Tintagel

On the Sunday morning before registration of the St. Endellion music festival we ventured off to Tintagel on the bus. It was a rainy day, unlike the other sunny days we had in Port Isaac. There were lots of German tourists visiting that day. From the bus stop we walked a short while to get to the Tintagel ruins.  Note- we got a slight discount in admission since we rode the bus.  

The ruins were impressive.  There were remains of a castle, courtyard and other buildings. All were made of stone.  There were many steep stairs to get on top of the cliffs.  Once we were at the top the wind was whipping and we were getting wet from the rain. In spite of that the views from the top towards Port Isaac were impressive.

I forgot to mention that there is the lore of King Arthur involved with this place. Supposedly he was born here.  In the visitors center there is a short video on the history of the area.  We did not go down to Merlin's Cave, which is not very historical. Just a cave named after the magician. 

Since it was raining, we took advantage of the Land Rover ride back up the hill into town. We paid a few GBP for this service. Well worth it!

We missed the bus back to Port Isaac so we had a cream tea at the Village Tea House on the Main Street. I think that was the name of the place.  The scones were tasty - almost like our biscuits in texture, but slightly sweet.  Of course there was the usual clotted cream and strawberry jam. I ordered the chai tea. Very good. Our waitress reminded me of Daisy from Downton Abbey (times 100!). Her speech and mannerisms were very exaggerated. She sounded (and looked) like Daisy.

We caught the next bus back to St. Endellion church so we could register for the festival. We then caught a ride back to Port Isaac to collect our luggage from the B&B and moved into our festival digs.