Southengland, Cornwall

Canterbury pop ~ 40.000
After arriving in Dover our trip started in Canterbury, a pretty little town with a famous cathedral and an old city center. Canterbury is the principal seat of the Anglican Church. The cathedral's style is in Anglican Gothic. In the evening the toll booth were already closed, so we got fot free into the cathedral. English cathedrales are not free, as churches, mosques and most religious buildings in other countries.

Murder in the dome
Thomas Beckett (118-1170 AD) was Lord Chancellor under Heinrich II. In 1162 AD he became Archbishop of Canterbury and served faithful to his Pope. He resisted the attempts of his King to seize power over the church. The King should outburst the words: "Who will rid me of this low-born priest". Four knights put that to practice. They murdered him with a sword, after they had provoked a scuffle in the cathedral by kicking up a row. A stone in the floor commemorates today about the place where Thomas Beckkett was murdered.

....click on picture to enlarge.. .old weavers' houses.

read:

Henry VIII, his six wives and the splitting from the Catholic Church

Leeds Castle
It is not far from Canterbury to Leeds Castle. It is a very photogenic castle in a big garden park. Entrance fee was 12 Pound (6 pound child from 3 - 12) but the parking was for free. If you are scant of money, you might try to crosscountry in direction to the right from the ticket office for seeing the castle for free. The interior is (for non-experts) not very interesting.

Bodiam Castle
A really nice old knights castle. Seeing from outside is free, but parking costs 2 pounds.

Lanhydrock House ( see picture at top )
There are many old manor houses with garden for visit. Entrance is usually 3 pound for the garden and another 3 Pound for visiting the house.

Rye pop ~ 6.000
a pretty old town with half timbered houses, very nice, but nothing very special to miss.

Seven Sisters
the shore makes a great coastal landscape, green grass, dark blue sea, white limestone cliffs and a red-white lighthouse! A top scenery is at the "Seven Sisters" just a few km east of Eastbourne.

Seven Sisters ..click on picture to enlarge

Eastbourne pop ~ 85.000
has a beautiful pier. You can walk on it, where are restaurants, gambling dens and other shops.

Brighton pop ~ 200.000 visitbrighton.com,
has also a big pier similar to the one in Eastbourne. But the most interesting building is the "Royal - Pavilion" (built 1815-22, royalpavilion.org.uk ), a 200 year old - fairy like- palace, which is composed of several architectural styles from Oriental-Arabesque to Roman-Greek and Asia-Indian.
Brighton has also a nice beach with a seaside promenade. It's a quite big seaside resort and city, some like it, other less.

Brighton, "Royal Pavilon" click on picture to enlarge

Portsmouth pop ~ 200.000
known for the old vessels in the harbour museum district. The most famous is the "HMS Victory", a sailing ship, with which Admiral Nelson gained the victory over the Spanish fleet at Trafalgare in 1805 AD. The second gem is the "Mary Roos", which sunk with it's crew in 1545 AD. It is on restauration in a hall since 1982. The entrance fee was 7 Pounds for the harbour district, another 7 pound is for the entrance into the HMS and Mary Roos. The visit of all sights cost 18 pounds. There was no real family discount.

The famoust son of "Portsmouth" is the Charles Dickens. His novel about "Oliver Twist" (written in 1838) and the more autobiographical novel "David Copperfield" (1850) describes industrial working milieu in that times.

HMS Victory click on picture to enlarge

Arundel
A quick trip to Arundel. A huge castle in a small town, difficult to take a picture of it!

Salisbury pop ~ 40.000
another great cathedral in a nice town. It is only 20 km to

Stonehenge

Stonehenge and the Megalith Culture

the most famous prehistoric ceremonial complex of the Neolithicum. You can see Stonehenge already by driving on the A 303 coming from Amesbury. The sight is smaller as its reputation, you might expect more. Visitors are restricted to a roundabout path some meters distant from the stones. That is only some meters nearer than the wire net fence. If you are not very interested in Stonehenge, a look on it might be sufficient.

Cerne Abbas

Cerne Abbas

The express road leads quickly to Exeter. If you stroll slowly on rural roads you can cast your eyes over "Cerne Abbas", a huge (55 m high, 50 m wide) giant with super penis chiselled on a hill in limestone.The contours of that Hercules were created by digging out ditches from 0,3 m from the soil. Some historians date the figure to the 2nd century, but most vote for the 17th century.

After a legend the inhabitants of Cerne Abbas had chiselled the contours of a death giant before they burried him. Barren maids shall conceive, if they overnight on the penis, and also their men will be remain faithful, if they walk three times around the figure. Some are thinking the figure is a mediaeval graffity of an abt from a neighboured cloister.

Shaftesbury

Golden Hill

it's only attraction is the street "Golden Hill" with picturesque small old houses; the street served several times as a scenery for films

Avebury
is another prehistoric site of the Neolithic Age. It has two large stone circles, which are just passing through the small town.

Stones of the Megalith culture

Exeter
there is another great cathedral and a very nice historic town center with many old half-timbered houses and it has nice shopping malls.

Dartmoor
Don't take the motorway but the rural roads through the Dartmoor. It is a very distinguished landscape that is particullary romantic on a sunny or foggy day in the afternoon. Read the thriller from Doyle, „The Hound of Baskerville“.

Dartmoor

Cornwall

Cornwall with it's green shore and small quaint fishing villages with tin harbours begins just behind the Dartmoor.

Polperro
is one of the nicest and most known village of Cornwall, but it is also very touristy there.

Other small towns and villages at the shore (for example Looe, Fowey, Padstow) are worth a visit, too.

Coastal Path
In Fowey we walked some kilometers along the "South West Coastal Path". With it's Green meadows, grew cliffs and yellow sandy bays it is the scenery of many Pilcher films.

Bodmin Moor
Near Loe is another but smaller upland moor: the "Bodmin Moor". Very special for the area are the "Cheese Rings", which are naturally stacked-up stone heaps. It is some walk from the parking place to the Cheese Rings. On the way you can see another neolithic stone circle.
At Bolventor you might have a rest at the pub „Jamaica Inn“. The thrilling novel "Jamaica Inn" from Daphne du Maurier, which is about smuggling in this area some time ago, takes place there.

South of Bodmin is the "Lanhydrock House", a typical old English manor house with a big garden park around (see picture at top)

Tintagel
At the Northern shore of Cornwall is Tintagel. Some ruins should be the ancient castel of King Arthur, but the ruins dated only from the 13th century whereas the legend of King Arthur took place already in the 5th century. Nonetheless the King-Arthur-Cult is ubiquitous in the town. More about the story of King Arthur, the Round Table of the Knights and Lancelot you can read in Mallory's "Tales of King Arthur". Nowadays the story is told from the view of a woman in Bradley Zimmermann's novel „The Mist of Avalon“.

Popular is the three-hour walk from Tintagel to Boscastle along the shore (is part of the Coastal Path). There is a bus going back to Tintagle!

St. Ives pop ~ 10.000
At the northwestern end of Cornwall is the artist's town "St. Ives", which has a large quaint harbour with many small boats. A lot of artists display their oeuvres in umpteen galleries in the small alleys.

St. Michael's Mount
At the westsouthern seashore not far from St. Ives you can have a visit to "St. Michael's Mount", a monastery enthroned on a mount of a small offshore island like its French counterpart "Mont St. Michel". At low tide you can walk the 200 m to the island, at high tide there is a boat shuttle service (1 Pound). Visiting the monastery costs extra.

Minack Theatre
Some kilometers before "Lands End" is situated the open sea air theatre "Minack Theatre", which is built midst the cliffs. Performances are in the evening or at night and cost from 10 Pounds, but they are often sold out. Some steps down below the theatre is one of the prettiest sand beaches of England. Link: minack.com

"Land's End"
we weren't there, because there should be only some rocks, obviously more interesting for the "British". That area was purchased by a rich man, who changed the place into a fair. The access to Land's End is possible from the coastal park from the neighboured village, but it's still some kilometer to walk.

Eden Project
some years ago opened the "Project Eden" from the Netherlands garden architect Tims Smits near St. Austell. He displayed the plants of each continent in five huge glasshouses. I wasn't there yet. Entrance fee is more than 10 Pounds. Another projet from him are the Heligan Gardens nearby.

Link: edenproject.com , heligan.com,

Near Penzance is the megalithic tomb of "Langon Quoit"

Then our tour was going in the direction to Bath.

Padstow pop ~ 3.000
is a nice village with a pretty harbour. Worth a view are the "Bedruthan Steps", a series of offshore rocks.

Bedruthan Steps

Clovelly
small village with white houses in the North of Cornwall. It is a very touristy place and in my opinion it is a bit overrated. You pay some substantial parking fee above the town and descend by foot the narrow alley down the village. To the left and right are white houses in which are a lot of souvenir shops.

Clovelly

Exmoor
we stayed overnight in a bed and breakfast in the "Exmoor" near "Duncan Beak". Dunken Beak is a viewpoint for the moor landscape. It's a remote and quiet area far from many tourist bustle and the accommodation prices were modest (compared to Cornwall). On the way to Glastonbury we went through Dunster, a quaint small town with castle.

Glastonbury pop ~ 8.000
Flower Power and New Age Center. In the ruins of the cathedral King Arthur should be buried. Many suppose that also the Holy Grail is hidden there.

the story of the Holy Grail

Many "Flower Power People" are strolling arond the town. At the top of a neighboured hill is the Glastonbury-Tor. It takes one hour walking up there.

Glastonbury

Wells pop ~ 10.000
is a nice town with a great cathedral (entrance 5 Pounds, add 2 for taking pictures).

Wells . .

Cheddar George
from Bath it is only a short detour to Cheddar, named after the cheese, which is produced there. Continue on driving throught the one milelong "Cheddar Gorge", which is a deep cutting swathe in the landscape.

Bath pop ~ 90.000
At the end of our tour was Bath on our schedule. The town is named after the Roman Bathrooms, which were excavated in the 17th century. The bathrooms were made up very arbitrarely to the former taste of as a health resort for the upper class. Bath is also famous for its outstanding architecture. More then 500 buildings are under protection. Father and son John Wood created places and buildings after a plan of urban development. Important examples are "Crescent" and the "Circus", uniformed terraced houses for the working class arranged in a crescent or a circle around a green lawn. All was destroyed by Nazi Germany and was rebuilt after the war. Similar to the Bridge in Florence (but less impressing) is the Pulteney Bridge, a bridge with small shops on it. In the Cathedral take attention to the palm formed top of the pillars.
Despite all the attractions I think Bath is not a very pretty place.

Cornwall and Southern England

Lanhydrock House

A travel report