The Lost Gardens of Heligan were another one of my must sees in Cornwall, after I’d run into a couple television shows about the gardens. The very basic back story: the garden staff all volunteered to go off and fight in WWI, and unfortunately, as in many other places, they didn’t come back. Fast forward […]
Cornwall, Day 10: The Lost Gardens of Heligan – The Productive Gardens Read More »
Cotehele was the home of the Earls of Mount Edgecumbe back to Tudor times, but they eventually built a much nicer home, and Cotehele became a dumping ground of old furniture and knick knacks. That’s the beauty of Cotehele. All of the rooms still have walls covered in tapestries (which means they keep the inside
Cornwall, Day 9: Cotehele Read More »
Our other stop in Devon was the market town of Totnes. My mother was interested in visiting because it’s a Transition Town. It’s a really neat old town. The main street (see the gate across it in the first picture) is a crazy one lane street up a steep hill. Lorries were driving on it.
Devon, Day 8: Totnes Read More »
For our next day out, we headed into Devon. Our first stop was Buckland Abbey, which was originally a Cisterician abbey, founded in the 13th century, until the Dissolution. In the 16th century, it was converted into a home, which came into the possession of Sir Frances Drake. The house has a lot of interesting
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The next day was actually forecasted for rain (as opposed to the days where it was supposed to be sunny and still rained), so we figured it was a good day to head to one of the stately homes. We ended up at Lanhydrock (along with pretty much everyone else in the area, but I
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With the weather improving, our first trip out in Cornwall was to Tintagel Castle, the legendary birthplace of King Arthur. The castle is on what is now an island, but was once linked to the mainland. Notice the insane amounts of stairs involved with visiting the site. There were also wind warnings the day we
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So the biggest part of our trip was to Cornwall, which my mother’s choice for her birthday trip, as she’s pretty much always wanted to visit there. We rented a cottage for a week. We ended up going with a place in Callington, which is near the border with Devon, and is pretty much on
On Day 4, we headed back out to Heathrow to pick up our car, so we could drive to Cornwall. And since it was right on our way, we decided to stop at Stonehenge. Stonehenge has changed a lot since I was there last. It used to be in the Y formed from the junction
Our last full day in London had the worst weather, so no pictures, or I would have killed my camera. We started the day at the British Museum, which was having a special exhibit on Pompeii and Herculaneum. It was a fascinating exhibit. The early part was arranged as if it were a Roman house,
Within Kew Gardens, is Kew Palace, an actual royal palace, most closely associated with King George III (it’s where he was kept when he was having his spells of madness, but was also the family summer home). It’s a surprisingly small place (and that’s even knowing there was another wing there when the king was
London, Day 2 cont: Kew Palace Read More »