England (7) – Bottallack -> Oxford

 
Ruins of the Tin Mine @ Bottallack

The next day, we had to work, but could leave in the afternoon, driving along the north coast to Bottallack, where we had a look at the ruins of the tin mines.

 

Tin mine operating until 1920

In the evening we reached Holywell, which has a beautiful beach. We went for a walk and stayed the night there.

Holywell beach
Girl leaving Holywell Beach @ 10 Celsius

The next day, we wanted to see the famous castle of Tintagel, which was a little disappointing. Apart from that there is not much left of this castle, it was closed due to the construction of a suspension bridge.

Not many visible remains of Tintagel Castle on the two hills in front of us

We walked to the church nearby and visited the medieval house called the Old Post Office in Tintagel.

Church of Tintagel
Humble interior of the church of Tintagel
Action inside the medieval post office @ Tintagel
Rose @ the Post Office garden

In the village, we bought a Cornish pastry, about which we had heard so much and wanted to try it. We chose one with onion and cheese filling, which was delicious.

Cornish Pastry

As we were running out of time, we left Cornwall and drove east in direction to Oxford. On the way, we stopped at Yeovil, where we visited the Fleet Air Arm Museum of the Royal Navy. Beside of many planes and helicopters the museum shows also the Concorde No. 2, and you can experience a helicopter flight to an aircraft carrier, watch the take-off and landing of an aircraft and visit the “Island”, the control tower of an aircraft carrier of the 70s. Very interesting!

Cockpit of Concorde No. 002 in 1968
Smiling face of a Fighter Jet of the British Navy
 
Control room inside an aircraft carrier from the 70’s
Communication officer at work
Historic warplane of 1915

For the night, we were searching again for a parking, which was very hard, if you don’t want to ignore the signs saying “No overnight parking”. But at the end we stopped near Avebury at a parking just off the street next to Silbury Hill.

Stop for the night near Avebury

The next morning, we walked from there through the fields to Avebury and had a look at the henge, which has the village partly inside the stone circle.

Silbury Hill
Avebury Henge

Next we passed Marlborough, which has a really lovely centre.

Marlborough
 
Marlborough
Classic fashion @ Marlborough

Finally, we reached Oxford, where we chose the campsite not too far from the centre. After we had paid 30 pounds/night, we found out that they don’t have a service station for motorhomes! But they were very helpful, and we could empty our tank at a gully, which we reached without a problem.

Oxford, very busy town!

We walked into the centre, which was very busy, and visited many shops and the covered market, which has many nice stalls.

In the evening we met Stef, our son’s friend, and went for dinner together.

The next day, we planned to visit a famous castle not far from Oxford together with Stef.

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