Cornwall

We ‘holed up in Newquay and hired a car having decided not to try and squeeze our 6 berth camper down Cornish roads

Lands End – exorbitant parking to check out the view

Geevor Tin Mine.  Closed in the 80s. Even had to wear a hard hat.  Aunty OSH is the same in the UK!  Very informative.  I’ll be a mining expert by the time I return.

Picturesque fishing villages.  St Ives, Hayle, Penzance and Padstow – Rick Stein and Chalkies stomping ground.  Loads of eateries and craft shops.  We dined on scones, jam and clotted cream – a very yellowy substance.

Port Isaac aka Port Wen.  Michelle and I had our photo taken outside Doc Marten’s cottage (of course).

Boscastle – the site of the horrendous 2004 floods which swept many buildings away.

Lots of touring down narrow roads (thank goodness for our hire car)

Tintagel Castle or rather ruins.  By this time mist had rolled in from the sea and swirled around obstructing our view of the ocean.  Made it mysterious and Celtic.

Caught up with friends in Bude who took us to a quirky local pub perched on the edge of cliff.  Lots of fun.

Falmouth, another fishing village and home to Pendennis Castle. A very different castle as it was built by Henry V111 specifically for defence and therefore only inhabited by military personnel.  In has been used by various monarchs and the government to protect the 3^rd largest deep water harbour in the world until the 1950s.  NZ soldiers trained there in WW1 before setting off to Normandy.  Once again we scored a guide all to ourselves who walked us through the castle’s colourful history and took us down to the bunkers.

Michelle and I visited Lanhydrock – a Victorian country estate (think Downton Abby) while the boys went off and did the grocery shopping!   It is designed to show the contrast between the elegant world of the family and the servant’s rooms and work spaces.  We thoroughly enjoyed our visit.  Although the last owner had nine children, only one married and there was no male heir to inherit so the last owner bequeathed it to the national trust.

 

Somerset

Wells Cathedral – amazing scissor arches (yes they look like scissors hence the name) and the oldest clock with a face with a suns, moons and knights on horseback doing their thing on the hour.

Bath – Of course we ‘took the waters’ after our tour of the Roman Baths.  Once again an audio guide and cunning use of holograms and film sequences to dramatically reconstruct life at the Roman Baths. So much better than last time where we just wandered around.  Next we dragged the boys to the fashion museum (yes I can hear all the male friends groan sympathetically). In our defence it was free with our Heritage card.  Checked out the Assembly Rooms with their beautiful 18^th century chandeliers.  I could just picture Regency society milling around, drinking champagne and women dancing in their muslin gowns.  Very Jane Austenish!

Wales – to catch up with family, have a bit of down time and give the van some TLC.

Drove from southern Wales northward across the Brecon Beacons then crossed over into Shropshire ready for our canal boat adventure.