We started our weekend with a trip to Tintagel Castle. Tintagel is linked to the King Author legend and has the cave where Merlin is said to have dwelt during his time with the king. For this holiday weekend the castle was hosting a treasure hunt for the kids. The were to find the clues that would lead them to Author's crown, once they located it they were rewarded with a large edible gold coin. This of course meant they we walked up, down and all around the grounds on the hunt for the elusive crown. I can't say for sure if the legend of this famous king and his wizard side kick are true, but I can tell you there is something magical about the place.
This is the coastline just below what is left of the castle and if you look closely at the last one you can see the entrance to Merlin's home.
We climbed a similar but longer and less well built set of stairs to get to this side of the grounds and be able to take these pictures. It was quite a workout but the view alone made it worthwhile.
Just to the side of Merlin's cave was a pretty waterfall that we eventually braved even more scary stairs to get down and take a closer look at.
As you might imagine by the time we had toured the whole place we were more then ready to make the hour drive to our hotel and call it a night.
Saturday was another amazing, bright, sunny day and we were awfully glad as I had booked the family a surf lesson for the morning. I am sorry to say that despite the fun we had during our two hours in the water there is no photographic evidence. Unfortunately there was no safe place to keep a camera and none of us willing to play camera man.
This is the view from the sitting area right outside our hotel lobby and that top one shows the beach from which we surfed. What you can't see is the steep never ending set of stairs that you had to descend with the surf board on your head to get to the sand below. It really wasn't so bad on the way down but after two hours paddling through the waves the climb back nearly did us all in. Except of course Reese, our instructor who not only did it with ease, he did it with both my kids boards over head keeping a steady stream of conversation going over the panting of the rest of us.
Not wanting to overexert ourselves we used the afternoon to drive across Cornwall and visit Minack Theater. Basically built by three people, the theater is carved into a hillside and during the spring and summer is host to dozens of live performances on it's stone stage.
I imagine that it would be something amazing to watch a live show of Hamlet, or A Midsummer Night's Dream with that view as the backdrop. There was indication that in some of the shows actors actually preform on the rock outcropping just in front of the stage.
I can't decide if it would be more fun to be running around the stone platform or be a spectator sitting on the grass and mason seats enjoying the splendor the theater has to offer. Both would be memorable I would think.
The restaurant we chose for dinner was very nearly there anyway, so we decide to check out Land's End as well while we were in the area.
I can't honestly say why this particular spot on the island I call home gets the distinction of being where the land ends, there are many many such areas I believe. None the less they have built this fun little shopping, tourist spot right at the very tip of this coast of England and it is fun to walk around and imagine sailors of old docking on her shore.
Cornwall has some pretty famous beaches along her long shore line and I had planned to spend Sunday driving to each one and spending time sauntering over the sand of each one. Sadly the weather did not cooperate. We woke up to pouring rain and it only got worse from there. We still took a long drive to each of them hoping that by the time we reached the next one the weather would have lightened up with no luck. I am choosing to see this as reason to return to explore Cornwall again another time and am just grateful for the two brilliant days we did get. I did brave the rain for a few minutes to take some pictures of the beach at St. Ives though.
Those tiny black dots in the water are in fact very tough surfers. You can't see it but they are not only wearing wet suits, they are also wearing gloves, boots and in most cases hoods. A testament to me that it was likely too cold to be surfing.
Monday we delayed heading home so that we could visit the Eden Project.
The bio domes are home to two distinct climate conditions and as you walk around inside it's a bit like traveling to some exotic destination. The first dome is the rainforest and it breaks it up and shows you plants from several different countries that are home to such rainforests.
It includes some simple dwellings that you might come across in the various regions of the rainforest. This weekend they were also running a game of sorts to teach the kids all about chocolate. We got to meet some interesting characters who traded information and sometimes insults for the precious cocoa beans we were provided with as we entered the building.
Between the two domes was a large walkway with gift shops and a large cafe where we enjoyed a light lunch before we went into the Mediterranean enclosure. This dome was much cooler in temperature but equally beautiful to look at.
I was left with a mad desire to visit Greece or some such country as I suspect that this was a pretty inadequate substitute. Other than our drive home taking nearly twice the length it should have thanks to the M5 car park the trip was completely lovely and I am dying to go back.
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