Jaunting Part 3 Cornwall and Wales

The third stage of my journey has taken me up and down Cornwall and all the way across Wales. You can hear me talk about it here.

The first place after St Michaels Mount was the gorgeous city of St Ives. Here are three photos I snapped viewing it from the front, back, and top. Right next to the city is an outcropping of land known as The Island. This wonderful little patch of green is important as a Coast Guard watch station. Besides the station the only building upon it is the picturesque Chapel of St Nicholas.

Right off the coast of St Ives is the rocky islet hosting a seal colony known as Seal Island . When I went we were even lucky enough to have bottle nose dolphins come by. They seem to delight in dodging photos, but I managed to get one on camera. You won't have any trouble finding a boat to take you out to see the seals, there are many advertising the service around the harbor. I recommend catching the Prime Time if you can.

After that I was taken around Lizard Peninsula, the most Southernly place in all the UK. Absolutely perfect hiking country, There's a hiking trail that goes all the way around the peninsula, and indeed all of Cornwall, that I would love to take someday. Fun fact: no one knows for sure why it's called The Lizard. But, it was most likely a corruption of "Lys Ardh", Cornish for "high court".

On the way from Cornwall to Wales I stopped briefly in both Exeter and Bristol. I grabbed a few pictures of the lovely Exeter Cathedral. In a terrible lapse of judgment I failed to get any of Bristol.

Next stop for me was Cardiff. The harbor features a bevy of interesting architecture. Shown below are the Welsh Millennium Centre, a theater and center for the arts, and The Pierhead Building. The Pierhead Building is currently being used as a startlingly dull educational center but is still worth a visit just for the distinctive architecture. At the center of the city lies Cardiff Castle. Easily the best castle I've seen so far.

Of course the most drawing part of Cardiff for a nerd like me was the Doctor Who Exhibit. They've got there the original console rooms used in the 80's and 2000's, and a recreation of the original console that was made for the An Adventure in Space and Time docudrama. Which is quite a good film, I recommend it if you're a fan of the show. Plus, they have a ton of props from the recent 50th Anniversary Special, including all three TARDIS's.

One day whilst staying in Cardiff I took a short visit up to the Brecon Beacons. The seemingly gently cresting hill you see in this first photo is Sugarloaf Mountain. All of the Brecon Beacons has such gentle curves that it's very difficult to convey the height of it on camera. Without depth the whole place looks a little flat. I hope the last two photos here, taken at the summit of Sugarloaf, give some sense of the altitude. While not particularly high for a mountain, cresting at almost 600m, it is still higher then it may appear.

After Cardiff I went up to Snowdonia in Northern Wales. While all of that country proved to be lovely what brought me out there was Portmeirion. Besides being the location for the greatest show of all time Portmeirion proved to be one of the most drop dead gorgeous places I've ever seen. The show barely does it justice. It was built in the 1920s and the architect had his mind on proving that buildings and nature could be seamlessly interwoven to the beautification of both and I believe he succeeded. While I was leaving I noticed someone had driven there in the same model car featured in The Prisoner opening. The castle in the background is a restaurant not far from Portmeirion.

Sadly this is as close as I got to the Snowdonian mountains. So named because they surround the tallest peak in all the UK: Mount Snowden. But, even from this distance they make quite an impression.