Cornwall and Wales

No I am not talking about a corn maze in the Midwest and animals in the ocean. I’m talking about two larger regions of the United Kingdom. Cornwall having been the supposed land ruled by King Arthur Millennia ago and Wales which is still a principality ruled by the Prince of Wales the future king of England. Because England and the United Kingdom are the result of years of conquest of one set of kingdoms over the others government and politic structure is quite different than any other place in the world. There are still regional dialects, there are still ruling royalty (in name if not in practice), and the people identify themselves with their local identity first and the larger country second. Taking a road trip through these two regions was very fun and informative the other weekend.

We started out going to Cornwall. The area is different from anywhere else I have been in England. Cornwall has beautiful scenic views in all direction, different plants, a crazy Moorish (boogy) landscape, and signs in another language. While everyone speaks English they also speak a local language, but only with other residents, however much like Quebec in Canada they have signs in both languages. The first site was Tintagel a place that includes several ruins that are on an island just of the west coast of England. At one time there was a settlement and garrison if not a castle on this island. This is the place where King Arthur was to have been born and ruled from after the departure of the Romans from England. The town on the main land by the ruins is also very scenic and has a lot of tourist shops revolving around the Arthurian myths. Surprisingly there was also a fun little stop in town where you could tour a post office from the 1500s. This was a house/postal office in the town and it was interesting to see the construction used 500 years ago, and amazing that it was still standing and in good shape.

Our second stop in Cornwall was one the BMc wanted to do. He had found the link to a strange museum on witch craft on the internet and it was only 10 minutes from Tintagel. So we went. The town was called Boscastle and contrary to its name it never had a castle in it at all. The museum was a little strange for my taste. It was also some what hokey. The first few rooms showed witches in pop culture, exhibits such as advertising, books, stories, movie posters, etc. showed the popular view of witches. As you moved along they showed some of the plants and ingredients used in spells and remedies real witches might use. After that protective charms and voodoo dolls and things were on display. The museum in all was maybe 5 or 6 decent sized rooms and took us about an hour or so to get through. I wasn’t that impressed but BMc seemed to eat it up. At the end of the tour though he started arguing with the witch that ran the place, I told we should get out of there so she didn’t curse him!

After that we headed up to Wales. The drive wasn’t bad we got a little rain, but surprisingly the dumb little car I had was pretty comfortable. I don’t think I would choose a Renault Scenic myself but it did surprise me a little, but I think it is still to ugly to own. We stayed at the Marriott in Cardiff, the capital of Wales and went out for a little that night to the local bar area and to get a late dinner. The next day we went to Cardiff Castle in the middle of town. Now that is a castle lover’s castle. It is rather large, in pretty good shape, has a remodeled main building from around the time Neurswanstein was built, but it also has the ruins of an old keep that you climb around in and that is surrounded by a moat. To top it off there are the remnants of a Roman fort. So I was really glad that we got to tour that castle. Even if it was raining like crazy. In fact many of the metal ribs of my umbrella were bent it was so stormy.

After the castle we took a double decker tour bus around town. It was too hard to get many photos because it was raining so the windows made photos blurry. The top of the bus, where we sat, was only cover for the first 4 rows then it was an open cab. So every time the bus turned a corner we got wet. But it was worth it. Cardiff is a nice town that is certain an up and coming area. It boasts a lot of modern development along with many older buildings and neighborhoods. I could easily spend a weekend exploring the city. As if our day wasn’t already pretty full we had two more stops to make. A set of water falls that had been used to drive water wheels that powered a tinning plant in the 19th century and an old gold mine. We arrived at the gold mine to late to do the tour but that was ok we got to crawl around on all the equipment and pan for gold so that was fun. The waterfalls and tin works were amazing. Now we were only able to hit about a ¼ of Cornwall and a ¼ of Wales but I can’t wait to make another trip to Wales. There are still amazing beaches and mountains to see, along with another fort and some manor houses. I think I will combine my trip to Liverpool and Manchester with Northern Wales. I can’t wait, maybe I can even bring the wife this time.