Today we continue in the footsteps of King Arthur and Avalon, and visit Tintagel. We start early and treat ourselves to a McDonald’s breakfast with a Mighty McMuffin and pancakes while LucY charges its battery. We also have a quick car wash before setting off. The French flies finally have to go!

The journey to Tintagel takes quite a long time, but is really beautiful! With a rainbow and alternating sunshine and rain showers.

Instead of the motorway, we prefer to drive along the coast and imagine a road similar to Highway Number One in California. But when we take a turn towards the sea, the road becomes narrower and worse and ends in a field. The second attempt is more promising: we follow the ‘Coastal Road’ signpost. The road gets narrower and more adventurous, but leads us to two really beautiful viewpoints. LucY soon just beeps as the bushes along the little road get closer and closer to the car, on the left AND right at the same time. Crossing? Impossible. Fortunately, there is hardly any oncoming traffic. And if there is, it’s obliging English drivers who give way of their own accord. We only have to stop when, on an incredibly steep bend, a group of older hikers have to see how best to get out of the way without tumbling down the embankment. And we lose a good ten minutes when a car with a caravan trailer and a coach cannot cross in front of us. And neither of them wants to drive back.

We finally arrive in Tintagel, where Catherine, her sibling Dee and dog Mickey are already waiting for us. We want to visit the remains of Tintagel Castle on the peninsula in the Atlantic together. We start at the café and visitor centre at the bottom, where the water forms a bay. Despite the cold temperatures, we see a few people in swimming trunks. Yes, of course, that’s Merlin’s cave they want to explore. It would definitely be too cold for me. We prefer to watch the waves crash against the rocks and marvel at the deep blue water.

After a little bite to eat, we walk along the footpath towards the peninsula and over the bridge. It’s probably the light and shade that make the sea on the left side of the bridge shine silver and on the right side glow blue. Fascinating! There is not much left of the former castle. However, the remains of walls and outlines of buildings that once stood here can be seen all over the peninsula – a real little town! On the outermost cliff high above the sea stands a famous statue of King Arthur, which I naturally take a photo with. It’s legendary how he stands there with his sword and seems to switch back and forth between reality and the dream world.

We have booked an afternoon tea at Camelot Castle for later in the afternoon. We have already had more than one glimpse of the castle hotel from the peninsula. The venerable building with its somewhat eccentric interior was actually once the home of a wealthy family. An artist has since had his studio here, who painted the many pictures on the walls. Even if we don’t sit at the round table, but just take a few photos, we are spoilt like royalty. Afternoon tea includes sandwiches (cucumber, cheese, tomato, salmon), scones with clotted cream and jam (in this part of England, you spread the jam first and then the clotted cream, but we stick to our preferred reversed version), and all kinds of sweet items.

After eating almost everything and marvelling at the toilets in the castle hotel with their beautiful tiles and opulent wallpaper, we start to think about leaving. We admire the view one last time, now with a wonderful evening atmosphere, and then drive off.

It is not until very late that we are able to eat another bite. However, we are not hungry enough to eat all of the huge Cornish pasty in the hotel.