pictures were total crap.
The best part was the evening, when we ended up in a very popular pub THE YATCH and had a huge fish and chips dinner. David had drank many pints at this pub in the mid 1960's and was delighted it was still swinging.
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| 'Obby 'Oss Festival |
So, we left St. Ives in the morning for another go to see the 'Obby 'Osses in Padstow.
The town was much more animated than the day before. Lots of buzz, music, very crowded everywhere, great atmosphere. All the house doors were garnished with cut down green tree branches. After following the Obby's on the streets for a few hours, at the end at the main ceremony in the market, we had to think about returning home.
Same long journey back - everybody was knackered so we've postponed our ad-hoc idea to prolong the trip with another day at Stonehenge and Glastonbury. Maybe some other time.