My Arthurian/Austenesque Holidays
.... with a little bit of Doctor Who thrown in for good measure... :D
A few weeks ago I went on holiday and as I promised in my last entry, where you can find some Merlin location pics ( ghost-0106.livejournal.com/16619.html ) here are some loads of pictures I took back then!
As you might have noticed I like to give my holidays some sort of theme. This year it was inspired by the Arthurian legend and Jane Austen! :-)
ENJOY!!!
BEWARE!!!
Image-heavy beyound your imagination!!!
You dial-up? Don't go there! :D
The second day (after we had visited the Forest of Dean and Raglan Castle on our first day) we spent in Bath.
Beautiful city with lots of nice buildings like this one:
The Royal Crescent:
Behind the buildungs of the Royal Circus and away from the busy streets you'll find this nice and quiet path:
Gravel Walk: (Fans of Persuasion will know this place from the novel ;-) *sigh* )
Next to this walk there is a tiny little garden:
Very peaceful ...
On the next day we went on to Glastonbury.... a place closely linked to the Arthurian Legend...
Our first walk took us to the legendary Tor which is rumoured to have been Avalon in the past:
We didn't meet any High priestesses there... just lots of cows were lying around
like this one:
It's a lovely walk up the hill ... just beware of all the cow poo covering the path...;-)
Phooo.... here we are... on top of the hill... where it is very windy (which you can't really see here) and where lots of poo lies around (which actually you can see ):
After returning from the Tor we went for some quiet time to the Chalice Well garden to find sactity, healing and peace ;) ( www.chalicewell.org.uk/ ) . A nice and lovely place... of course we also tried their healing water ... which was okay but I didn't feel any different afterwards (maybe because I wasn't ill in the first place ;-) )
Of course there is no way you pay a visit to Glastonbury without having a look at Glastonbury Abbey:
.... and the grave of a certain King Arthur (though that might be a lie anyway ;-P invented by some clever monks to attract tourist and sell lots of rubbish to them :D )...
The rest of Glastonbury seemed to me like Hippie Central with lots of "alternative" shops and organic restaurants. I wish I had more time that day to do some more exploring but unfortunately I hadn't... so this means I have to go back there one day to have a closer look...
Our journey continued through North Devon and Exmoor NP to Lynton where we took a break to do a walk at the North Devon coastal path. The landscape and the coastline were just amazing!!! Well worth a longer holiday.... so it seems I also have to return there one day...
The next day was completely dedicated to the Arthurian Legend as we went to - as rumour has it - Arthur's birthplace Tintagel Castle at the North Cornwall coast!!!
Oh yes, it was very very dangerous!!! ;-P
This sign is prove for it....
But no danger could keep me away!! I risked my life to take these pics (NOT!) :D !!
Beneath the castle - which is on top of the cliff - there is Merlin's Cave:
I don't know why he would have lived in a cave though.... Arthur's bedchamber would have been so much more comfortable ;-)
Anyway...
Of course I had to take a closer look into the cave:
... it was quite dark...
.... and this is the view from the cave:
After some time had passed the tide started to flood in an you could not enter Merlin's cave anymore:
And this is what you find when you go searching for seashells at Tintagel beach:
The very dramatic and very beautiful coastline you can see from the castle:
some castle ruins:
the bay viewed from tintagel castle:
some more castle ruins:
Nowadays even the kingly business isn't as profitable as it used to be...
.... that must be why Arthur has a lot of different businesses running today...
Like this one:
(I bought two postcards in there btw...)
or this one:
or this one:
... awwww... cute!
And even this one: (robbing poor tourist off their last penny... tsktsk)
And even with magic tricks you can't make a fortune anymore.
With chocolate on the other hand....:
and also with certain swords... :D
Our next stop was Land's End in Cornwall. It is the most western part of England and very touristy :-(
But I managed to make some nice pics nonetheless:
But the real reason why I went there was of course this:
:D YAY!!! A DW exhibition!!!!
And look who came running to give me a warm welcome:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! DON'T BLINK!!!!!
The cute Dalek also wanted to say Hello:
Hello Dalek!!! *waves*
(aren't they the most unscariest monsters in DW???)
And after an enjoyable 45 min I found the way out:
As expected I couldn't restrain myself from going to the shop and buying some DW merch *has no self-control*
To relax for a while we headed to a very beautiful corner of cornwall. Porthcurno Beach!!
And for someone you would not call a beach-person I have to say:
This is some truly lovely place!!!
After visiting the most western part, it was time to go to the most southernly point (as this sign clearly shows):
This was Lizard's Point! If you ask me (I know you don't but I'll tell you anyway) this place is so much more amazing and grand than Land's End!!!
The coastline is much more dramatic and there aren't lots of tourists around so you can really enjoy this amazing place:
After some relaxing hours at Lizard's Point we drove on and on our way we passed the Future World @ Goonhilly ( www.goonhilly.bt.com/ ).
If you have some time at your hands go there and join a guided tour of the oldest working antenna:
It's name is Arthur btw :D
Again we hadn't had enough time to explore the whole goonhilly experience :-( as we had to go on to our B&B near Exeter.
From there we drove to Lyme Regis the next day.... a very lovely little town at the Dorset coast:
(the Austen-fans will know by now that this is again part of my holiday "theme") :D
Just so you see how nice this place is (even though the weather wasn't particularly good this day):
Waiting for Captain Wentworth (or any Captain at all...):
.... he never showed up... the bastard ;D
As I hope I haven't bored you to death by now with my endless rave about my holidays here are some pics of Corfe Castle to finish this entry! (Btw: there is a fantastic cafe at the entrance of this castle! The cake and the sandwiches are to die for.... okay I'll stop now...)
Hope you enjoyed!
Comments are love!!!