While still based in Padstow, Cornwall, UK, I went to the 13th century Restormel Castle. It's an example of a circular shell keep, a rare style of fortification built during a short period in the 12th and early 13th centuries. As usual, the periodic rain lent the entire site a wonderful ancient atmosphere. 

The remnants of the large fireplace in the kitchen 

After that, a quick stop along the roadway to see King Doniert's Stone - two Celtic memorial crosses (missing the actual cross) dating to the 9th century, with some interesting carvings. 

Further on was Trevethy Quoit, an impressive neolithic tomb chamber tucked behind some houses - one of the biggest ones I've seen, and since one support stone has fallen I could get inside it, under a 20-ton capstone.

Unusual that it has that hole in the capstone…
I could not find any information on that

By the way…driving around these off-the-beaten-path sites was a bit stressful - even more so than in Ireland - with many, many instances of single-lane (or smaller) curvy roads with frequent oncoming vehicles (at one point a full-sized bus; another, a giant tractor), requiring one of us to either back up, pull into a tiny turnout (if there is one near), or both.

Chysauster Ancient Village is a set of nine 'houses' with a main 'street' down the middle, built and occupied from about 100 to 300 AD, when much of southeast Britain was under Roman rule. Each of the stone-walled houses had multiple rooms arranged around a central courtyard (archeologists call them Courtyard Houses). These pictures don't do the site justice; it was incredible to walk around and through this small, protected ‘neighborhood.’

After a lunch of a spicy chicken and mango Cornish pasty (which, sadly, was neither spicy, nor tasting of mango, but was consumed with a nice picnic view), I visited Men-an-Tol, an unusual Bronze Age set of stones, possibly part of a stone circle that is buried. As I got back on the road, I spotted a megalithic tomb in a field, so I pulled over and went to take a look. Let's just say it was, um, occupied.

Looks huge, right?

For my final excursion in Cornwall, I went to St. Agnes Head and hiked on the beautiful bluffs.

Loads of fun with the 3-hour Liverpool Fab4 Taxi Tour followed by a visit to The Beatles Story Exhibition. I went to their childhood homes, the place where John and Paul first met, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, and more. Among the items at the museum were George Harrison’s first guitar, some hand-written lyric sheets, and their original demo 45 record of “Love Me Do“ on which which McCartney‘s name was misspelled.

These original gates at Strawberry Field were stolen,
recovered, and placed here inside the grounds 

For my Beatles Pilgrimage I’m staying in the town of Chester, near Liverpool, and enjoyed seeing its nice Roman wall and the canal.

London is my final stop before heading home. I took the underground to The Royal College of Music Museum, which is small but has a few very interesting items. 

Reportedly the world’s oldest surviving guitar, 1581

And…the world’s oldest surviving keyboard
instrument with strings, from 1480

These are called Pochettes, very small violins
to be carried around in the pocket; ornately designed,
even one with a compartment that opens to a fan

Albert memorial opposite the Royal Albert Hall 

What drew me to London's National Gallery is a special exhibit - After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art which looks at the early 20th century evolution toward ‘modern’ art that began after the impressionist period.

The first three paintings below - all are of a tree - are by Piet Mondriaan, showing his journey from naturalism to geometric abstraction. They are from 1906, 1908, and 1912, respectively. Zooming in on all of these is recommended!

Edgar Degas, 1889

Paul Signac, 1891

Vincent van Gogh, 1888

The National Gallery, left side, from one of
the fountains at Trafalger Square 

This morning I had a ticket for an 'out-of-hours' tour at the British Museum, focusing on "Introduction to Ancient Egypt." It started at 9 am, so we got in before the museum opened at 10, thus avoiding the extreme crowds for an hour. This was a very nice and entertaining overview of the Egyptian area of the museum, after which I wandered throughout the building for a few hours. I even managed to find some modern-ish stuff, too.

King Ramesses II, 1250 BC

Unusually large "false door" tomb, 2400 BC, with
hieroglyphic account of the owner's life

Statues of the Goddess Sekhmet (head of
a lion, body of a woman), about 1390 BC

The Rosetta Stone - key to deciphering
ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics - 196 BC

 

"Gebelein Man" - died about 3500 BC, naturally
mummified by rapidly drying in the hot desert sand.
That's a couple of thousand years older than the
preserved bog bodies we saw in Dublin, Ireland.

After that I went to Abbey Road - in the rain - and got a picture of me in the famous crosswalk. I know, you can hardly tell it's me, but I assure you it was! By the way, the traffic on that road is busy, not easy to stand out there too long...

Even though I will be here for a few more days (visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Tate Museum, at least), this is a great way to close this five-month blog! I hope you've enjoyed reading and seeing pictures of some of our adventures, great and small.

Thanks,

~ malcolm

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Addendum - for those who may still be reading this.

July 24, 2023

The Tate Modern was very satisfying, some great modern art - I think I put in about 5 miles just wandering the museum.

Then, a visit to Leadenhall Market, which is nice looking, but not much actually going on - mostly restaurants, not too many shops that I was hoping for. From there I walked to St. Dunstan's in the East, a very interesting overgrown ruin in the middle of London. Originally built in 1100, it was damaged both in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and during the bombing in 1941. It was decided not to rebuild it, and it then became a sort of oasis. Very nice.

And my final museum of this long trip, the Victoria & Albert Museum. Much, much more than I expected! lots of great japanese, chinese, middle eastern, classical, medieval, some modern, and more. A fitting museum finale.