Cornwall - Part Two

We awake to very grey and rainy skies this morning, nothing like the weather we have experienced so far here. Today we are going to St Michaels Mount near Penzance. We have breakfast and start the drive in drizzling rain, as we get closer the rain intensifies but determined we keep going. Well by the time we get there the rain is pouring down and there is a howling wind that makes even seeing St Michael's Mount almost impossible. We sit in the car and watch as a couple of busloads of people get off and start to make there way to the island. The wind is so strong that umbrellas are of no use at all. Peter got out of the car to see what it was like and he got back in very quickly as he could barely stand against the wind.

            

                             


















We make a decision that we will go back to Newquay as while we have come all this way the experience wouldn't be very pleasant at all. I can do rain and I can do wind but when the two are put together with the wind driving the rain straight into your face it isn't something I would have enjoyed. Sometimes these things happen on holidays.

We drive back to Newquay and the rain does start to ease, we do a bit of shopping and have some lunch and Peter goes to pick the car up from where we have left it parked. As I walk back to our B&B the sun starts to come out and we decide we will give St Michael's Mount another go. It was all we had planned for the day anyway and it is only just over 40 minutes drive away.

What a good decision that was when we get there, it is almost sunny. We aren't in time to do the causeway walk to the island although there are lot people doing it still but they will get their feet wet for sure as the tide comes in the causeway goes under water. We go across to the island on one of the boats that do regular trips back and forth.

This is 3 hours after we left.

Again another magnificent site which has been in the one family since 1659. An impressive line of owners if I must say so.

The island itself was created when the Cornubian Batholith was formed following the cooling of magma resulting from the collision of tectonic plates. The batholith is the granite spine, that runs most of the length of Devon and Cornwall. As the ages went on the Mount would have been home to all manner of people through the Bronze Age, Early Iron Age through to the dark ages and then in c1080 the Mount was granted to Mont St Michel and work began on building a church under the authority of Bernard Le Bec of Mont-St -Michel. It then passed through a variety of hands with the last clergy on the Mount pensioned off in 1548. In 1659 the Mount was purchased by Colonel John St Aubyn from the son of Sir Francis Bassett and it has been in that family ever since. It has been a major spiritual centre, a military stronghold, a thriving port and a much loved family home.

In 1954 the 3rd Lord of St Levan (don't ask me how all this Lord stuff happens as I have no clue) gave most of St Michael's Mount to the National Trust but retained a 999 year lease for the St Aubyn family to live in the castle together with a licence to run the visitor business on the island.

The family still live there amongst all the tourists but they do have a private residence attached to the castle. As you walk through there are personal mementos and photos everywhere. There is still a church on the island in which as a 3 month old, the present owner of St Michael's Mount James St Aubyn was christened.

         


It has a marvellous history which I have only briefly touched on. As you walk through the rooms it is a very different experience from yesterdays castle, as this is still a living breathing castle with a family living in it. It is not a ruin and has all genuine furniture and decorations which would definitely need a lot of upkeep. There are guides in every room who, if you have any questions will happily answer them. Each room has it's own unique history and objects in it. The Blue Drawing Rooms which were created in 1756 were delightful and one of the things I noticed was a picture of the current family with the Queen and Prince Phillip who paid a visit recently. They have brass outlines of their feet in the walkway near the harbour. So funny to see things like this throughout the castle.

As you go through you get the sense that this really is a much loved home. Outsied the exit door are some cannons captured from a French frigate during the Napoleonic War and these guns were fired at the wedding of James St Aubyn's daughter's wedding celebrations. How special would that be?

All in all a great place to visit! I can assure that none of the above photos do this place the justice it deserves but hopefully you can get some idea of what I have been talking about.

Cornwall - Part One

We left Torquay to continue our journey onto Cornwall probably one of the first reasons we decided to take this fantastic holiday. Our accommodation asked that we ring them and give them an ETA so I did. I advised that we would be there around 11.30 and the gentleman on the other end of the phone got a bit narky thinking we were arriving at 11.30 at night! Mind you this was at 9.30 in the morning so why he thought that I don't know. So as I was relaying this conversation to Peter I missed the sign that said Welcome to Cornwall. Bugger! 

The drive was a relatively easy one and when we arrived our accommodation had parking which was great, so we left the car and went into the town of Newquay which is the town we are staying in. There are a number of towns along the coast of Cornwall, some with names we would recognise, Padstow, St Ives and Launceston to name a few. 

Another busy seaside town with lots of families but this one had lots of young people as well. We decided to start our time here with a real Cornish pasty from the oldest baker of pasties in Cornwall. We went to the seaside to eat them and they were quite tasty although I'm don't know if I would eat them every day.  The tide was way out at Newquay beach and there were lots of people playing on the sand, exploring the rocks and in the water surfing! There was a surf school running while we were there but I didn't think the waves were big enough to warrant even taking a board out but they did.

Peter enjoying his pasty by Newquay Beach

The oldest pasty maker in the UK

Newquay Beach

After we walked around for a bit we went back to our B&B and settled in. Another 3 lots of stairs to our room. Peter will be very glad when he doesn't have to carry our bags up stairs at our next stop. The room we have is small but has a view out over the rooftops to the water which is nice. We wile away the rest of the day familiarising ourselves with the town and working out what we will do tomorrow.

We decided that we will do a Bill Prior and find a pub to watch the Arsenal and Everton football match which one of the blokes at our B&B in Torquay told us about the day before. The Fort Inn was the place we chose as we had had a drink there earlier in the day overlooking the harbour.

The pub was fairly crowded but we managed to find a seat right near the tv and had a nice dinner while watching the football. Everton was up 2-0 so we decided we would go back home to organise ourselves for tomorrow. We put the tv on when we got back only to find that in the time it had taken us to walk home Arsenal scored to draw the match! Never mind it was a good game anyway.

I did some blogging and then off to bed.  

We woke up to a bit of a gloomy looking day but that is what I expected from the weather in Cornwall fine one minute and cloudy/rainy the next. We have been very lucky with the weather so far it has been mostly fine with only one real time of heavy rain, so we can't complain.

We head off to Port Isaac, better known as the fictitious Port Wenn home to Doc Martin. We are very glad that we leave early as there is a carpark at the top of the village where you can park and walk in. As we walk in we realise what a good idea that is as the streets are just as you see them in the tv show, very narrow and steep.

Can you see Doc Martin's House?

As we get closer, it opens up to a view of the whole town as you see it in the series. Across the port you can see Doc Martin's house and the street where he walks down to the village. It all becomes very real.

The village has all the buildings in it but they are used for different purposes every day. The school is actually a hotel and the house/surgery is a private home. It is great to be there and experience what you see on tv.

The school setting

The village is very busy and I am sure that there are some people from there who would love the tourism that this has brought them but I am sure that there are some who would like to have their sleepy little village back.

Everywhere you walk there are reminders of the show. We walk past Louisa's house as we go down into the village, past the fish market, the hotel where they all have a drink, the house we think was the setting for Bob's Restaurant and the Slipway Restaurant that Louisa and the Doc attempt to have dinner in one time. The house itself is by far the most popular spot to have your photo taken and I do have the obligatory photo taken there as well as attempting a selfie! 

Doc Martin's House

I just had to do it!

There is a lovely gallery which is in the old church which as some lovely photography, craft, jewellery etc in it. I bought a small print of one of the photos with the anchor from the harbour in it. as the day goes on the place get very crowded as the streets are very narrow. 

A view of the harbour

It was a really great experience apart from the fact that it is a lovely harbour side village with lovely scenery to cap it off.

Our next stop is Tintagel which has Tintagel Castle a fantastic historic sight on the Cornish headland. It is one of the most legendary sites linked with tales of King Arthur since the Middle Ages. The remains of this 13th century castle built in the 1230s and 1240s by Richard Earl of Cornwall is situated amongst the the remains of earlier settlements dating back to the 7th century.

It is a steep walk down to where the site starts and all I can think of is we have to come back up! Never mind that is not for quite awhile as the site is very extensive and there are lots of places to get to in the time we are there. We mainly explore the island part of the ruins rather than going over to the mainland side as this seems to be the more interesting of the 2 sites.

As we walked around the ruins there were so many opportunities for photos not only of the ruins themselves but of the beautiful coastline on which this castle was situated. As you can see from the photos there were some wonderful vistas to take in. So glad that we came and walked the ruins today. If you are interested I have guidebooks for all of the places we have been so just ask. They are going to make our luggage much heavier on the way home I think.

We decide that after walking over the ruins and up and down steps to different parts of the site we will take advantage of the Landrover service back up the hill to the village. The money goes to a local charity so we don't mind too much.

As with most places we have found there are a lot of people who visit these historic sites which then in turn brings people to the village and there are all manner of shops, pubs and restaurants available for the tourist to spend money in and by the look of it with the amount of people about the shops are doing a roaring trade.

We drive back to Newquay with threatening skies in view. A rest before dinner at another local pub, the Red Lion. Another good meal with great service, which we are finding in just about any place we have eaten. The staff are very friendly and helpful which really makes a difference when you are tired after a long day.

Torquay

Another busy day is planned for today and when we chat with the waitress at our B&B she doesn't think we will have enough time to do what we had planned. How wrong she was. 

Staying in B&Bs is what a lot of English seem to do.  There were two men staying at this one in Torquay and they were quite pleasant having a bit of a chat over breakfast but it is funny to hear the conversation carry on which didn't include us. They didn't seem like the kind of blokes that would do much exercise and that was clear by one of them complaining that all this walking is giving him sore legs. Mind you from what they had said it was nothing like the walking Peter and I do when on holidays. They were off to do the caves which are around Torquay that day and they were giving us advice on what to do around Torquay. 

Another interesting thing about B&Bs is that if you don't have the full cooked English breakfast each day they think there is something wrong with you. Neither Peter or I are used to big breakfasts so the thought of anything cooked everyday is very foreign to us. We started that for the first few days but found it too much so when we said on our first morning here only a poached egg and no extra toast the waitress said "You're only light eaters aren't you". It is quite funny really. Never mind we didn't take offence. 

After breakfast we set of to Baddacombe which is a town up the coast from Torquay. There is an incline railway there that takes you down to the beach which has been recommended to us by our host. It is a nice drive about 30 minutes and again we struggle to find parking but eventually we do and set off to walk around to where the railway is. Driving in the UK is a matter of negotiation a lot of the time as the streets are narrow in a lot of the towns and then you have to contend with the big double decker buses that drive the routes between all the small towns. Then if Doris takes us the wrong way all the little lane ways that are one way really with not much room if any to fit two cars. It all makes for an interesting experience.

It is another nice day on the coast but in the distance we can see a dark cloud moving towards us. We go down to the beach on the railway and take a few photos. There are already a couple of people sitting in deck chairs which is another seaside tradition here in the UK, where you hire a deck chair for the day and sit on the beach. As we walk to the beach we meet our mates from breakfast filling in time until the Kenty Caves opens. They also complained about the £2 cost of the railway trip which didn't bother us at all.

The Incline Railway from Baddacombe to Iddicombe Beach

When we were up on the cliff side we could see someone swimming and I commented that the water would be cold and when we got down to the beach that person had just gotten out of the water and he had a wetsuit on. Peter went and felt the water and said it was warm but I still don't think I would be going in. We see a couple of families arrive and they are all kitted out for a day at the beach with floats, crabbing buckets, fishing nets etc.

As we were enjoying the beachside the clouds moved over and the heavens opened, not just a sprinkle but a really heavy shower which lasted for about 10 minutes. We sheltered under the bridge where the railway goes over. As quickly as it started it eased and then stopped. We went back up to the cliff top and had a lovely scone with jam and cream and a cup of coffee. 

A view of the rain that tumbled down

We drove back to our B&B to leave the car as part 2 of our day out was to walk back to the Princess Pier and catch the ferry across to Brixham. A pretty cheap fare return for a half hour trip across the bay. When we get onto the ferry one of the first things we notice is that you can buy alcohol. The trip across the bay has barley begun and a woman gets up and buys a piccolo bottle of rose and a bloke comes and buys a beer. Mind you it is barely midday. One of the many things that we have found a bit out of the ordinary here in the UK. 

We arrive at Brixham and as it is a working fishing port the first thing we see are lots of trawlers. As we walk along the pier there are lots of crab pots lined up on the wall. Crab is one of the many seafoods which is popular along the coast. This is to be reaffirmed when walking towards the shops, there are heaps of kids with mum and dad putting little crab nets into the harbour to catch some crabs. 

Crab Pots by the Brixham Harbour

One of the crabbing buckets with some to the catch

In all the seaside places we have been there are always a lot of shops selling the nets and buckets for the kids to pass the time when out at the seaside. It is clearly a popular summer activity. But here there were lots of kids doing this, the most we had seen. 

We walked around the harbour and found a quiet spot to have lunch as the pier side was extremely busy. There are still quite a few families around this side but definitely quieter. As we had more to do we caught the next ferry back to Torquay.

Brixham Harbour

The next part of our day was the Agatha Christie Mile. We had already covered a couple of the stops on the mile, The Grand Hotel where we had dinner last night and the Potent Plants Garden in Torre Abbey. On the way back from Baddacombe we stopped at the Torquay Museum which houses an Agatha Christie exhibition all about her life, her writing and life in Torquay. The exhibition also has some of the sets from the Hercule Poirot series which I only wish we could have taken some photos of. The exhibition was very interesting as it showed all aspects of her life and how she came to write her first story. It was a challenge from her sister to write a detective story that started her lifelong career as a mystery writer.

The Grand Hotel

Much against my normal manner of doing things we did do the mile out of order, which for anyone who knows me is not like me at all. I like to do things in the proper order but hey we are on holidays. 

The next stop was the Princess Pier which was a favourite place for Agatha's for roller skating and was built in the same year she was born.  

Princess Pier

The Princess Gardens was next, this featured in The ABC Murders and the site of the Princess Theatre where the official Agatha Christie Thetre Company tours each year. 

The Princess Gardens

The  Pavilion, which at this time is closed for renovation,  was where Archie Christie proposed to Agatha after attending a Wagner concert.

The Pavilion

 The  Agatha Christie Bust is in the park in front of the Pavilion and was created to commemorate the Agatha Christie centenary year in 1990. 

Torquay Train Station is the place where during the centenary celebrations David Suchet's Hercule Poirot and Joan Hickson's Miss Marple met for the first time. We didn't get to the rest as it was getting late in the afternoon and we had had a big day. I am so happy that I got to do at most of the mile. 

Torquay Railway Station

After a fairly active day we freshen up for dinner at a local pub/rest airman called Ocean Drive. It is absolutely chock a block full of American style memorabilia. Food was great and the service excellent. 

Home to bed for the next day of our holiday , Cornwall!

The English Riviera or to everyone else - Torquay

Our next stop is the seaside town of Torquay. The English call it the English Riviera not quite sure why but we will see. Also not quite sure why we included this one in our itinerary apart from my interest in Agatha Christie.

We arrived around 11.30 and were able to get into our room straight  away which was good because they also had parking available on site which we have found is a bit of a rare thing in the UK. We have found that anywhere you  park in the UK is not free and is in a Park and Display car park. Some of these are quite expensive when you want to stay for awhile but I suppose that's just the way it is and you have to suck it up.

We leave our bags and go for a wander into Torquay which is about 15 minutes away. It is another lovely day but with a few clouds on the horizon. As we walked in it was obvious that this is another seaside town that gets absolutely packed in summertime. There are a lot of families walking around, on the beach and fishing in the harbour. While the sun is out it is very nice but when the wind picks up can be quite fresh.

The Marina at Torquay

Clock Tower in the middle of town around which a roundabout has been made.

We find somewhere for lunch and then have a walk around the city centre. As we are walking back we decide to visit Torre Abbey. What a great experience this was. After a coffee in the tearooms we venture inside to have a look around. We walked through the gatehouse with its Medieval looking entrance and castellations. The Abbey is surrounded by a lovely garden with plenty of places to sit and enjoy the sunshine which quite a lot of people are doing this afternoon.

Gatehouse of Torre Abbey

Front Entrance to the Abbey

As we make our way through the entrance there is a Medieval Undercroft which has a very good display of the history of the abbey in a short animation. It is interactive so you can jump to which ever part you want to. It has been done in a way that is easy for children to understand and go through as well as adults being informed as well.

The Abbey was founded in 1196 as a monastery and is now the best preserved Medieval monastery in all of Devon and Cornwall. But since 1662 until 1930 was in the hands of the Cary family who when the depression hit sold it to the Torbay Borough Council.

As you leave the Undercroft you move into the Abbey proper where the shop and payment area is. The guide on duty tells us how the Abbey is set out and says the best place to start is at the top with the 800 years exhibition. So that's where we start. This exhibition is amazing. It is full of interactive exhibits which you are in control of and again enough to keep the kids and adults alike interested. There was a time machine which started at 2014 and you could dial it back to any number of important events and how they affected the development of the Abbey. It has artefacts throughout the exhibit as well with attached information.

It also had an exhibit which was based around people who had lived in the area and had something to do with the Abbey particularly family members and you could listen to their stories. Very interesting. 

Another interesting one is the life like figure who actually looks like he is talking to you using a video concept. It was great! 

As we made our way down the levels there are various rooms with displays that are part of the history of the Abbey and also new exhibits of modern art. One of the most interesting is the Cary Dining Room where the table is set and at each place is a famous person's face that talks from the table, very interesting.

Cary Dining Room

As we went through there was an interesting aspect to every room. I made sure that when we left to go to the garden I talked to the guide on duty and expressed how impressed we were with the whole interpretation of the Abbey.

The garden is one where there are ruins of the original Abbey as well as the graves of monks who served there. The church itself is the ruins and you can easily walk around these ruins and there are interpretative signs telling you what you might have seen back in Medieval times. There is also one which marks the grave of William the Brewer who was the founder of the Abbey. An extremely interesting walk around.

Cloister

The grave of William the Brewer

The garden itself is very structured and includes one of the points on the Agatha Christie Mile the Potent Plants Collection. This is an interesting display as it was used in a number of her books and this is because at one stage of her life Agatha was a pharmacy dispenser and knew the potency of certain plants which she then used in plots in her books.

The plan of Agatha Christie's Potent Plants Display

The Potent Plants Garden

The garden was lovely and very relaxing to walk around.

We made our way back to our B&B to get ready for dinner. 

Our dinner was at another iconic Agatha Christie place in Torquay - the Grand Hotel. This is the place where Agatha spent her honeymoon with her first husband Archie Christie. The hotel still retains an Agatha Christie Suite. The dinner was in the main dining room and was very nice. An advantage was it wasn't far from our B&B.

The Grand Hotel Torquay

Tomorrow another full day is planned.