England ENGLAND: Land's End and Tintagel
I know you all wanted photos, and I was all set to upload some, but no. The B&B's wifi is too slow for LJ's already slow uploading. Since the B&B is on the cathedral green in Wells, meaning I am looking at the front of the cathedral through my window, and it's also across the street from a great Indian restaurant, I forgive it.
It's been an up and down past few days. I've been missing Erik more now that I'm not in London, where there was too much art and Graham for much introspection.
Yesterday was lovely and sunny and I spent most of it at Land's End. You cannot go wrong with 270-odd degrees of ocean view. You can try, by building a mini-Pier-39 approach to it, but you cannot spoil it. Erik's ashes flew off into the West. We did not have a Big Lebowski moment because Land's End is surrounded by ocean on the south and west, and there was a strong southeasterly wind. But I thought about it. ;-)
A few days ago, Erik's dad Allen and stepbrother Steve scattered some ashes from the Inca bridge at Machu Picchu. You should watch the video on my FB page.
That afternoon I made it to Pendennis Castle in Falmouth with about an hour to look around. Pendennis was built by Henry VIII (personally), along with St. Mawes across the strait-which is called the Carrick Roads, somehow very Tolkien to me. Pendennis was hard for me. It never had a medieval or civilian life (in short, no women ever lived there), and without that, as it turns out, my enjoyment of castles was very much through Erik. He would get excited about the different defenses, and the crazy narrow spiral staircases, and I enjoyed that. So I really drew a blank. I'm willing to try again with Conwy Castle in Wales, because that's a genuine medieval castle where I think people had home lives (even though it was built by another, shall we say, less than pleasant king.)
Today I went to Tintagel Castle, which is not really a castle, but the ruins of 2 or 3 structures on an impressive lump of geography. Oh, and possibly King Arthur was conceived there. Not that there's, you know, evidence or anything. But it's a very beautiful place, with cliffs and caves and ruins, and 10 million stairs, many of them higher than my knees. Ugh. Roz and I were there in 1997, and I'd swear it's gained 200 feet in altitude since then. But I really will try to get the photo thing worked out, because it's stunning. I'm tired as anything, though.
So, Wells looks promising, and I am SO GLAD my main site to see tomorrow is a smooth, not too long, and above all flat, walk away.
It's been an up and down past few days. I've been missing Erik more now that I'm not in London, where there was too much art and Graham for much introspection.
Yesterday was lovely and sunny and I spent most of it at Land's End. You cannot go wrong with 270-odd degrees of ocean view. You can try, by building a mini-Pier-39 approach to it, but you cannot spoil it. Erik's ashes flew off into the West. We did not have a Big Lebowski moment because Land's End is surrounded by ocean on the south and west, and there was a strong southeasterly wind. But I thought about it. ;-)
A few days ago, Erik's dad Allen and stepbrother Steve scattered some ashes from the Inca bridge at Machu Picchu. You should watch the video on my FB page.
That afternoon I made it to Pendennis Castle in Falmouth with about an hour to look around. Pendennis was built by Henry VIII (personally), along with St. Mawes across the strait-which is called the Carrick Roads, somehow very Tolkien to me. Pendennis was hard for me. It never had a medieval or civilian life (in short, no women ever lived there), and without that, as it turns out, my enjoyment of castles was very much through Erik. He would get excited about the different defenses, and the crazy narrow spiral staircases, and I enjoyed that. So I really drew a blank. I'm willing to try again with Conwy Castle in Wales, because that's a genuine medieval castle where I think people had home lives (even though it was built by another, shall we say, less than pleasant king.)
Today I went to Tintagel Castle, which is not really a castle, but the ruins of 2 or 3 structures on an impressive lump of geography. Oh, and possibly King Arthur was conceived there. Not that there's, you know, evidence or anything. But it's a very beautiful place, with cliffs and caves and ruins, and 10 million stairs, many of them higher than my knees. Ugh. Roz and I were there in 1997, and I'd swear it's gained 200 feet in altitude since then. But I really will try to get the photo thing worked out, because it's stunning. I'm tired as anything, though.
So, Wells looks promising, and I am SO GLAD my main site to see tomorrow is a smooth, not too long, and above all flat, walk away.