CORNWALL 2017: The Looe Fishing Port

If all I did was visit the fishing ports all around Cornwall, England, for the rest of my life, I'd be one happy camper.  Seriously.

I really love Google maps, don't you?!

The coastal fishing port of Looe is 25 miles from our St. Austell homebase.

The population is ca. 5K.

When you pass a shop window like this from the parking lot to the coast, you know what's coming.

THIS.

Just pay attention to both sides of this bridge across the River Looe.

As you see, we arrived while the tide was still mostly in.

It was raining off-n-on the entire day, and we didn't care.

But once on this side of the bridge, it felt like a good stopping point for lunch.

Maybe it was the "DO NOT FEED THE SEAGULLS" that made us hungry?

Pauline says it was the BEST fish-n-chips she had ever eaten.  So fresh.

I'll take her word for it because it was, indeed, excellent.

It was also a delight to sit by the window and look out on the Looe world.

When we came out from the pub, this is what we saw.

Just give it an hour or two and look what happens to the tide!

We KNOW it in our heads...but to SEE it is another thing altogether.

Think about all that money spent on these boats!

I think I'd want a berthing dock for my investment, too, at low tide...every day.

See what I mean about wanting to see this the rest of my life?

We walked along the quay towards the sea where the river was still mostly full.

We were short of eyes...looking towards the sea and back towards the bridge.

Both sides of the river!
[BTW, did you know the Brits say towards and the Americans say toward?
So why does it sound normal for me to use the British English?  HA!]

THIS on our walk back to the bridge!

We then walked across the bridge (top) to the other side (bottom)....

and then back to where we began the day, but now at low tide.

To there and back again with myriad impressions.

It doesn't take much to fill our cups, as you know by now!

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?

The Alkmaar Trip and Vicinity

So, after all those weathervanes and gable stones (last post), here's the first day of our overnighter a couple weekends ago when we Seized the Weather!

Just to refresh the geography, we drove from South Holland, where we live,

to North Holland, the province of Amsterdam, as you see.

Alkmaar is about 62 miles north of Gorinchem (our city).

But first, about 4 miles SW of Alkmaar, Astrid wanted to stop in Heiloo.

This is the chapel on the property where her dad died on 8 March 1981, 34 years ago.

Astrid had never been back since, so this was a bit like staring the tiger in the eye.

His last 10 years were spent here, sick and apart from his family, dying at age 61.

She faced the tiger and unleashed her pent-up tears.

And I got to see the place I had heard about for years.

From Heiloo we drove the short distance to Alkmaar, known for its cheese market.

(The tourist attraction itself is only on Fridays, in season, from 10-12:30, 

something I had seen years ago in my past life.)

Impressions, you know.

As we walked into city center, the icons and sights became familiar.

But as often happens, we were ready first for koffie break!

Remember, the weather was glorious, so we actually sat outside in the sun (50-60 F).

As I've said on Facebook, the apple pie with whipped cream is NOT dessert to the Dutch.

THEN we went to the very spot of the world-famous cheese market.

Can't you just imagine the hustle and bustle of those days of yore, right on the canal.

The building is the cheese-weighing house, with the cheese museum on the 2 upper floors.

Because it was Sunday, out of season, nothing was open.
But there was plenty to see as we stood on the bridge opposite the weigh house.
We weren't the only ones taking advantage of the good weather.

Not far from city center is the Molen van Piet from 1769,
one of the most picturesque Dutch windmills you'll ever see because of it's location on the canal.

 But a bit farther out from city center were other windmills, just as colorful....


...and turning (some of them).
I was especially entranced by the juxtaposition of the wind turbines in the background,
turning the opposite direction (Dutch windmills turn counter-clockwise).

Back in the car, we headed north from Alkmaar to Schagen
on our way to our hotel in Callantsoog, on the North Sea.
You know me, snapping pics all along the way, sometimes without a clue what I'm seeing,
like that lookout tower (?) in the middle of nowhere.

Then Astrid gave me my education about the stolp farmhouses we started seeing everywhere.
Stolp = cover/cap (like the cover over a butter dish).
As a farmhouse, the stolp refers to the roof and its square-based pyramid cover.

It so happens there is a bridge in Sint Maartensbrug, 5 miles from Schagen,
that is a skeleton of such a stolp farmhouse.

We had to see it, of course, and get inside it's inner structures.
How very clever for someone to think that up!


Sometimes you have to see to believe!

Once we made it to Schagen, it was time to eat our mid-day meal,
directly across from the Grote Kerk on the market square.

By now you know that we buy 2 different lunch items and split them,
accompanied by a really good beer...which happened to be from Texel, this time,
the island just north of there where Astrid spent many a year visiting.
(You may remember that we spent 3 days there in October, 2011.)

And because we like to do it, we treated ourselves to a scoop of ice cream afterwards,
to last until we reached our hotel in Callantsoog for the night, 7 miles to the coast from Schagen.

How's that for a spur-of-the-moment trip to capitalize on good weather!
Coming up is the next day, driving back home along the North Sea coast.

Bradford on Avon, England

If I told you I'm nearing the end of our England trip from May, would you believe me?  HA!

Well, Lisl and Chris know us better than just about anyone and took us to all the right places...this day, to Bradford on Avon.  Strap on your seatbelts!

But first, on the way, we stopped off to see the White Horse at Bratton Camp.

You can see a peek of it in the bottom-left image above.

And there she is, bigger than life on the side of the hill.

It's believed to have been cut into the hillside in the 16th century!

Astrid climbed down to take a picture of the horse's eye.

What a way to start the day!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Straightaway from there, we drove 2 miles to the priory church in Edington....

 To be specific, the Priory Church of St. Mary, St Katharine and All Saints, Edington!

It's from 1352.

The sense of history is palpable, don't you think?

I always want first to see the nave...and then the details.

You know how the organ and pulpit are important to me because of Mom and Dad.

That's an old Book of Common Prayer, from 1718!

The green man (top-right) is hidden...but we found it.

And remember, I'm collecting church cushions.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

By then, it was time for lunch in Bradford on Avon, 10 miles away.

A picnic lunch, right on the Kennet and Avon canal...

 ...right next to the narrowboats, many of which you can rent.

See what I mean about how our English friends know us.  It still amazes me.

 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Then we started walking (and playing) all over Bradford on Avon. 

This Barton Farm Country Park reminds me of an open-air museum.

It's where the Saxon Tithe Barn is from the 14th century, also known as Priory Barn.

The barn is empty of tithes now but is worth seeing for the wooden vaults alone.

From there we could view the medieval stone Barton packhorse bridge, crossing the River Avon.

As we walked around, we came across several Asian painters at the landmarks,
like the Holy Trinity Church from 1150. Later I wished I had asked who they were!

I had no idea we were climbing up to the top of the city till we got there.

The overview was spectacular.

And yes, that's the more famous Town Bridge (bottom-right).

Impressions.  Always impressions.

Near the Town Bridge we saw two more churches, one right after the other.

 First was the St. Thomas More catholic church in the old town hall.

You can see how modern it looks, converted on the second floor of the building in the 1950s.

But my Hart & Soul are with these older churches, as you'd guess.

This is the Saxon Church of St Laurence, perhaps as early as 700, if not the 10th century.

You can sit there with Lisl and just be amazed.

 All that AND weathervanes.

And flowers everywhere, in May....

...and I do mean everywhere.

Remember that Chris calls Astrid his Little Sis.  I call Lisl my Big Sis.

(All from meeting on the internet, as Astrid would say!)

It doesn't get much better than this, except that it does, when we go next to Bristol....