Castle in the Sea

St Michael's Mount in South Cornwall, bears resemblance to the one in France as they were both built by monks from the same monastery. Both were then expanded due to change of ownership and different parts were added on to diversify its usage. Had we arrived earlier, we would be able to walk on the pathway of stones laid out on the shallow seabed leading from the coast to the island. However the tide was high and we needed to take the boat instead.

The trip itself would have been plain if not for the fact that it was situated on top of the mount on an island, coupled with interesting viewpoints outside the castle. It took some effort to reach the castle, trekking up steep slopes of cobblestoned walkway after a light rain. The castle interior was littered with artifacts and corresponding articles, which kept us occupied only for a short while as we were not historical fanatics. Photos do the place no justice though: the castle, the viewpoint, the landscape, the sea, it all works perfectly to bring out the best of Mont St Michel's twin castle.

Reluctant photograph subject.

Who dares approach the island with all these cannons?

Princess of the castle

Idyllic Plymouth

Link to YouTube Video used.Use arrow keys for volume control.
It took me long enough, to really see Plymouth for the beautiful place it can be. It always is the companion you have with you, who makes the biggest difference.

When the sun was out, we decided to explore the small city. Apparently we were not the only ones with that in mind. In the midst of rainy days, a sudden break of sunny day drove throngs out of their couches and beds to bask in the warm sunlight. The Hoe Park was again filled with activities.

This particular location was chosen by her. For me, it didn't look really spectacular, just plain overgrown weeds, I told her. How wrong had I been. It turned out to be a great choice indeed, considering the amount of photos we took.

Funny that I can still find new photo spots after months here in Plymouth. Shows how much I actually went out to explore this place in the past. We walked around the city, choosing alleys and streets less traveled and amazed ourselves finding out that it linked us to another familiar part of the city.

City of Dreaming Spires

Getting a parking in the city area proved to be a great hassle. We drove around the streets looking for one space for nearly an hour. So little time to explore the city as this was the very morning that we were supposed to meet up JF in the afternoon in Windsor.

Sigh... I didn't know that this was the famous bridge, and was wondering why she wanted to take a photo of it. Nothing special, that was what I was thinking. Little did I know that this was The Bridge of Sigh. Credit given to JF for posting the photo of the bridge and including the name with it, else I would not have known for a long, long time.

We took our lunch on a bench, sandwiches, shortbreads and smoothies, while wondering if everyone who walked past us were bachelor's degree holders, master's degree holders or on the way to permanent head damage. Felt smarter sitting on the streets of Oxford, inexplainable feeling. Seeing the number of tourist purchasing shirts, jumpers, sweaters with big, bold letters that spelled the city's name, we wondered:- those guys must be tourists, I would never have worn any T-shirts, with the three letters, U-Tee-Emm...

Boo...

She's now very fond of the natural-pose photos, although it took a lot of memory space, clicking, "look natural la..." and onlookers who thought we were crazy (think one person looking around, but not at the camera, and another clicking away mumbling posing instructions) to actually capture the staged-candid moment.

Apparently Radcliffe Camera is a library, it made me wonder why the word 'camera' was used instead of simply naming it Radcliffe Science Library. The buildings were great to look at, feeling was nice. Alas we had too little time to spend in this city, we had to move on. We would have jumped onto a open-top bus for a tour of the city.