Tintagel

Oct. 10th, 2021 05:47 pm
purplecat: Galahad viewing the Holy Grail (Arthuriana)
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.


Two rocky cliffs with two bridges strung between them


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 )
purplecat: Hand Drawn picture of a Toy Cat (Default)

Mud statue of a sleeping woman covered in ivy and lichen with leafy plants as hair.
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).
purplecat: Hand Drawn picture of a Toy Cat (Default)

Lots of cyclists going fast on a road


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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