CORNWALL 2017: The St. Mawgan and St. Eval Parish Churches

Believe it or not, this is my last Cornwall  2017 post before I go back to Venice and Verona.  Or did you think I had also finished our Italy trip????  HA!

As you may recall, we had off-n-on rain our entire time in Cornwall except for that beautiful Sunday in Tintagel (King Arthur's legendary birthplace) and Boscastle.  But that didn't stop us from getting out to see something of interest.  And because Pauline knows we love the parish churches, she picked two that are geographically close to each other.

As you can see from the inset, we drove to the north coast of Cornwall, 

approximately 17 miles from our St. Austell home base.

We first went to Mawgan Porth beach where we got the lay of the land...

and the Atlantic Ocean!

(It's also where we ate our lunch that day.)

From the beach we drove 2 miles to visit our first parish church of the day...in the rain.

This is the St. Mawgan in Pydar parish church from the 13th century.

Usually the churchyards are every bit as interesting to me as the church interiors.

There's an old thorn tree associated with the legends of Joseph of Arimathea...

a memorial to the 10 men who froze to death while at sea in 1846 (center-right)...

and a lantern cross carved around 1420 (top-left and bottom-right).

Look at how the gravestones circle the church, from front to back!

It was a Monday when we were there, but there were bell ringers...practicing?

Wouldn't we all love to ring the bells!

We did indeed feel welcomed, even though much of the space was dark, without the lights on.

The font is 15th century, Norman style, made of Pentewan stone.

The pulpit is from 1533, Dad.  And I know you'd love to play that wee organ, Mom.

And should any of us require a kneeler, there are plenty to go around.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

From St. Mawgan we drove the 3 miles to the St. Eval parish church, also from the 13th century.

It happens to sit out in the middle of nowhere, visible for miles around,

surrounded by the disused RAF (Royal Air Force) runways of the WWII command airfield.

See the sundial over the entrance?  "We shall Die."

Besides the church itself, 21 war graves are maintained here by the RAF.

The RAF ties to this church after the war are very strong, as you'd imagine.
It was their church while stationed nearby.

It was another dark church that rainy afternoon, but you can get the gist of it.

The bench end (top-left) is from the mid-16th century.

The "plain" font is also from the Norman times.

Pauline is always on the lookout for green men in these old churches.

These are from the high-up ceiling in bad camera light, but, again, you get the gist.

Besides, Pauline often tells us green men don't like being photographed. :)

Back down on terra firma, there is "World Peace!"

And a reminder that the RAF is covering our back.

In fact, Pauline's dad, from Squadron 612 (top-right), used the base back in the war.

Thank you!

And thus ends this 6-day stint in a very special place:  CORNWALL, England.

We'll never forget it.

BELGIUM 2016: Two Abbeys

Not that we planned it, mind you, but we really did see two Christmas markets, two basilicas, and two abbeys on our trip to Leuven, Belgium, a month ago.  All in the space of 5 days.

There are actually 4 abbeys in Leuven and, after some wee research, we picked one of them to visit.  While there, we discovered nothing was open for visitors but were directed to another one 33 km away.  That's how we ended up visiting two!

1.  Park Abbey, Leuven, Belgium, founded in 1129.

We chose Park Abbey because of its 104 acres of "contemplation, tranquility, and silence."

In fact, we first walked around the complex, viewing the abbey from across the fish pond.

It was a frosty, nippy morning, perfect for "contemplation, tranquility, and silence."

The entrance into the abbey complex is an invitation.

St. Norbert's Gate, next to the cemetery, beckoned us towards the church...

which rises above the complex...but, sadly, which wasn't open that day.

So, because we love cemeteries, we chose not to be disappointed.

We learn a lot about a people and culture by wandering their cemeteries.

65% of Belgium is Christian, with 58% of them Roman Catholic.

"Holy Mary, Mother of God."

It was after the cemetery when we met the lady who told us about another abbey we'd surely like 

which has a lovely café and gift shop, only 33 km. away.  So off we went.

2.  Averbode Abbey, Diest, Belgium, founded in 1134.

From where we parked, we had to walk through a lovely forest to reach the abbey. 

It really was a day for "contemplation, tranquility, and silence."

Another entrance...another invitation.

And once inside the complex, there was the church, finished in 1672!

I always wonder what my preacher dad would think if this were his parish,

complete with sundial.

This time the church was open.

And as so often happens, we had to pass through the choir to reach the altar.

If you ever sang in the church choir (as I did), can you imagine singing here?
My mother was my church choir director...so I wonder what she would think of this.

Or having two organs for accompaniment (both of which she could play, I'm sure)?

Impressions.  Impressions.  Impressions.

We even spotted a trompe-lóeil painting (top-left).

After the church (no cemetery was visible but surely there was one?), 

were walked outside the complex around the perimeter to find the gift shop and café.
But it was not our day for that because it was Monday, and both were closed.

However, we still got the best of both worlds at two different abbeys in Belgium:

a cemetery and an abbey church.  What more could we possibly need!

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.

Open Monument Day: Hoeven Abbey/Bovendonk

Remember how I mentioned (last post) that every September there is an Open Monument Day in the Netherlands when over 4,000 historic buildings and sites are open to the public free of charge?  Actually, that day, Saturday, has now become the weekend.  And because of that, we got to go somewhere on Sunday.

The village of Hoeven (pop. 6,500) is only 60 km from where we live here in Gorinchem, so even when we drive the backroads, you're talking about less than an hour's drive.  And you know us, we like to stop to see whatever is of interest along the way.

Like this city hall in Klundert, built in 1621, for instance.

Astrid LOVES doing the research to find these gems for our cameras!

It doesn't take long to walk around such a specimen and ooh and aah.

And since Dutch weddings are done at city hall, can you imagine getting married there?

While I'm at it, we saw other stuff, coming and going,

including that colossal basilica in the middle of nowhere in Oudenbosch (remember?),
just 15 km from Klundert.

But the weathervanes still take the cake for me.  I c a n n o t  resist them.

(To be honest, I don't think Astrid can either!)

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

But now, the Hoeven Abbey, which was our goal for the day!  Here's an overhead view which I found on the internet:

You enter at the bottom.

 The ground was purchased in 1282 by the abbey of Cistercienser of St. Bernard.

From then till now, it lost its Roman Catholic church function, became Protestant,

and now is the Bovendonk conference, hotel, exhibition and event center.  

 Because it's used as a conference center, it's not open to the general public,

which is why we jumped at visiting it on Open Monument Day.

Step inside and be amazed.

It was hard to know where to start, even at the very entrance.

We knew we wanted to see the chapel, of course, and eat lunch,

but the chapel wasn't open yet (recent service) and we weren't ready for lunch, so we walked around.

When we entered the courtyard, it all took my breath away.

Smack dab in front of us was the chapel...and the lunch tables...

and the chapel weathervanes....

And the cloisters clock, by architect Pierre Cuypers!
Gebruik den Tijd eer hij Ontvlied (old Dutch): 
"Use the time before it flies away."

Yup.

The cloisters.  The cloisters.

Okay, so they're modern now but couldn't you be a nun/monk there?

You'd at least want to go to a seminar, right?!

By then it was time for LUNCH.

As you know, many abbeys make their own beer, but because this is no longer an abbey per se,

this Magister beer is made for it by the Scheldebrouwerij in Belgium.

We are loving trying out new beers, can you tell?

On that wonderful note, totally satisfied, the chapel was ready for viewing!

Have you noticed how ornate the floors are throughout the entire abbey,

including the chapel!

I could imagine sitting at a service here.

As we left the complex, the same way we entered, the statue out front had new meaning for me.

I made up my own story for it:  Praise and Hallelujah.

A few yards further, near the gate, Mother Nature, too, was singing her praise.

It was that kind of day.

 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

As an FYI, Astrid and I fly to Atlanta on Wednesday for our annual 3-week trip to see my family and friends.  We're down to counting hours....!  :)