Home on Tuesday

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Two weeks in Cornwall completes our UK Holiday. Cornwall has very many beautiful fishing villages, spectacular coast lines and the narrowest and most winding roads in the world.

Cousins Michael and Barbara wanted to come with us , so Michael drove us just about everywhere, as David hated the narrow lanes and the vehicle we were provided with by the house exchanger.

We stayed in Mylor Bridge, which is a pretty village just outside of Falmouth. Every time we went to the waterside the tide seemed to be out so the boats were lying on their sides! We were delighted to see a swan on her nest, but after a week the nest was abandoned and the eggs left behind..it was very close to the road so I guess the swan was frightened away. We walked two set walks (4.5 miles each walk) around Mylor Bridge.. following footpaths through fields..which was very pleasant.

The Eden Project was our first excursion, where an old quarry has been filled in with huge green house domes in which plants from all around the world are grown. It has the largest bee in the world.

St Ives is a favourite spot for us so we made sure we went there, and we also visited Port Issac where the Doc Martin series was filmed. The streets in both places are so steep I do not know how the builders managed. The houses are tiny and quite beautiful. I certainly could not fit all my household possessions into such a house.

We saw Rick Stein at his fish restaurant in Falmouth. Not being a follower of food shows on TV I had no idea why cousin Barbara got all excited when he appeared, and really, his fish and chips were no better than any others we tasted. He also has a huge restaurant at Padstow , a town we visited in pouring rain on another day.

One evening we took a “mystery” drive and ended up in Porthlevin, where the town band was performing and it was great to see young and old musicians playing happily together.

Another highlight of our trip was going to the outdoor Minack theatre ,which is perched on a clifside near Penzance. We had marvellous weather that day and enjoyed a play called Jamaica Inn, about people who used to cause ship wrecks along the coast so that they could steal the cargo....the stage is on the clifftop and I was worried that the energetic actors were going to fall off the edge!

As you see in one of the photographs, we found a take away called “Elizabeths”..they were taking orders for the next day, since they had run out of food! Maybe it was a thriving business but a food outlet that runs out of Cornish pasties in Cornwall is probably doomed! Land's End is really the most windblown cold hole we have ever been to.

We did two steam train rides, the second one was the best , going from Paington near Torquay to Dartmouth where the Naval college is found.

Torquay is much over rated but we went there anyway, before returning to Bristol along with most of the population of Britain on the last day of the school holidays. Tonight we are having faggots and mushy peas in onion gravy for dinner.

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