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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.
( More pictures under the cut )
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.
( More pictures under the cut )The Lost Gardens of Heligan
Sep. 8th, 2021 05:05 pm
The Mud Maiden of Heligan is apparently the first of a sequence of Green Lady sculptures in Cornwall. We met another at the Eden Project.
I've always wanted to go to the Lost Gardens of Heligan. This is 90% marketing - I would have been a lot less interested to go to Heligan Gardens. However, it still sounded like an interesting garden to go to. We didn't go last time we were in Cornwall since it wasn't necessarily terribly friendly for a 5 year old, but it was the one thing I was determined to get to this year.
Despite the fact the 5 year old is just about to go to university, she sulked round the first part of the garden then revealed she hadn't had breakfast (a trick we had foolishly forgotten from Snowdonia) and then looked disappointed at the, frankly disappointing, food options available. However fortunately the gardens had a infinite re-entry the same day policy and the cottage was only 25 minutes away, so we took the offspring back the cottage and then returned.
( Picspam under the cut )I'm glad we went, as posh gardens go (and frankly the UK has a lot of such things), its a good'un with several imaginative bits, including a wildlife only area with a hide overlooking it (I'm not a big bird watcher but in the 5 or so minutes we were there I saw blue tits at a feeder, dragonflies and a pheasant).
Tour of Britain
Sep. 7th, 2021 04:50 pm
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 )Some Photos of the Forth Bridge(s)
Aug. 30th, 2020 04:56 pm
This was as close as I got to the bridges on foot. About five and a bit miles east of our cottage.
This was taken when I ran in the other direction early one morning and then turned back.
This is Blackness Castle in the distance - again on an early morning run when I headed away from the bridges and then turned back. Blackness Castle was about a mile from where we were staying.
We reached Scarborough Castle!
Aug. 2nd, 2019 08:38 pm
( More under the cut )
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.
The book claimed that this leg of the walk was 12 miles, but my Garmin said it was nearly 15 miles and unless we were really going a lot slower than normal then 15 miles seems more plausible than 12. So I'm going to put this down as 15 miles/24 km.
( Pictures under the Cut )
Scarborough North Bay which B. (who often came here as a child) informs me is the posh bit.
( Pictures under the Cut )Scarborough North Bay which B. (who often came here as a child) informs me is the posh bit.
Guisborough
Jul. 29th, 2019 07:02 pm
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.
( A couple more pictures under the cut )Ridgeway Day 3
Aug. 8th, 2018 09:36 pm14.5 miles (somewhat to our surprise since it was the shortest section - but we carried on to Avebury at the end and we weren't suicidal enough to take the shortest route via the main road so there was a bit of a detour through East and West Kennet before we ended up at one of the avenues leading into Avebury).
( More Under the Cut )
( A Digression into B&Bs )
( More Under the Cut )( A Digression into B&Bs )
Ridgeway Day 1
Aug. 6th, 2018 05:01 pm19.5 miles (give or take) in seven and a half hours. The Ridgeway has far fewer interesting Roman Forts with attached tea rooms and the direction of travel is hugely obvious so we lost hardly any time to either sight-seeing or consulting the map. As a result our guesstimate of the time it would take us to do today's walk turned out to be over-pessimistic.
My feet were complaining slightly suspiciously at about 12 miles, so I aggressively applied compeed plasters and they seem to be fine now. So 20 miles and no blisters.
Most of the day looked like this.
( More pictures under the cut )
My feet were complaining slightly suspiciously at about 12 miles, so I aggressively applied compeed plasters and they seem to be fine now. So 20 miles and no blisters.
Most of the day looked like this.
( More pictures under the cut )Hadrian's Wall, Day 1
Aug. 2nd, 2017 08:25 pm
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.
Hadrian's Wall, Day 0
Aug. 1st, 2017 09:54 pm
Staying in a Guest House at Whitley Bay which appears to be mostly under construction (Whitley Bay, not the Guest House). Spanish City (of Dire Straits, Tunnel of Love fame) seems to be mostly gone but it looks like regeneration is in progress. We had a nice locally brewed beer before dinner in an excellent restaurant.
Tomorrow we get the Metro to Wallsend and then the walking starts...
The Museo di Storia Naturale
Jun. 16th, 2014 05:37 pmI 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.
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.
