Sunday evening we drove over to our new favorite cinema to see The Simpsons Movie, which has gotten astonishingly good reviews. But the parking lot was absolutely packed and we knew the theater would be too, so we turned around and went home.

But it was such a beautiful evening, and you know from my whining that that has been a rarity these days, so we took our time getting home. David took us for a wonderfully scenic drive around our local area, and we discovered a new hill covered in gorgeous wheat fields. We pulled over and took in the views and fresh air for a bit and it was just fantastic. Better even than a movie, and I like movies.


Left side of the road.


Right side of the road.

And we visited two local churches on the way home as well, taking advantage of the rare sunshine to take a couple snaps with our little camera.


Stadhampton, with fat tower.


Little Milton, with tall tower.


"Pepperpot" lodge houses in Little Milton, across the street from the church. The one on the right was actually available for rent when we were looking! Not a lot of space or windows, though.

Labels: churches

Sunday morning we had a decent breakfast in our Exeter B&B, where we sat next to a 60s-ish couple and their granddaughter. They were very chatty and immediately asked where we were from upon hearing our accents. They are from Dallas and their kids live in England; their cute little granddaughter had an English accent.

Immediately after breakfast we set out on the road again, continuing west towards Penzance. The drive was about two hours plus a couple short stops along the way.


Here's most of Cornwall (click to enlarge) - Penzance is just left of center on the south coast.

About halfway there, we made a short detour off the highway to visit some ancient standing stones. They are called "The Hurlers," which doesn't mean they puke all the time; the name comes from a local legend that they were men turned into stone for playing the Celtic game of hurling on Sunday.



The Hurlers consist of three stone circles, laid out in a line on a windswept moor between two hills. They date from c.1500 BC. The landscape was rugged and pretty and would have been an excellent place for a walk if we had more time.




"The Hurlers Halt," a little sandwich and snack shop in the neighboring village of Minions.

I stopped into the Hurlers Halt to use the bathroom, which was very nice. There were no other customers in sight and the proprietors, an older man and his wife, greeted me so eagerly when I came in that we bought a flapjack (sweet oaty bar) and drinks from them before we left.

We chatted with them about how business was way down due to the terrible weather, but they were very English about it - "Oh well, there's nothing we can do about it and it won't last forever." The flapjack turned out to be inedible, but the Diet Coke was cold and we were glad to have supported them.

From there we continued down single-lane country roads for a few more miles until we rejoined the highway. Along the way we greeted woolly passerby...



...and got to see a couple more old stones. The first one (below) is an ancient standing stone that was Christianized long ago by carving a cross in the top. I hadn't seen anything like that before and thought it was pretty nifty.




Then just a little further down the road was King Doniert's Stone (below). It actually consists of two stones, which are remains of memorial crosses for a Celtic king who died by drowning in 875 AD. That is seriously old, especially for a Christian monument.




We arrived in Penzance around 1:00 and found our way to the Chiverton House B&B with no problem, thanks to David's sat-nav device. That thing comes in so handy for getting into and out of towns. We were warmly welcomed by Alan at the B&B and shown to our little room, which was again on the top floor. We really liked this place - it was really clean and had nice, earth-tone decor.


The street of our B&B and our bedroom.

We immediately turned on the TV, which we would never do otherwise, but the Formula One German Grand Prix was starting! The weather there was even worse than Cornwall, so the start was complete chaos with cars sliding off everywhere. It was great. We watched about a half-hour of it and relaxed before heading out to explore Penzance.


Main boardwalk, with Egyptian-theme flags for some reason.

We had both expected Penzance to be a lot smaller and quainter than it was, so that was a bit of a disappointment. But the main reason I chose it was as a good base for exploring Cornwall and our B&B was nice (and cheap!), so it was no biggie.

The really unfortunate part, though, was the weather. It didn't rain constantly at least, but it was so dark and grey that nothing looked pretty and we had no hope of taking very good pictures.



On the bright side, Penzance is a very active fishing harbor and therefore fresh seafood abounds. We had a fantastic lunch of fish and chips at outdoor tables overlooking the sea. The fish was caught that very day, and it was so fresh and delicious.

After walking all the way down the boardwalk and back, we'd seen all we needed to of Penzance and decided to drive out of town to the main local attraction: St. Michael's Mount. This is where it was really disappointing not to have nice weather, as it was a very cool place.



St. Michael's Mount is a rocky outcrop 5 miles south of Penzance, which can be reached by a causeway only during low tide (you can take a little boat in high tide).



In 495 AD, someone saw a vision of St. Michael the Archangel on the rock and built a church dedicated to him. The church later became a Celtic monastery, then a Benedictine monastery, and then a castle. It was used to store arms for the Royalist forces during the Civil War and then it became the private residence of the St. Aubyn family, who still live in part of the castle.

Interestingly, St. Michael's Mount is very similar to the bigger and more famous Mont St-Michel across the Channel in France. Both were founded after visions of St. Michael, are only approachable by a tidal causeway, and were later used as castles.


We arrived at low tide, so we got to walk across the causeway.


Tide pools alongside the causeway.

At the base of the Mount is a small village where a few people live and there are ticket offices, shops and ice cream parlors. We arrived only an hour before closing (5:30pm) and him-hawed a bit about whether to come back tomorrow, but in the end decided to go while we were there. It turned out to be plenty of time.


View of the causeway and harbor from the top.


The castle at the top.


Entrance to the castle.


Pictures weren't allowed inside but we managed a few anyway. Above is the Blue Drawing Room (left) and the Refectory, which was built for monks but now used as a dining room by the lord and lady who live there.


On the back of the Mount, there were dizzying views down to the sea and over the incredible gardens that include lots of tropical plants.


Outside of the church at the top. This was a place of pilgrimage in medieval times because of the vision of St. Michael, and some still make pilgrimages here.


Inside the church.

Back across the causeway, we wandered around the village of Marazion looking for a good Cornish cream tea, but to no avail. A "cream tea" isn't tea with cream, as one might think - it's scones with clotted cream (cream churned until it is very close to butter) and jam served as an accompaniment to tea. There were plenty of tea rooms advertising cream teas, but in the UK almost nothing is open on Sunday night.

So folded our weary legs back in the car and drove back to our place in Penzance, then set out down the boardwalk again to look for dinner. We ended up at a Chinese place that was very tasty and had a view over the ocean, then went next door for Cornish clotted cream ice cream. Clotted cream is the glory of the West Country (which includes Devon and Cornwall) and it is absolutely everywhere. I had apple and clotted cream ice cream, which tasted like apple pie filling with incredibly creamy ice cream on top. De-licious.

Labels: castle, cornwall, penzance, prehistoric, st michael's mount, standing stones

David took Monday and Tuesday off and we had a nice four-day weekend in the "West Country." We spent Saturday night in Exeter and then Sunday and Monday in Penzance (yep, of Pirates fame) near the western tip of Cornwall.



It was a three-hour drive from home to Exeter, which is in the county of Devon. Like Cornwall, Devon is known for its green countryside and delicious cream teas.


As often happens when we head southwest, we passed Stonehenge along the way. It never ceases to amaze us to drive past such a famous historic monument on our way someplace else. It is of course unfortunate that two major highways run right past Stonehenge, but it makes road trips more fun!

As we got closer to Devon, the weather began to improve, which was pretty exciting. Traffic was also nice and light... until it wasn't. We got into quite a traffic jam for maybe 10 miles and it was no fun.



We finally arrived in Exeter around 2:30pm and briefly settled into our B&B before heading out again. It was a nice place and we got a family room for the price of a double, which was cool. The bed was really comfy.



Almost immediately after we set our stuff down, I headed straight for Exeter Cathedral, which was about a 10-minute walk. My guidebook said it closed at 5:00 and I wanted to be sure to have enough time to explore and photograph it all. David moved the car and relaxed for a bit and met me there about 20 minutes later.



Exeter Cathedral is rather unique in its design, with two big Norman (12th-century) towers on either side and a Gothic (14th-century) west front covered in weathered sculptures of kings and other notable people. We never got the blue sky I would hope for photographing the outside, but by dropping by several times throughout the evening, we at least got patches of blue.


This is Exeter Cathedral's main claim to fame: the beautiful Gothic nave. Its vaulted ceiling is the longest Gothic ceiling in the world, which in part is because there's no central tower to interrupt it. It runs for 300 feet and is decorated with round things called "bosses" at the joints, which are painted with medieval themes.


They've thoughtfully provided mirrors on little carts to give necks a rest.


This is where the two towers are at the center of the cathedral, which is called the transept crossing. Above is the pretty screen or "pulpitum" that divides the nave from the choir and supports one of the largest organs I've ever seen.


The choir is very beautiful and all its woodwork dates from about 1260. It has one of the most complete sets of misericords (those funny medieval carvings under the seats) in England, and yet they were roped off! So disappointing.


But at least I got to take photos of the carved bench-ends, which were also quite cool.


Lion bench-end.


After all our hard work, we relaxed at the outdoor tables of the Cafe Bar, which is right next to the cathedral and has a fine view of it. It was a fantastic restaurant too - David raved about his coffee and my hot chocolate was like a melted dark chocolate bar (England has yet to get marshmallows right, though). We both ordered a slice of carrot cake and it was so very good. Perfect, moist cake and perfect frosting.

The rest of the evening was very relaxing, just wandering around aimlessly around the city and pondering where to have dinner. Exeter is a nice city but the cathedral is really the only big attraction, so that gave us an unusual opportunity to relax and take our time. But in our wanderings we encountered several interesting sights.


Nice church and a pretty Tudor (16th-century) shop on Cathedral Close, near our snack break table.


The Ship Inn near the cathedral, reportedly the preferred pub of Sir Francis Drake.


These interesting ruins right in the city center were 15th-century almshouses for the poor.


This castle gatehouse was set up by the Norman ruler William the Conqueror shortly after he conquered England. It was also the last place in England where women were convicted of witchcraft and executed (1685).

In an interesting coincidence, next to the castle was a park in which there was a big stage set up for a performance of Macbeth. We took a walking path up above the stage and enjoyed a great rendition of the song "Bubble, Bubble Toil and Trouble" by the three witches. It had lots of drums and great rhythm and it stuck in our heads.



Cool old stairs near the Roman walls (which we never saw) and the church appropriately named St. Mary Steps.


A nice parish church and St. Nicholas' Priory, a monastery founded in 1087 of which only the refectory (dining hall) remains. Both were closed.


As we walked past this church, bells were ringing so loudly we couldn't even hear each other when shouting. We thought the bells must be from the cathedral, which was nearby, but when we stopped by later, we learned it was coming from this church. A man was just closing up when we arrived looking hopeful, and he kindly let us in. It turned out to be very interesting - the man explained that only the front half of the building is still a church, and it is mainly used for bell-ringing. In fact, a touring group of bell-ringers had just left! We did not know that there were touring bell-ringers.


The fanciest McDonalds we've ever seen, on the High Street.


A Wagamama with a cathedral view! (Sort of.) We love that restaurant but amazingly, had dinner elsewhere.


Wagamama was part of a nice new area of Exeter, still under development. I was really impressed by it and especially liked the modern apartments above left.


The white building on the left is the Exeter branch of Pizza Express, one of our favorite restaurants. It had an even better view and we had delicious pizzas and gelato.

Labels: cathedral, england, exeter