Cardiff

Lincoln (Roman)

I already have a page for Lincoln but since that time I only dealt with the medieval sections (ie: the cathedral and castle) while this time I saw the Roman bits I felt that they could be safely divided in two. After all, that trip was almost two years ago.

Shrewsbury

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Monkwearmouth/Jarrow

Despite being grouped together the twin monasteries of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow are actually about seven miles apart. Their connection was a very real one though since they were both founded by the same man and were both home to that most famous of Saxon scholars: Bede. Bede was that rarest of people in the Dark Ages, a well-educated polymath. He not only wrote the sole contemporary history (as opposed to chronicle) of Anglo-Saxon times, he also wrote tracts on astronomy and mathematics as well as chronology. His use of Anno Domini (AD) was so successful that it overrode all other dating systems to become the one used until this day. I will say more about Bede later since there is a museum dedicated to him in Jarrow. In fact, the metro station closest to Jarrow Abbey is called Bede. Despite being grouped together there are three separate places here: Wearmouth Abbey, Jarrow Abbey, and the museum known as Bede's World which features a reconstructed Saxon village.

Nafplia

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Palamidi Castle

St. Michael's Mount

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St. Michael's Mount is a little castle set on an island that is only accessible from a small road when the tide is out. It is very similar to Mont Saint-Michel which I kept confusing it with the whole trip, except that Saint Michael's Mount is much smaller and doesn't have a big town on it. The main town is that of Marazion located on the other side of the bridge. St. Michael's Mount is also closed on Saturday which is what screwed our schedule up. We had originally planned to go to Saint Michael's Mount on Saturday and Tintagel on Sunday but with the positions reversed we had to change our plans. If you're going to Saint Michael's Mount it is important to check the tides. If the tide is in there is no way of accessing the island unless you want to hire a boat.

Tintagel

Tintagel was fun. We left Arundel at 12:30ish and Tintagel closed at 5:30. We didn't start out rushed but as we got closer we realized that we were going to be pushing it. England is full of speed cameras which means that speeding just isn't worth it. Unlike cops Speed Cameras are always there and they don't skip cars just because other people are speeding. There's also no way to argue your way out of a speeding ticket since there is visual evidence of your identity when the camera takes a picture. Worst are the average speed zones where they average your speed for the entire section. These are mostly construction zones and they are annoying. I'm quite glad I'll never have to deal with them. The point is that it doesn't pay to speed. If a journey takes five hours it takes five hours.

Tintagel is a place filled with myth and mystery. Connected from an early date with King Arthur it has a strong mythical pedigree. This is the supposed site of his birth and where Uther Pendragon conceived him upon Igraine by appearing as her murdered husband Gorlois through the aid of Merlin. It is basically an island connected to the mainland via a thin spit of land. The island itself is all cliff and cannot be approached on any side. It is basically the perfect defensive position except that it is impossible to sneak supplies in. The cliffs are just as deadly for friends as for enemies.

 

Arundel

On our way to Tintagel we stopped over for the night near Arundel. Arundel Castle is the best preserved in the country and is still the residence of the Duke of Norfolk.

Chichester

We were only at Chichester for a very short time on the way to the train station. From what little I had time to see it seemed like a very nice city. The cathedral was grand and right near the main market square. The wall surrounding the cathedral and gardens is the old Roman wall. There was a turret somewhere as well but I couldn't find it. The wall is very similar to that at Portchester being built primarily out of flint.

Portchester

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Hastings

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Bath

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Edington

Edington is the site where Alfred the Great decisively beat the Viking army under Guthrum and recovered his lost kingdom. The Vikings had driven him out of Wessex and his realm now consisted of basically a swamp and the fortress of Athelnay inside it. For him to come back from that was incredible. For him to go on from that to drive the Vikings out of his kingdom for good and to begin claiming all England as his kingdom was just draw-dropping. The man had balls. And none of it would have happened without this battle. So basically this is the most important place in England. If this is really where it happened of course.

Lacock

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Winchester

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Avignon

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Carcassonne

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Edinburgh

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Stirling

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Doune Castle

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56°11'6.17"N, 4° 3'0.21"W