Last of the Cornwall photos. We spent a day at Tintagel. Again we had visited this in 2009 but the Sparrow remembered nothing about it. She was enchanted and said she wished she'd bought her sketch book with her. She also liked Tintagel village which none of use recalled from 2009. It reminded me a bit of Glastonbury - clearly making the most of its Arthurian connection with souvenir shops at various price points, several with a bent towards the mystic.





The biggest change at Tintagel was the introduction of a new bridge (the upper one in the image above) and general improvement of access. It felt a lot more crowded to us, though whether that was because of the improved access or because we were visiting in September rather than May, it was hard to say.

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We had no idea that our visit to Cornwall coincided with the Tour of Britain cycle race. We observed, as we arrived on Friday evening, a lot of sign-posting warning of delays on the roads on the 5th. Investigation of the local newsletter in the cottage information pack revealed that Stage One of the Tour of Britain would be coming past the end of the road on Sunday. Careful deciphering of the Tour of Britain website left us with a 40 minute "best guess" window of when this would be happening. So we toddled up the road with some time to spare (because we weren't quite sure how far away the relevant cross-roads was). After about 40 minutes the Offspring got quite restless. Everyso often a team car would go past; or tow trucks (presumably to remove potential obstacles); or confused drivers. Eventually a procession of police motorcyclists came past all of whom were clearly enjoying themselves far too much, followed by "blink and you'll miss it" tons of cyclists then a stream of team cars that all got backed up on the corner.

I don't think the Offspring was that impressed.

( Pictures of local decorations )

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Scarborough from the Castle. It felt an interesting place. There were a lot more small quirky independent shops than you see in most high streets these days, and they were more inclined to be gaming shops, or second hand record stores, than aspirational middle-class boutiques*.


*I compare to Cheltenham, not that I object to fancy cheese shops and the like but it was refreshing to be reminded that there is a different way to be a small independent retailer.

Whitby


18 miles/30 km

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We are in Guisborough which is about half way around the Cleveland Way (yet again we are doing a long distance walk). It has a ruined priory. At the moment the weather is lovely, but the forecast is not good. We start walking tomorrow and I have hopes it won't be too wet, but Wednesday does not look good.

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15.5 miles today - most through yet more rolling chalky farmland.





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17 miles today, some nice bits but an awful lot of urban cycleway through the suburbs of Newcastle, which is nice enough for a while but becomes a bit dull after six or seven miles. I have also acquired blisters which is a bit of a blow and made particularly annoying by the fact that I've had these boots for years and not had trouble before. I blame my new socks.

I think the Museo di Storia Naturale deserves a post all of its own since it was the most unexpected treasure we visited in Venice. I picked it out of the guide book because it was listed as "good for children" and had some dinosaurs in it so I felt that it had pretty much something for all the family.

It took a bit of finding, once again much aided by Google maps and despite being in the guidebook it was obviously not part of the regular tourist trail. We mostly had the place to ourselves while the rest of Venice was not quite packed with people but well on the way to being so. All the labels were in Italian. However I'd been teaching myself Italian using the Duolingo app in my mobile phone* and B. knows a lot of natural history so between us we managed.

It is not a huge natural history collection but it has been presented spectacularly. Someone involved had, in particular, a real flair for lighting. Several of the rooms were also organised by collector rather than subject matter which was quite fun, giving you a sense of one man's interests. It also allowed them to play with having very traditional style display cases (though I strongly suspect even these were of modern design) in some rooms, with more modern presentations based around themes like flight or underwater in other rooms.

We embarrassed the little one by taking loads and loads of photos.

( Loads and Loads of Photos )

*interestingly the level of Italian I'd acquired proved to be well up to reading descriptions in museums, but less good for interacting with waiters. About halfway through our stay it suddenly gave me the word for the bill (il conto) which did makes things a lot easier.