Blogs from Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 4

So day two of our Motorhome adventure and being such a rookie found out that the Cathago motorhome facebook people are amazing. All I do is when I do not know what to do like turning the radio off, sorting the waste water out, they are there giving me advice immediately. I think they are thinking is she for real or what, ha ha. Anyway with having to take drops for my eyes as having had a cataract op on my left eye, yes I still need to look at my hands to identify which is my left eye and having an op on this eye you would think this would not be necessary, hey ho you are talking about Paula here. How stupid I always get Mike to read through and he has said which ... read more

Once we had had another full-Cornish and checked-out of the hotel, we went for a walk back down to St Ives' harbour to see it in daylight. We circled round past the beach, where the surfers were braving the cold, around St Ives Head and then around the narrow streets and shops. We debated getting a box of different Cornish Pasties (there are sweet as well as savoury), but didn't in the end, which we regretted. Somewhere my wife had always wanted to visit was Clovelly in Devon, so we thought we would stop there on the way back. This is a private village, which is completely closed to traffic. We parked at the Visitors' Centre at the top of the hill, bought the tickets needed to enter the village and then headed down. The village ... read more

We reached Penzance and I went up to the hotel reception to check in. We had booked into a more expensive hotel for tonight, mostly due to a lack of availability on a Saturday night rather than a desire for a better hotel. The hotel was probably upmarket fifty years ago. The world has moved on since then but the hotel hasn't seen the need. The decor was... how can I put this delicately... dated. The receptionist looked me up and down and said "We had better put you in the wing... the furthest wing." She handed me a large iron key and I fetched the luggage and Madam. We went slowly up to the first floor in a stuttering and clanking lift. Along a long corridor, around a bend and a up further corridor. Down ... read more

The sea spray splattered my glasses and the wind tugged at my hair causing it to stick up in an unusually expressive and interesting manner. I looked like a cross between a mad scientist and just plain mad. I zipped up my jacket. "Amazing! It's like something from National Geographic!" Madam shouted above the wind. She was pointing her phone in every direction furiously taking photographs as fast as she could. "I'm glad I bought my windproof jacket." I said. "There's no internet!" She said as she peered into her phone. Her selfie would have to wait. We were at Land's End. The end of Cornwall and the end of the country. The end of our westward journey. This was as far as we could go. Next stop America, over several thousand miles of ocean. We ... read more

We decided to visit Lostwithiel, which lies tucked away in the Fowey Valley, on 19 September. We took the train from St Austell. Lostwithiel is one of the local stations in Cornwall. Nevertheless, this quiet town had a wealth of historic artefacts and buildings – Tudor Bridge, St Bartholomew Church, The Dutchy Palace, The Grammar School, Taprell House, all of which were built between 15th century and 18th century. We popped in the church and the museum. The museum has an interesting collection of artefacts which were all donated locally and wonderful photographic collection depicting the social history of the town since the end of the 18th century. I was impressed with the calendar with photos of local historic buildings of Lostwithiel and bought the one presented at the receptionist’s desk. We had planned visiting Restomel ... read more