I’ll preface this slideshow of photos from the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic with this: I am not a witch or a pagan, although I have explored Druidism and have an affinity for those who worship nature in some form. I don’t have a religion of any kind. I will say that although I tend toward skepticism and logic, I do know that I don’t know everything, and I am wary of practices which attempt to control forces that are not understood.
What I am very interested in is the history of witchcraft and women’s rights, ethnobotany, and folklore and folk practices, as well as pagan art. This museum features a large swath of information from centuries ago up to the present day, including pop culture. It was AWESOME and I recommend it to anyone visiting Boscastle, which apparently has a reputation for witch culture and history.
If you have a problem with this post, I strongly suggest that you move on.
Our luck with the weather finally turned on us, and we caught our taxi to Boscastle late that morning on a chilly rainy day. But it didn’t rain the whole time, and we still had a splendid time.
Our taxi driver drove like a bat out of hell on the narrow back roads (because he said that the main road was “boring”) and talked non-stop at a fast clip the whole way. He was interesting because he had grown up in Port Isaac and had a lot of stories to tell about the celebrities who had settled in the area, but damn!
Once we got to Boscastle, our first priority was to find some lunch, and our timing was great because the rain stopped after we finished eating at the Riverside. If I ever come back to this area of Cornwall, this place might be where I choose to stay. For one thing, there was an easily accessible grocery, and lots of little shops and pubs and cafes to choose from. Not to mention that it was amazingly beautiful. I’d like to explore it upstream.
I chose a cheese scone with chutney again. Hot tea all around, and sticky toffee pudding for dessert. Perfect.Here’s the view outside the window. There were ducks and ducklings.
Next, we went to the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic. This was a great museum and I took so many photos that I’ll devote the next post to just that.
We decided to walk up the trail beside the river to the other side of the harbour wall. A bit slippery, but amazing views.
The River Valency had an epic flood in 2004 that nearly wiped out the whole historic town.a beautifully weathered post along the trail.We all bought windbreakers upon arrival.The color of the water in Cornwall always cheers me.
On the way to and from this beautiful spot we stopped at the National Trust gift shop, where I picked up this inspirational and gorgeous book of woodcut prints by Angela Harding, “The Unfolding Year.” Makes me want to get out my carving tools and printing supplies.
Our taxi driver contacted us and we were supposed to take the bus to Tintagel and meet him there, but we enjoyed Boscastle too much to do that. So the other driver picked us up and graciously drove us around Tintagel for us to decide if we wanted to book the taxi to go there the next day. We decided that we’d decide later, but we didn’t go. It was a bit touristy and honestly, I have been to Tintagel and being up on that headland on a cool blustery day, even with the new pedestrian bridge going across, was not what I wanted to do.
Next, photos from the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic.
We were thwarted in our plans to travel to Boscastle today because of a failure to find any taxi who would take us until half the day was done. It was a beautiful day for a walk on the Coast Path to Port Gaverne Beach, and Susan and I were completely addicted to picking through the stones on the beaches for sea glass and pottery sherds.
We stopped at the Golden Lion for lunch, and found it mostly empty. I had a fish chowder. I was trying to eat a lot of seafood since I was in a fishing village. There was a seafood market that I walked through earlier that morning, but we didn’t end up cooking at the house. Crab seemed to be a big item.
The Golden Lion was the “Crab,” the pub in “Doc Martin.” I recognized it instantly, and it surprised me how small it was. It must have been difficult to get the cameras and all those actors in there. The little balcony where they often met for drinks was tiny.
On the way to the Coast Path, we found one of the taxis that we had tried to call. She offered to take us, but since it was after lunch already we decided to book her for the next day to Boscastle and Tintagel.
That’s Tintagel in the distance.
Earlier that day, in Port Isaac, we visited a couple of artist studios that were in former fisherman shops in the harbour walls. Lyndsey Bradbury is a painter and fiber artist, and her studio is named “The Pentus Wall Studio.” This exhibition site says about her work: “Detailed paintings on reclaimed Delabole slate, drawings and machine embroidered panels inspired by the sea life and landscapes of the North Cornish coast. Lyndsey’s studio is an old fish cellar built into the sea wall with stunning views across Port Isaac Harbour.”
The second studio was Stacey Sibley’s, with beautiful paintings and jewelry that she made with sea glass and silver. She showed us what pirate glass (very old sea glass) looked like, and later I found a piece! You can tell it is glass only by holding it up to a light source. I’ve been able to relive the beauty of Cornwall by following her Instagram account.
The only minus on this day was the seagull that strafed all three of us with a shower of shit on the Coast Path. We saw it coming but there was no way to avoid it. Fortunately there was a washing machine and dryer at the cottage. It is a tribute to the loveliness of the day that we all saw the humor in it though. Damn seagulls. I love birds, but they are the demons of the avian world. I bet all the other birds stand back and applaud them.
I think this evening was the first night of the pasties. Lisa and I bought them from Nicky B’s Pasty Shop on Fore St. earlier that day. They were huge. Pasty is pronounced like nasty (sorry, that’s the only word I can think of that rhymes with it), but they are delicious: think turnovers filled with savory fillings like steak, onions, and cheese. There was one grocery in Port Isaac – and you got there by hiking a steep hill and back. Lisa did it the first time to get truly necessary things like scones and wine and cheese and fruit and chocolate.
On Monday, we wheeled our luggage down to the train station on the walk around the harbour, and bought our tickets to Bodmin Parkway. There we lucked into finding a taxi right away that had not been booked in advance, and this extremely friendly guy drove us as close as he could get to our cottage in Port Isaac. Once you see the streets down in the old part of this fishing village made famous by the British TV show “Doc Martin,” you understand why driving and parking is difficult there! (His taxi company is “Annie’s Taxis” if you need one for mid-Cornwall.)
Once we convinced our housekeeper that it really was okay for us to leave our luggage there early, we headed down to the harbour and wandered about. It was absolutely perfect weather! Susan and I immediately started beachcombing for seaglass and pottery sherds, and Lisa chitchatted with the others on the beach. We went to the Mote Inn on the waterfront for appetizers and a late lunch, where we had a great view of the harbour and the Doc’s surgery across it.
“Don’t tell me the Doc’s not in! I don’t WANT to go to Wadebridge!”
After that we strolled up Roscarrock Hill, past Fern Cottage, which was used for the Doc’s surgery and residence on the show, and looked out at the beautiful views. We went to Harbour Treats, the ice cream/gift shop that is in the building that was used for Mrs. Tishell’s chemist shop in the show. Can you tell that I am an avid Doc Martin fan? So is Lisa, and it’s the main reason we chose Port Isaac. Later that week we binge watched it in the cottage on DVD so that we’d get Susan hooked on it.
Anyway, the ice cream guy warned us that the sea gulls would try to steal our ice creams, but we did not understand just how bold they were. One flew into Susan’s face and took her ice cream as she was eating it! She cussed that gull up, down, and sideways. Honestly, she did Samuel Jackson proud. Then she bought herself another cone, and the three of us zealously protected our treats.
The coast path goes on from the end of the street.
The cottage was fabulous – a three story renovated house dated 1760. We hated to leave it behind. I’ll post those photos in a separate post, since these posts will all be photo heavy.
After we got settled in, we went looking for dinner, and ended up at the Old School Hotel and Restaurant. This really had been a school not too long ago, because we met someone who went there, and of course it was Port Wenn School in Doc Martin.
The Old SchoolThe main dining roomI had the fish pie
The sunset was lovely.
Not a whole lot goes on in Port Isaac on a Monday evening. Below is Fore Street, one of the main tourist areas. I wanted a peaceful place for the last part of our trip, so I was happy!
On Sunday morning, Susan and I relaxed in our cozy cottage while Lisa went to church at the chapel across the street from us. We finished our laundry, since we packed for a week, doing carry-on luggage only for our trip.
Since this would be our only day when we could have a traditional British Sunday roast, we headed to the Turks Head for lunch. A huge lunch. A wonderful lunch, with Yorkshire pudding and the works.
That afternoon, we took a taxi to St. Michael’s Mount. Getting a taxi in Cornwall, we found, took a lot more effort that we anticipated! But we made it there in plenty of time to take a boat over (it was high tide), and hike up to the castle, which was steeper and more treacherous than I remembered from our trip in 2017. The gardens alone are worth the trip over there, and the views are amazing.
Inside the castle, the guide took a photo of Lisa and I under the Arundell family crest in the Chevy Chase Room. No, not the actor, it refers to the plaster frieze around the walls, which was based on a song titled “The Ballad of Chevy Chase.” The Arundells are our direct ancestors.
Susan goofs for the camera in front of this modern sculpture of St. Michael offering mercy to the devil after defeating it, placed on top of an original medieval plinth in the castle chapel.
While we waited for our taxi in Marazion, we had ice cream from this little shop.
The building across from where we waited had a painting on it that looked like real flowers. I also liked the Mad Tea Party painting.
We were all exhausted when we returned, so we got takeout from a Chinese restaurant around the corner, and packed up for our journey to Port Isaac the next day.
I slept late while my sister and friend headed down to the harbour for coffee. Once I got up, we decided that we needed a few groceries and so we walked down the Promenade to the Lidl. On the way, we stopped for a light lunch at a little cafe/bakery/ice cream shop called the Art Cafe. I had a cheese scone with chutney, and that simple lunch was one of the best meals I had. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. Even though there was still a chill in the air, people were swimming.
We took some time to noodle around on a beach and around the rock pools.
May is a perfect time to visit the British Isles if you love wildflowers. The photo below was taken looking down at the building under our patio.
We found out much later that collecting pebbles on the beach is a no-no. For this avid rockhound, that’s like offering heroin to an addict and then snatching it away. The pebbles were amazing in variety and beauty. Look at the image of a blackbird on the rock in the corner.
We had to remove the pebbles from the window sill because a very aggressive, huge seagull thought they were food and was attacking the window.
Lisa and I took a walk around the center of town around 3:30-4 and found that most of the shops closed at 3 or 4 p.m., which was a surprise on a Saturday! We did find a cute gift shop with unusual items and a nice bookshop.
That night we went out pub hopping and our first stop was the Turks Head, a 13th century pub just up the street.
We had dinner across the street at the Artist Residence hotel restaurant.
The wall in the entry of the Artist Residence.Lamb for dinner.The Admiral Benbow across the street.
In hindsight, even though I enjoyed this day immensely, I might have done things differently. The reason I picked Penzance as the first place to land in Cornwall was so we could easily travel by train or car to nearby places in southern Cornwall such as Mousehole and St. Ives, but there wasn’t enough time. I was weary, a bit sick, and my knee still ached from my tumble in the museum several days before, so I really needed a break. Lisa helped me do the exercises to fix my vertigo (it is from ear crystals getting out of place in my inner ear, and the exercise is called the Epley maneuver.) It was a lovely day, but there were missed opportunities that we wouldn’t have a chance to do later on. They will happen on a future trip, because I will always want to go back to Cornwall.
Late Friday morning, we took a train from Paddington Station in London to Penzance, a ride that took 5-6 hours. I did not take any photos from the train, but the views became lovelier the closer we got to our destination, with pretty villages and the harbours of Portsmouth out the window.
One thing that had changed since Sandy and I took the train to Exeter in 2017 was that the seat assignments were shown on a digital screen above each row of seats. If you didn’t have an assigned seat, then you were to look at the screens and take an available seat, or an empty seat when we had passed the station and the passenger had obviously not boarded. I thought this was a great idea, but people pretty much ignored it. We usually had to ask people to move out of our assigned seats, and later someone told us that that was pretty much the norm when we had to hunt down unassigned seats on a crowded train back to London. It was never a problem. On the train and on the Tube, people were generally very polite and even offered up their seats to us.
(Guess that means we are senior citizens, for sure, now!)
Once we got to Penzance, I found that my belief that we could use Uber in Cornwall was very, very wrong. We caught a taxi from the train station to our little apartment near the harbor and promenade, and discovered that we could have easily walked it, even with our luggage. Views from my upstairs bedroom:
We had wanted Indian food for a while, and we found a great Indian restaurant just up the street from us on Chapel St. It had an unusual menu in which you chose from a long list of sub-menus of a main dish and lots of side dishes. You could also let the chef decide for you. The food was great – one of the best that we had in the United Kingdom.
This morning, after our coffee and pastries downstairs, we headed to the Natural History Museum.
The geology and rock rooms were the most fascinating to me, although I guess my vertigo distracted me and I didn’t take any photos. The room in the back of the rock and mineral hall had a vial of stardust that was billions of years old.
blue whale skeleton hanging over the entrance hall
We walked through the dinosaur room pretty quickly.
We had a light lunch in the cafeteria in the museum, and again, I was surprised at how good the food was.
Believe it or not, the SAME thing happened on the same street (Queen’s Gate) with the police and the limo. However, this time the windows were darkened and you couldn’t see who was inside.
Since we had all packed for a forecast of rain and cool weather, we had a need for some warm weather clothes. So I got to do another thing that I missed on my previous trip to London – head to Gudrun Sjoden to do some shopping. Other than t-shirts and thrift store clothing, my closet is full of Gudrun Sjoden, but I always have to do mail order, and sometimes it’s disappointing and I have to return clothes. To be able to try on the clothes before buying – YAY. We all enjoyed it and they had to run us out of there after a couple of hours because of a special event.
It was fun to walk around Covent Garden too, but I had to skip the Charing Cross Road bookshops again. One day I’m going to make this happen.
By this time, we were getting pretty comfortable with the tube system and we found a small station that was much closer to our hotel. We were also able to talk to them about how to book the train tickets for Friday, so we went to Paddington Station and did that. I am glad that we did, because it saved us a LOT of money. Buying the three tickets together snagged us a group rate. I would have never guessed it from the web site or app.
For dinner, we decided to go back to the Lillie Langtry. It was much busier and the waiter was cute and friendly – when they are smart they know how to get a good tip out of three American women. It was decided by the group that I had to drink gin and tonics because tonic water would be good for my RLS, so of course I obliged them. This one had cucumbers in it. Football was on, and when we asked, turns out that they are a Chelsea pub. He said that the next night would be crazy in there. Later in the trip we found out about pubs on Friday nights in play-off season.
On Wednesday, we decided to do a hop-on hop-off bus tour. We generally rode on the top deck at the front of the bus and it was a little like being in front of a roller coaster at times. Lots of fun!
Since we were coming up to the Trafalgar Square, we decided to do a short foray into the National Gallery. We also had lunch there, which was surprisingly delicious! Beets and goat cheese were involved.
We didn’t have a lot of time, so we picked a section to walk through. Too many photos, of course, so here are three of my favorites from that section.
The best part of this hop-on tour was a short cruise down the Thames, with a very entertaining guide. Slideshow below, which is not in any kind of order:
Walking across the Tower Bridge was fun.
Part of the tour included a “Jack the Ripper” walking tour, but we didn’t make it there in time. So we got back on the bus. It was unseasonably warm, and we were ready to take a break, so the only photos I have of Westminster Abbey are from the bus and the boat.
That night we had dinner at another pub close to our hotel, the Atlas, which I highly recommend. Again, we had a great time. We all fell in love with sticky toffee pudding with ginger ice cream, which unfortunately didn’t photograph well so is not shown here.
We knew that we weren’t going to have time to see much in London – there is SO MUCH to see, so we decided beforehand what we would focus on seeing. The biggest consensus was the Victoria and Albert Museum, so we slept a little late (at least, I did), had coffee and a pastry downstairs, then went to lunch at a friend’s recommended cafe, Coco Momo on Gloucester Road.
I remember only that it was delicious and there is crab and pea shoots on top.
As we walked to the Victoria and Albert Museum, some motorcycle police drove up, stopped us from crossing the street and stopped traffic, and then damned if a limo with King Charles at the back seat window went right by us. It was all over in a flash.
We stayed in the Victoria and Albert Museum until they closed. I think we saw less than half of the free part of it. Susan wandered off on her own, and almost right away Lisa and I stumbled upon “The Edinburgh Seven” tapestry installation by the Dovecot Tapestry Studios in a medieval/renaissance gallery!
There were a few impressive tapestries on display at the V&A. My preference is for modern tapestry, but this 15th century tapestry depicting The Trojan War really blew me away. I had to take detail shots of this one.
Seems like wherever I travel these days, I have the fortune of seeing a fabulous Chiluly. You could see this one as you walked in the front entrance.
This sculpture by Cornelia Parker, titled “Breathless,” is another sculpture hanging over a public space below.
Around 4:00, I was distracted looking for a bathroom and nearly face planted off a step in the gift shop. Over a month later my knee is still sore, but fortunately there was no joint damage, and after sitting out in the garden with a bag of ice on my knee I had no problems walking to the next place, which was Harrod’s! Boy, did I feel like a po’ country girl in the big city. Lisa, however, was celebrating the sale of her house and is very fashion conscious, so she bought a couple of clothes items. I absolutely love the happy expression on my sister’s face.
For dinner and libations, we decided on the Blackbird, which we had spotted near the Earl’s Court tube station. I really wish I had taken photos. We ordered a savory pie sampler for the table, which had chicken, steak and Guinness, and vegetarian pies, along with a lot of side dishes. We were happy campers at a comfy table!
slowly she turned 