Arriving in St. Goarshausen

Just before sundown on Wednesday 12th July, 2017, we arrived at St. Goar to catch the ferry across the river Rhine to St. Goarshausen:

The whole surrounding Loreley Rhineland looked stunning:

Had to look back at St. Goar once we'd quickly landed at St. Goarshausen:

Thomas Hardy's Old School at Lower Bockhampton

Somehow last year, I'd managed to walk through Lower Bockhampton without noticing Hardy's Old School House.

Through having read Margaret Marande's 'The Hardy Way' 4-5 times since, I had no such trouble this year:

Even took a short walk round the back of the Old School House:

Think the thatched cottage near the bridge in Lower Bockhampton below may be an inn mentioned in Hardy's 'Under the Greenwood Tree', but I'm not 100% sure:

Thomas Hardy's Wessex: Knapwater

Last year, during my first pilgrimage to Hardy's Wessex, I somehow managed to visit Stinsford; the footpath from Stinsford to Lower Bockhampton; Lower and Higher Bockhampton etc. and almost completely bypass Knapwater, the setting for Hardy's first novel 'Desperate Remedies', in the process.

However, this time round, I immediately remedied last year's mistake by taking the Stinsford to Lower Bockhampton path (one of Hardy's favourite walks) and turning left into Knapwater about halfway (or two-thirds) down the path.  Through doing this, I was greeted with the grandeur of Knapwater Park Old Manor House, the steward Manston's house in 'Desperate Remedies':

I soon found out that this Old Manor House had further significance:

And was quickly greeted with the enchantment of the Knapwater Lake:

Think this may be the 'waterfall' mentioned in 'Desperate Remedies', but I'm not entirely sure:

To be fair, last year, I did catch sight of Kingston Maurward House, Miss Adclyffe's Knapwater House in 'Desperate Remedies', from a distance when I slept rough not being able to put my tent up at night on a chalk field nearby, but this time round, I was blessed to see the building at much closer quarters:

Love the Gothic-type scene below:

All in all, 'Desperate Remedies' is far from being one of my favourite Thomas Hardy novels, as there is simply way too much intrigue in it.  However, I still felt thrilled at uncovering much more of the Knapwater setting from this novel this year round.

Having found Hardy's Knapwater, I could happily set up my tent for the night:

David Cross Band (with David Jackson) Live at Loreley 15th July 2017

Thoroughly enjoyed the David Cross Band at the Loreley 'Night of the Prog' Festival:

Was really happy to see David Jackson playing with the band, as some years ago, I'd seen a Jackson-less Van der Graaf Generator in Cracow, Poland, so this was, in some way, like coming full circle.

Really liked how David Cross, David Jackson, and all the other great musicians in the band brought both wonderful musicianship and a sense of fun to the stage.

Of course, like most of the audience,  I loved the final three tunes:  Van der Graaf Generator's 'Theme One', and King Crimson's 'Starless' and '21st Century Schizoid Man'.  Who couldn't have liked such wonderful tunes?

Killarney: St. Mary's Cathedral

Had passed through Killarney on several previous trips to Ireland, but this was the first time that I'd stopped off to have a look at St. Mary's Catholic Cathedral:

Have just read that the 19th century cathedral was designed by the famous English architect, Augustus Pugin.

What caught my eye most was that a massive tree towered in front of the cathedral:

A local man told my friends that victims of the potato famine were buried beneath the tree and the surrounding area:

When I went for a stroll down the road for a short while, I came across a small monastery that had been designed by Pugin's son, Edward:

Thomas Hardy's Stinsford-Lower Bockhampton Path

It was a joy to encounter this magical, enchanted path again, said to be part of Thomas Hardy's favourite Higher Bockhampton-Dorchester walk.

Met a local man who told me that both himself and his dog sometimes felt an additional presence on this Stinsford-Lower Bockhampton stretch of Hardy's walk.  Must say that I felt the same way on this path during my pilgrimages to Hardy country last and this year.
 

As usual, I'd walked across  the gentle meadows from Dorchester to get to Stinsford encountering this philosophical-looking sheep along the way:

At about 5.30pm on June 30th, 2017, I'd arrived at Dorchester West train station to start my second Thomas Hardy pilgrimage:

Marillion Live at Loreley 'Night of the Prog' 16th July 2017

Some shots of Marillion headlining the Sunday night of the Loreley 'Night of the Prog' Festival from last week:

As expected, the long tunes from the 'F E A R.' album worked a treat live, as did older tunes like 'Easter'; 'The Invisible Man' and 'Man of a Thousand Faces'.

The film backdrop to the music was also interesting:

However, what was less palatable was vocalist Steve Hogarth's politically-'correct' diatribe between songs about how Germany was wonderful for helping out 'people in need' (more accurately, economic migrants and, in some cases, Salafist  terrorists).

For this reason, my friend, Dave, who isn't the biggest conservative or libertarian on the planet, decided to leave the concert early, and I followed him, as I obviously don't like listening to politically-'correct' propaganda (musical entertainment being reduced to leftist ideology).

The Hogarth-era Marillion have done some wonderful songs about English cultural enchantment, such as 'Out of This World'; 'Ocean Cloud'; and 'Season's End', so I don't really understand why Hogarth has taken to preaching politically-'correct' propaganda.