18-May-08 Trip to Cornwall - part tri

A semi-early start to view more of the coast today, stopping by the stones of the Merry Maidens, where supposedly 19 maidens were dancing on a Sabbath, this irked the gods and they were cast into stone. It basically is an ancient stone circle of 20 stones.....in this part of England, there are these stone circles placed there from ages ago (similar to Stonehenge) that likely had some ritualistic religious purpose, but the people who placed them there were long gone before they could be explained. I danced in the circle on the Sabbath, but I wasn't turned to stone....so I think that pretty much discounts the legend. Then again, I'm not a merry maiden......

We stopped back in Penzance for a visit to St. Michael's Mount. It is an "island" just off the mainland that is accessible by foot during low tide, but boat during high tide. Many years ago, there was a sighting of St. Michael, and a few years later, a monastery/castle was built here to pay tribute to the sighting and it has been there since. The castle now is the home to the St. Aubyn family for the past several hundred years, and they share in the upkeep with the British Heritage society for people to visit.

After that, off to the Eden Project (http://www.edenproject.com/). This is a former strip mine in the Cornish countryside near St. Austell. To revert it back for public use, a group created multiple geodesic domes that cover a "park" that contains plants imported from across the world. This includes a section called the "rain forest" which really feels like it is when you are inside. They keep it hot and humid, and the foliage towers over you. They also have little simulated waterfalls. It was rather an impressive project, but was disappointed there weren't more people there to support it. It does contain a plant that supposedly smells like rotting flesh, but we weren't able to find it.

And then the final drive back to civilization.....we never thought that Bournemouth would feel like a metropolis, but it did after our visit to Cornwall.