CORNWALL 2017: Tintagel Castle

Of all the places we saw and things we did this trip to Cornwall, visiting the Tintagel Castle on the north coast was the most memorable.

First off, here's Cornwall at the southern end of England.

The distance from the St. Austell area to Tintagel is 39 km., so not that far away.

After parking on a gorgeous, sunny day, we walked through the village of Tintagel.

With a population of only 2K +/- people, it is still one of the most-visited places in Britain.

And to whet our appetite for the connected legend of King Arthur,

we stopped and had our fun along the way to the rocky headland on the Atlantic coast.

This is King Arthur's Hall, originally the headquarters of the Order of the Fellowship 

of the Knights of the Round Table, used now as a Masonic hall.

Don't you love this stuff!

But THIS is the spot on the coast that was occupied from the late Roman period, 

becoming a thriving Dark Age settlement and port.  In the 12th century, 

Geoffrey of Monmouth named it as the legendary site of Arthur's conception and birth.

Richard, Earl of Cornwall, built his castle here during the 1230s.
The bridge at the bottom, #5, is what takes you over into another world.

Leaving Pauline and Chris in the village to fend for themselves, Astrid and I went off on our own.

We were flanked high on the left by the Tintagel Church and on the right by the Camelot Castle hotel.

The road took us down and down and down to the Atlantic Ocean.
I must go down to the sea again...

Once passing the information center, we came to The Haven, where we began our tour.

OMG.  What is it about the sea.  The big water!

Here at the cove, The Haven, is Merlin's Cave, on the left..

It's huge!  See how tiny the people are?

And all this part of the site is free.

We could have stayed there forever but we were not there to see Merlin's Cave.

We were there to walk the island amongst the ruins of history!

So from the shore we had to start climbing up and up and up to the bridge that would take us over.

At that point, the bridge, we had to pay our entrance fee for the island,

after which we climbed up yet again.  This is not a place for the weak of heart or limb.

At the top, the doorway took us into the other world...

of ruins and vistas and imagination.

Look how Mother Earth grows where she can, seemingly oblivious to history and legend.

How do you explain the vastness of the place!

You can close your eyes and picture the island courtyard and Great Hall.

It felt like we were forever climbing, this time to the northern ruins.

We knew the statue of Gallos was at the most northern tip of the island...

and there we saw him, all 8 feet of him.

I thought it was Merlin but have read that it is Gallos, the Cornish word for "power."

I'm now confused, but we fell in love with him, whoever he is.

Apparently not everyone is impressed but he was one of our biggest highlights and thrills.

From Gallos we walked to the southern cliffs of the island, looking back to Tintagel church,

while walking back down to the courtyard and Great Hall.

Bronze artifacts with their write-ups educated us along the way.

When we got to the doorway through which we would climb back down to cross the bridge again,

we left behind a world of fantasy and legend I'll never forget.  

And now all I want to do is watch all those King Arthur movies again!

My favorite is The Mists of Avalon but First Knight comes close behind.
Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin, Pendragon...so many characters sustain the King Arthur legend!

I wonder, of course, if you have your own favorite movie/story?

Castle Het Nijenhuis in Heino, NL

If I told you this is a post whose images have languished in my archives since 29 June 2014, would you believe me?  Let's just say I never found my Round Tuit!  HA!

But, yes, we started using our annual Museum Cards on any and every museum we could find, just because.  And this one was a doozy.

This is Castle Het Nijenhuis, located between Wijhe and Heino, 138 km NE of us.

It's one of those castles with a moat, around and in which you can walk.

Throughout the course of the day, we did just that.

First, we turned left at the entrance and entered the gardens.

What a great time of the year to visit!

You know by now that the Dutch love their statues and art sculptures.

Sometimes the wackier the better?

Of course, I was most interested in Mother Nature's "sculptures."

Turning right from the gardens (we're moving clockwise around the castle),

we found two fun interactive displays.  This one gives you pause, as you see.

And to the right of it, we had fun playing together with this monstrosity.

Who thinks these things up?

When we passed this bower, I wondered where the bridge led,

but it wasn't where our path around the castle took us.  Hmmm.

Instead, we followed behind the castle through the woods...with art still everywhere.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses...."  HA!  I couldn't resist.

By now we were ready to cross the moat to the eastern side of the castle where,

yes, more sculptures/artwork were to be seen.

At this point, we're really talking crazy and wacky...and H U G E.

(Look at the size of those women top-center!)

The piece I loved the most was this "conglomeration" in miniature.

Look at all the detail.  I'm sure there's a link about it somewhere (Astrid???).

Other artwork around the castle was a bit more austere.

But as we rounded the corner back to the entrance, it was wacky again.

Still, gotta love the color!

By then, we were ready to walk inside, ready for...whatever.

The "whatever" was an exhibition of "subsidized art" midst the castle furnishings.

Can you imagine someone doing this in your home?

Of course, your own valued pieces are still on display.

But...then there's that wacky piece again, almost like a desecration?

Or maybe more like a laugh?!  If you can't take a joke?

Back outside, at the moat, Mother Nature calmed me down....

...as did a bit of respite from the castles café.

As some of you know, Astrid and I aren't real museum people, but with our annual cards,

we are getting our education in places we might not otherwise see.

When you get to throw in a castle, why not!

A City, a Monastery, and a Castle

Believe it or not, I'm almost finished with the Vasse trip from that second week in December...all 4 days and 3 nights of it.  One more post to go after this.

Today's post is 3 places/visits that could be separate posts unto themselves but make more sense put together into a mish-mash of left-overs (?) from the main events of our trip.

For instance, on our way to Vasse, NL, we knew we'd be too early for checking into our hotel, and so decided to stop in Ootmarsum first, just 6 km outside of Vasse in the Twente region of the Overijssel province of eastern Netherlands...just before entering Germany.

Remember that Astrid and I prefer the back-roads and boonies of this wee country.

So the tiny towns we bump into along the way are the ones we most love to visit.

Look at the charm of this place of less than 5K in population.

Astrid loves to do the research on what we'll see when we travel.

What she found out about this town was that it had S T A T U E S.

Everywhere!  Even surrounding the church.

The statue it's probably most known for is the "Poaskearls" (Easter Men),

referring to an intriguing Easter ritual involving young, single men, which you can read here.

Another famous statue is of this girl who also tops the sign markers throughout the town.

I'm sure she has a name/title and story...which I'm still trying to find.

Surely we missed scads of other statues, but these were of our short walk around city center.

ADDENDUM:  Astrid did some research and found out that this is Sjalotje = Little Onion.
The onion is the symbol for the carnival in Ootmarsum, being pulled from the ground.

You know how I love to "collect" these things:

sundials, gable stones, niches, hanging signs, weathervanes...

And, oh yes, our koffie breaks!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

On the day that we visited the splendid watermill in Denekamp, we drove from there to visit the next two places of this post.  As you know, no moss grows under our feet!

First, we drove to Nordhorn, Germany, approx. 10 km away, to see the monastery there.

It was obvious we had crossed over the border into Germany by the German flag on the signs.

That's part of the fun of traveling out in the boonies!

The Frenswegen monastery was founded in 1394.

Nowadays it appears to be used as a place of study or retreat,

and is where I found my "star of wonder" for Christmas.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

By now, the afternoon shadows were lengthening, but we knew we could make it in time to the Bentheim castle in Bad Bentheim, Germany, 18 km from the monastery.

We parked across the street from the half-timbered structure...

...and on the way to the castle bumped into this delightful pyramid carousel,

so typical of German decorations during the Christmas season.

I couldn't resist taking a video of it.
(Did you spot Astrid in her red coat?)

But it was the Bentheim castle, from the 11th century, we were there to see,
(along with a fun group of men), right around the corner.

It was magnificent, even without paying to enter the buildings.

It was enough for us to see the architecture...the courtyards, walls, gates.

And as so often happens on such days after we've seen enough, we said to each other,
"It's time to go home," which in this case was back to our Vasse hotel, 36 km away.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

What's left of this Vasse trip is a side trip to Tecklenburg, Germany,
to meet up with dear friends Philine and Mechtild.