Travel 2009

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Between Tremayne and Crowan

On my third day in Cornwall I avoided the usual tourist traps entirely, because I was in search of my ancestors' home: a tiny little place called Tremayne, which is towards Land's End, in the hundred of Penwith. To get there I caught a train to Camborne, then a bus to Praze-an-Beeble (no, really!), and then walked along a winding country lane with no footpath and some very high hedgerows. Luckily I didn't get run over, as that would rather have spoiled what was a beautiful day.
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Tintagel Castle

After the Exeter conference my holiday proper began. I travelled by train down to Cornwall, to Truro where I made my base for the next few days. Truro is the county seat, though it's not a big town by any means. (Nowhere in Cornwall is, which is part of its charm.) It does have the Royal Cornwall Museum, which I looked through on my first morning there. Among the Roman coins and old coaches is the so-called Arthur stone, which was found at Tintagel Castle -- which is where I went in the afternoon.
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Exeter Cathedral

Later the same day that I arrived at Heathrow and visited Salisbury, I was down in the southwest of England -- Exeter, to be precise. I was there for a conference but arrived a day early so I could have a poke around. There are indeed some things very worth seeing in Exeter, although the city centre was very heavily blitzed on 4 May 1942, destroying many fine historic buildings. Above is a stained glass window in Exeter Cathedral commemorating that night.
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Stonehenge

It must be about to time to start posting photos from my trip (blame Alan!) My first destination was in Wiltshire, and is best introduced by Nigel Tufnel:

In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, lived a strange race of people: the Druids. No one knows who they were, or what they were doing. But their legacy remains -- hewn into the living rock of Stonehenge.

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A mix of things I missed and things which weren't there last time:

What else should be on my list?

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Last time I did this, it worked very well, so I'm going to try it again! As mentioned recently, I'm going to holiday in the UK for three weeks in September. I've pretty much done next to no organising for this, so it's time I did. Where should I go?

The constraints are that I'm starting out in Exeter, and ending up with a week in London. I wanted to go to Cornwall last time but didn't make it, so that's a good direction to head in to begin with. Then I'm thinking up to Wales (and castles!) and maybe after that Portsmouth, for the old warships. But where in Cornwall would be a good base, given that the sights (Tintagel, St Michael's Mount, Eden Project, etc) are pretty spread out, and I'd be taking a bus around -- Newquay, perhaps? Where should I go in Wales? Cardiff? Conwy? What sights should I see? What shouldn't I bother with?

Thank you in advance!

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Yep, me! On current plans, I'm flying in to Heathrow on 9 September and flying out on 1 October (if I'm not mistaken, on an A380 both ways). It's mainly for a holiday and to catch up with people, but I will also be attending the Bombing, States and Peoples in Western Europe 1940-1945 conference at Exeter. That finishes on the 12th, after which I'm thinking of heading down to Cornwall and then probably Wales. After that I'm not sure (maybe even a quick jaunt over the Channel?) but I'll probably be in London for a week or so at the end of September.

Exciting!