Newport, United Kingdom
Dinner at The Fox pub for our last night with Jane before heading across to Belgium for our bike and barge trip. On Wednesday morning Jane dropped us a Stafford railway station for the 2 hour trip to London to catch the Eurostar to Brussells.
This is a 3 hour trip including about half an hour under the English Channel and the trains have a top speed of 300 km per hour. From Brussells it was on a local train to Bruges for 3 nights before joining the barge Zwaantje.
We started the day with a trip across to St Michael’s Mount. This estate has been in the same family for 600 years and the current Lord still resides here.
From the top of the castle the Spanish Armada was first sighted. We did a short walking tour of the village next to the harbour and discovered it is home to 35 people (workers and their families). In 1846 Queen Victoria made a surprise visit and was entertained by the housekeeper as the Lord was away.
A bronze cast of her footprint commemorates the occasion and this tradition has continued for monarchs and heirs.
The gardens were beautifully maintained but we cut short our visit to catch the last boat back to Marazion. We had just enough water to get to the pier and it would be another half hour or more until the causeway was open to foot traffic.
From here we went to The Lizard after deciding Dartmouth (ancestral home of the Kerswills) was too far. More beautiful rugged coastlines.
Jane was worried about our accommodation for tonight in the small village of Cadgwith. The hotel was great and after beautiful freshly caught fish for dinner we enjoyed a fun trivia night with the locals. We didn’t win but did not disgrace ourselves either.
We had a bad start to the day when we went to get the car and found a flat tyre. Jane called AA who were there within the hour and removed the large bolt and did a temporary repair.
Jane drove Warren and I to the Telegraph Museum while she drove back to Penzance to get the tyre fixed.
The museum was very interesting about the history of morse code, cable messaging and undersea cables. There were also displays in the World War 2 tunnels next to the museum.
From here we visited the Minack Theatre. This theatre had been created into the hillside by Rowena Cade. It is a fascinating place that is a testament to the determination of its creator who carted much of the materials by hand to the unique site.
Next was Lands End on a cold and windy afternoon.
Our accommodation for the night was the Glenleigh BnB in Marazion. Dinner was at the Hotel Godolphin, right on the water overlooking St Michaels Mount.
Saint Ives, England
We left the Abbey after breakfast and headed to Falmouth to visit Pendennis Castle.
This was a large site with a castle built by Henry VIII, a large former barracks building with an interesting WWI and II display and a gun emplacement below the castle.
It also gave us a great viewpoint of the many yachts sailing in Falmouth Harbour.
This is the third largest harbour in the world behind Rio de Janeiro and Sydney. Next on the agenda was a trip to the National Maritime Museum of Cornwall.
There was a special Bligh display and a recreation of the ship’s launch . Bligh’s voyage in the launch was an amazing act of seamanship. 15 men and provisions for a 47 day trip to Timor, a voyage of 3618 nm had this ship down to the gunnels. All done with just a compass and quadrant – no charts or chronometer. Only one man lost when they were attacked by hostile natives.
From here we drove back across Cornwall to North Cliffs which was rugged and COLD.
By now the wind was up to about 30 knots and our stop was just long enough for a few pictures. On to St Ives then to find our accommodation at the Sloop Inn. Several attempts using the Sat Nav (car and Google) where we ended up in lanes so narrow we weren’t game to proceed and we resorted to calling the Inn.
We eventually found it, unloaded our bags in drizzle and what now felt like 40 knots of wind in the laneways and enjoyed a sundowner. Not a popular term here as the sun doesn’t set until after 9pm.
Dinner at Alba restaurant overlooking the harbour was a treat. Jane had been given the tip to book early and request a table by the window. A nice end to the day.
Tintagel, United Kingdom
0530 and we are on the road to escape the M5 and M6 holiday traffic. It was a good move as we were in the village of Boscastle by 1100.
This is a picturesque village built in a gorge leading to the sea. We walked up to the headland overlooking the inlet and were glad for the calm winds.
In 2004, Boscastle suffered a terrible flood after heavy rain in the catchment lead to flash flooding similar to what Toowoomba suffered several years ago. Residents had to be airlifted from rooftops and cars washed away.
After a Cornish pasty for lunch, we headed to Tintagel castle, where legend says King Arthur was conceived.
Not sure about that but it was the site of a dark ages village and Middle Ages castle. Lots of steps but beautiful views.
Stopped at Port Isaac for a quick look. Tide was out but the crew of Doc Martin were there filming for the day.
Our accommodation for the night was St Benet’s Abbey. Beautiful building and rooms though Jane did appear to be in the outhouse!
We visited the site of the 1403 battle between King Henry IV and a rebel army led by Henry Percy from Northumberland. Over 6000 men were thought to have died and a chapel was built on the battlefield.
There is a good museum telling the story and although the King lost more men, the death of Henry Percy was the turning point in the battle.
Prince Henry, Prince of Wales was shot in the face with an arrow. Well worth a visit if you are near Shrewsbury (also a great farm shop with local produce).
Drinks at a friend of Jane’s house (complete with peacock) and then on to Whitchurch for dinner. Great start to the trip.
0235 departure on time from Brisbane Airport to start our 2017 European trip. Warren manages to get an aisle seat which makes him happy and we have a few short naps on the first leg to Singapore. The flight takes 8 hours and we arrive at 0830 Singapore time.
Misty when we landed. We had about an hour to stretch our legs before we were back on the Boeing 777-300 for the 7 hour flight to Dubai.
Another hour in the airport before boarding a A380 for the final leg to Birmingham. Unfortunately it was another hour before we left after a medical evacuation required 15 bags to be found and offloaded. With 600 passengers, this was no easy task for the ground crew.
We didn’t make up any time during the 8 hour flight so we landed an hour late in Birmingham, where we were met by our friend Jane. A long wait for the bags was not great after the 27 hours since leaving Brisbane.
