A stop at the Pandora Pub, http://www.pandorainn.com/, on the coast in Mylor.
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The First Day: As for first days it did not start out well. They missed their connecting flight to Newquay and the next one was not for 11 hours so we drove to London to pick them up. Once we picked them up it was okay from there. First stop the obligatory Stonehenge. It still amazes me everytime I see it. Then a stop at the Jamaica Inn, http://www.jamaicainn.co.uk/ , for dinner and them back to the house. https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/albums/72157658258064095 Day Two: A food festival in St. Ives. A beautiful, but maybe cold, train ride down to St. Ives. A lovely walk in the seaside town, some delectable food treats round out our visit to St. Ives. Hope the train and back to the homestead we go. https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/albums/72157658228071492 Day Three: Lucky me, I get to go back to work and Olivia gets to take her parents to the Eden project. The three large bio-domes in St. Austell. We finish off the night with dinner at the Old Quay Inn, http://www.theoldquayinn.co.uk/, in Devoran. https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/albums/72157657833775349 Day Four and Five: Off again for a day of adventure. We start by heading west toward Penzance. We stop at the beautiful Minack Theatre, https://www.minack.com/, overlooking the ocean. From there we head down to St. Michaels Mount, http://www.stmichaelsmount.co.uk/ . The castle built on a small tall rocky island off the south coast of Marazion Cornwall that is able to be walked to at low tide but a boat is required to get to it at high tide. After a hike up all the steps to the castle and tour of the house and the gardens we are off again. This time to the port town of Falmouth and the Maritime museum. From there we visit St. Clement and the church with a list of the vicars that dates back to 1289. And just to make sure we have walked enough take a walk through Truro and look at the Truro Cathedral. https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/albums/72157655917276424 https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/albums/72157658185567406 Day Six: Trelissick gardens and St Mawes Castle. A walk around the gardens at Trelissick and a tour of the manor. Then off to St. Mawes and a visit to the castle. https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/albums/72157657834578749 Day Seven: We hop on the train bound for London to see the Duncans off on their next adventure, a Cruise of the Mediterranean. We are able to take in a show, Let It Be. The show chronicles the Beatles rise to fame with lots of good music. Olivia and I stay in London a couple days and take in the sights. https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/albums/72157657903753740 Day Eight: Museum day! We visit the London Museum and the Egyptian artifacts. It is all very impressive.https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/albums/72157655982902174 The cousins arrive early on Sunday and we set off immediately on a whirlwind tour of the countryside. First stop of the day (after a couple of hours drive) is Stonehenge, the second stop (after a few more hours) is Tintagle Castle (the supposed place of King Arthur's birth) then finally, mercifully we take them to our house after another hour or so of driving and the sun finally setting. https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/albums/72157657515116741 Again the next day we set off in a blaze of fury to see Falmouth, the Maritime museum, and Pendennis Castle. Then a drive over to the Roseland peninsula to see St. Mawes Castle and finally a stop at the Roseland Brewery for dinner. https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/albums/72157657491049512 Day Three and just like the others, up at dawn and out of the house for a drive to St. Michael's Mount. A grand castle on top of a rock in the middle of the sea. A stop at a pub and an abandoned mill and the day is complete. https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/albums/72157657520545435 Days Four and Five we stopped torturing them and let them have some time to recoup. Though they decided that they wanted to drive some more to a tile factor in Exeter two hours away on Day Five. Day Six we again pile in the car for a 4 hour drive to Newport. We make a quick stop on the Jurassic Coast to look for fossils, a dinner stop and then to the hotel in Southampton to prepare for the next day. https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/albums/72157655188962153 Day Seven... We board a ferry...Correction, we board a cargo ferry and several dozen other walk on passengers. We are off to Dieppe France. We say goodbye to the white cliffs of Newport, very similar to the white cliffs of Dover, and float off over the Channel. We arrive in Dieppe, clear customs and are immediately thrown into another language. Our taxi driver does not speak English, nor does the rental car agent speak any English and we are very rough with our French. Luckily another group renting a car has two kids that are learning English in school and between some broken Franglish a phone call and hand gestures we get a car and are off. After several hours of driving through the French country side we arrive in Connelles at our condo (and luckily they do speak English). It is situated on a beautiful river in a very rural French country side. With the long drive under our belt we decide to take a recommendation for dinner from the concierge. Off to Auberge de L'Andelle we go http://aubergedelandelle.fr/html/index.html It is in a little town called Ponte-Saint-Piere. At first glance it looks very fancy and we are not properly dressed, but alas we have reservations so we go in. We are the second group to get there. Using our limited French we get the menus, which is all in French... no big deal right? The concierge didn't mention that the people at the restaurant do not speak any English!!! Well, I guess, what do you expect, we are in rural France, why would they. Again through gestures and our very short French vocab we have an absolutely amazing, authentic French cuisine dinner. There was duck, fish, salads, local wine and desserts... and cheese! Todd and I tried over 20 different local cheeses that ranged in taste from light and nutty to pungent and wet horse blanket, ones that smelled very foul but tasted amazing to the exact opposite. All in all a one of a kind experience with good people. From there, back to the condo for an early next day. https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/albums/72157657095837979 Day Eight starts at 5am and the sooner we can get on the road the better, we have a 2 hour drive to Bayeux to start our all day D-Day tour. An intense day of museums, landing sites from D-Day, and cemeteries ensues. I don't think that I have the words to describe all of what we saw and felt. Being at the landing sites and seeing the monumental task that lay before the soldiers on that day, seeing the cemeteries where the brave men and women of that day are laid to rest, being in Sainte-Mere-Eglise where the soldiers were dropped for Operation Overlord, documented in the movie The Longest Day, and the passion of our tour guide whose grandmother lived through it all and passed her passion to him about that day was truly an experience. Thank you Todd for opening our eyes to it all. We were not sure what to expect but are forever changed by it. A quick bite in one of the only restaurants open on a Sunday, which is apparently where all of the other Americans go for dinner, and we are back on the road for the 2 hour drive back to the condo. https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/albums/72157657448344766 Day Nine, a nice slow start with no real agenda. We get up and head out of the house with the intention of dropping us off in Dieppe for our ferry ride out the next day. A stop back in Rouen starts with a good walk around, a coffee in a quaint cafe, a visit to the Joan of Arc memorial, and many other interesting sites. Now off to a coastal town, Honfleur. A visit to a Calvados store, Compagnie des Calvados, and a few samples for Pommeau and Calvados, a stop at a seafood restaurant, La Grenouille, for a mountain of shellfish, whelks, periwinkles, brown shrimp and oysters, a visit to a beer bar by the harbor and a few churches round out the visit to Honfleur. Back in the car we make our way to Dieppe. Along the way we see a sign for Etretat, rock arches on the coast. After a little while exploring the pebble covered beach we decide to finish the drive to Dieppe. After getting a little lost and not knowing the exact location of the hotel we make it to our hotel and say goodbye to Todd and Amanda. https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/albums/72157657448601556 Day Ten we are back on the ferry at 6am heading to the UK. A beautiful sunrise as we head home. https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/albums/72157657101709910 Thank you Todd and Amanda for an amazing trip, we wouldn't have changed anything. We look forward to our next adventure. A view from the top of the hill that Barley and I run up to on our evening run looking back down to the valley that the cathedral is in.
A fairly impromptu train trip to London over the Easter holiday. The weather was good and the museums were fantastic. Can't wait for our next trip to London.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/sets/72157652519167845 Our first experience of tent camping in the UK. The weather was good... and cold. The campsite was a beautiful rolling hill... in someone's yard, and there was a very good possibility that the place was a commune. All in all the hikes were beautiful and we made the most of it.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/sets/72157652445035126 We had the chance to experience a solar eclipse. We were in the zone that saw 85% coverage of the sun. In some of the pictures you can see the pin hole camera that I made to view the eclipse with out any risk to your eyes.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/sets/72157650186440193 Several bio domes built down in an old clay mine in the heart of Cornwall. There were tropical, sub-tropical and a Mediterranean climate habitats to explore. First time in a while a jacket was not required.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128680841@N03/sets/72157652097380570 A very posh restaurant with gourmet food. A couple pictures for the Chungster. Beef cheek and scallops.
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AuthorJust an engineering nerd with a photo and beer obsession... Oh, and a sense of adventure. Archives
November 2015
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