Bristol, catch up

I'm so sorry readers that I haven't blogged since I started work. I got a bit caught up in everything job related and have only just got to the point where I think things are calm enough to take up hobbies again. Work is going well, i'm not enjoying having no knowledge and I am a bit rubbish at talking to people and making friends but, on the other hand, it's really exciting learning lots and meeting new folk.

As a reward for my first ever pay package, Mike and I were planning to take a trip somewhere. Happily our friends Tom and Mel got engaged (yey!) so we were able to coincide a lovely hotel stay with a trip to Bristol to celebrate with them. We scoured reviews and settled upon the Bristol Hotel booking one of the amusingly named 'passion packages' because it was cheaper than adding breakfast each day (and included not only breakfast but champagne and chocolate fondu with homemade marshmallows).

We travelled down to Bristol on the friday afternoon arriving in plenty of time for dinner. Most places were booked up but we spied a little italian restaurant. I, as usual, over ordered and ended up leaving all my main course chips because I'd eaten too much homemade bread and smoked salmon starter. It was a lovely meal and a very fun restaurant to eat at with a jokey and relaxed owner. That night we got our marshmallows for pudding back at the hotel. We were therefore in bed by 9.30 but wrapped in posh dressin gowns and slippers in our fairly large room.

relaxing in our room with champagne and marshmallows

On Saturday, after an epic breakfast, we walked to the station to catch a train to Bath for the day.

Sunrise in bristol and a lovely walk to the station

I mostly wanted to visit two shops I'd heard about: the makery and the fudge factory. It was such a gorgeous (cold) day that upon realising how expensive the abby and pump rooms were to visit, we decided to just walk around and explore.

welcome to bath! home of abby, baths, craft and fudge

We played some mini-golf up by the crescent (I lost by so much), we kicked leaves, we watched some rugby from the road and we found a very random furniture warehouse filled with antiques, some amazing handmade kitchens, and no actual staff (seriously, we didn't see a soul)

leaves, mini golf, rugby and the crazy shop

Finally, we had a very disappointing afternoon tea with teabags instead of leaf and no clotted cream!

That evening we met up with Tom and Mel at a pub in Bristol, failed to get into a free gig and ended up splitting 3 peppermint teabags between 5 in the most odd cafe ever which we chose only because it was open at 10pm.

On the Sunday with another great breakfast in our tummies we checked out (leaving the car in the carpark for the day) and wandered up the harbour to get to the SS Great Britain. We stopped off at the M-shed on the way to learn some of the history of Bristol and there were these awesome tiny ships on the windowsills and some firemen outfits to dress up in!

tiny ships, old firemen, real ships and rosie and jim!

The actual SS Great Britain was BRILLIANT. Even if we weren't both engineers I think we'd have liked it. There was a 3 storey moving engine, a propellor to play with, wax dummies and tonnes of history with just enough information. You walk to the ship through a museum which builds a good level of excitement before you finally get to it.

the SS Great Britain - majestic!

After the ship, we bought takeout tea and carried on up the harbour to the Locks and the Bridge.

Brunel loving geeks

Having crossed these Brunel landmarks off our list we returned to the hotel to drive back home content with our weekend memories (with very chapped lips from the cold). We definitely ought to take advantage of our childless state and go for more weekends away but I think the best kind are these last minute ones where you don't think about the cost too much and just have fun.

Claire

Cornwall Day 5: Walk and ferry trip & Day 6: Zipline

For the last full day before returning home we didn't fancy using the car so we did an approximation of the Hall Walk, a good 5 miles with 2 ferries and lots of exploring in Fowey.

The views on the first part of the walk were pretty good, up above harbours of Boddinick and Fowey. I was also delighted by this blue house, and being on a boat but the greatest surprise was that Fowey harbour had been yarnbombed! The whole harbour looked lovely as we sat and ate our sandwhiches amongst the tourists.

Fowey contains lots of art and interior shops, there was an especially cute shop which sold handmade ceramics and crochet/knitting. I also bought lots of greeting cards from some of the galleries (since we can't afford the real art). We debated getting a large serving bowl the same as in the cottage, and I fell in love with a quilt. We ended up buying neither, dissuaded by being less than half way around the walk.

We spied a castle in the distance and walked there via the beach. We didn't have the teapot with us because we were planning on going for afternoon tea, but there were a family on the beach making smores and gosh that was inspiring for the future. It was a lovely looking little beach for swimming (and even had this swimming platform), but the weather was a bit too rough for that day (not the waves and the faces above). The castle itself was mostly ruined but I loved the view back to the town through the window.

After freezing (poor husband in shorts) and been blown about, we deserved our afternoon tea at The Dwelling House. The 'gourmet' earl grey was actually not very good (they were loose leaf but ground, not anything like the amazing Adagio Teas Earl Grey). The scones were delicious though! My visit to this tearoom, however, was spoiled by the toilet. I have a recurring nightmare about having to urinate infront of people in a wide open bathroom. Well, the toilet was just in a bedroom, with windows and stuff. I would happily go in that bath if it were, say, on a beach in the middle of nowhere. But that was the toilet to use for all the customers, and I felt really uncomfortable about using it.

Anyway, after a hasty retreat Mike and I bought some bread and some John Dorey from the fishmongers for dinner, and set off on the walk back. This involved getting the passenger ferry to Polruan (yes, this is really the ferry and not an imposter touting for tourist money as my dad assumed). The walk back along the creek was very muggy, and we got lost twice but it was entertaining to end up in the grounds of an abandoned mansion where the ex-owner happened to appear because he was reminiscing about living there and moaning about foreigners buying holiday homes.

Dinner was very yummy, we were inspired to buy a book of seafood techniques.

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taken from their website

On the last day, we went home via Adrenalin Quarry - The UK's longest zipline. I consider myself very brave to have done it after the eden project viewing platform, photos on a ledge, and afforementioned toilet fear fiascos - but it was really great! Not too fast but instead serene. Not quite worth all the money they charge but definitely worth a visit.

Coming home on a Saturday meant that by Sunday evening we were relaxed again, and had finished all the laundry and unpacking. At least, we would have been relaxed if I hadn't somehow hurt my back whilst driving over a speedbump which has taken until Friday to heal!

Let me know if you use any of our holiday ideas when you visit Cornwall, or if you too have an irrational fear of toilets or a perfectly valid fear of high places.

Claire
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Cornwall Day 4: Lizard Point, Kynance Cove, Coverack Cove and Falmouth

Day 4 was a Revalation of sunshine and blueskies! It was also packed, with lots of photos taken so take a deep breath and make a cup of tea.

We set off down to Lizard point packing the swimming stuff with us *justincase*.

Mullion Cove, see the blue water!

The first stop off was Mullion Cove. It was a very pretty harbour, similar to the ones we'd seen in Skye last year rather than the more commercial ones near Fowey. The water was beautiful. Unfortunately, the photo on the bottom right resulted in a bit of an argument in which I accused Mike of being insensitive to my fear of death by trying to pull me off the edge for a photo. Hugs always make these things better though (I think he got a bit of a shock at how much I freaked out) so on we journeyed to Lizard Point.

We'd rejected Land's End since it was too commercial (and we'd both visited it as children, and we'd visited Great Britain's most westerly point last summer which trumps England's). Lizard point is the most southerly, has a free car park (well, donation carpark) and is home to Ann's pasties (basically a pasty shop in someone's garage). We got the last pasties (apparently one is supposed to phone in advance), luckily I wanted the vegetarian one :)

We were supposed to save our pasties until we got to the point (a mile walk maybe?) to sit and eat them. This did not happen. Each of us snuck a little bit ("just testing how warm it is") until there was none left.

Bottom right, I'm much happier

Lizard point itself was still quite touristy. But this little beach with the old lifeboat station was almost deserted. Mike did some stone skimming, and then we tested my ability to stand near a fence for a photograph.

After some messing around, we set off walking to Kynance cove (total walk from the car to lizard point, kynance cove and back 7 miles). During the walk the sky became more blue, the sun and wind stronger. We were fairly wind and sunburnt by the end of it!

see how sunny!

It was a beautiful walk, along the cliffs with breathtaking views. One issue I have with national trust walks is that they're a bit too easy with well trodden paths, but the view was worth it. We did lots of overtaking of slower couples, but stopped to watch people throwing model aeroplanes from the top of a cliff.

I found the cove itself (supposed most awesome in England) a little disappointing compared to others we'd seen in Scotland. It was also packed, due to having a road down to it and a cafe. However, we were very thirsty so actually the cafe was appreciated (we had no money but they filled up our water bottle).  I think my most perfect cove would be one which was hard to get to and dramatic.The walk back to the car was a very speedy and flat couple of miles. 

Coverack Cove - brr

Since we hadn't gone swimming at the cove, we looked on the map for the nearest bit of sand and set off to Coverack Cove (it was about 4pm by this point so swimming was perhaps a little optimistic). Again there was donation parking. Initially we took nothing with us but since the beach was so quiet, Mike ran back for the camera to capture photos of us galavanting in the sea. I didn't do any actual swimming, but happily ran around splashing (like the smallest children on the beach) and preparing tea and cake for when Mike was done. I also wore a bikini outside for the first time in my life. 

The end of day 4 was a drive to Falmouth to get fish and chips from the Rick Stein takeaway. We'd highly anticipated these fish and chips, eschewing others on previous evenings to save ourselves. They were a disappointment. Nowhere near as good as the Wee Hurrie in troon so don't bother going. We got back and made up for the disappointment with dessert wine and hot brownie and icecream in the cottage whilst watching thursday evening comedy on E4...our kind of evening. 

With Love

Claire

Cornwall Day 3: Eden Project and Polperro

Day 3 was a bit foggy...

So we decided to go to the Eden project. We didn't really take many photos of the flowers because we wanted the best chance to see everything. We did take this photo of us on the viewing platform, I don't look happy at the height do I? This was my second attempt to get up to the top and, I think, if I hadn't had to wait 35 minutes in a queue I wouldn't have been so determined. The Eden project was great (and we bought tickets cheaply with our clubcard)! We saw (and learned) loads and bought ourselves some hot chocolate to take home (real stuff that you grate into milk).

After the Eden project we drove to Polperro (a harbour near Fowey), potentially to visit The Blue Peter Inn (which has great reviews) for dinner. When we got there, it was busy and the menu wasn't as exciting as we'd hoped so, instead, we drank tea on the beach (alas we'd already eaten the brownies in the queue for the viewing platform at the Eden project) and I saw a one-footed seagull. Polperro is strange because it has a river running through the backs of the houses but the harbour is very pretty, with lots of rocks to explore.

We spotted some steps up from the beach which pointed to a short circular walk with extensive views (2 miles I think). It soon transpired that the fog meant we weren't going to see anything but everytime there was a viewing point we took a photo as we felt commanded. 

On the way back we tried to be inspired by the various seafood restaurants but the lunch yesterday had spoiled us so we bought some mead and some cider and went back to the cottage for a simple tuna salad. 

Day 3 then was a success, despite the weather. We actually enjoy walks in this sort of weather (and the lack of people). Especially when we came across a smugglers tunnel with a ladder which went down through the cliff onto the beach. Mike went to explore it. I did not. 

Claire

Cornwall Day 1 and 2

The next few posts are going to be more detail about our holiday itinerary- incase you decide you want to go to Cornwall and get ideas.

The cottage was a national trust cottage  which we got last minute and therefore discounted. By FAR the best thing about the cottage was the complete cornish teaset from TG Green: teapots, lots of cups, dinner plates, a huge serving bowl, coffee pot and milk jugs. I loved it, I remember having a cornish coffeepot which  Rachel (from Generation Artisan) had a matching set of, but both ended up broken :(

The cottage was well equipped and comfortable, but the dehumidifier got annoying after a while and the fact that the cottage was split into two (as are lost of their cottages) was a shame compared with our amazing honeymoon cottage.

We took a bit of a detour via Dartmoor to get there which was well worth the extra hour or so. The first evening involved going to the supermarket (requiring a ferry) and to a pub in Polruan where we enjoyed scallops, and playing a game of fluxx.

Playing Fluxx in a pub

Day two was our wedding anniversary. After opening our cards and presents (and Mike doing the crossword) we went to Padstow (to eat at Rick Stein's seafood restaurant).

Padstow Beach

Our meal was booked for 2pm so before that we went for a walk to the beach. Due to the grey day it was fairly quiet and we spent a lovely hour just wandering. We also visited the shops in Padstow - pretty greetings cards were bought.

After the meal we did a small recovery walk before heading off to Beduthran Steps. We parked and set off on a cliff-top loop, returning to the beach (down the precarious steps) for a cup of tea and some gingerbread.

And that was our first couple of days.

Cornwall Holiday

A few photos

Mike and I have just got back from our summer holiday. We took a week out before the hardcore final writing stage of my PhD and visited Cornwall. We stayed in a national trust cottage at the top of a creek near Fowey. It was very peaceful and the creek was swamp like: muddy with tree-roots diving right into the mud. Another perk was that the best way to get to a pub was via a ferry (either car or passenger). We took the teacosy with us every day, along with the teapot filled with loose-leaf tea, a tiny jar of milk (for Mike) and a thermos of hot water. The teapot had 3 beach trips, but we were upstaged on the last day by a marshmallow cooking family. It was grey for the first two days, with a fair amount of rain, but we were blessed with two lovely days (we even managed a swim). We did lots of walks (a few cliff-top ones and one around the creek) and ate lots of cake and had a very relaxed time.

For our anniversary (2 years since we got married), we had a special lunch at Rick Stein's seafood in Padstow. We shared an epic plate of shellfish (the only thing I didn't like was the whelk) and then Mike had Turbot, and I a lobster pie. The chips were also awesome (wife tax from Mike's plate) but I had samphire. They gave us free petit fours at the end (with happy anniversary written on :)) which we followed with an 8 mile walk and tea on the beach nearing sunset at Beduthran Steps - a perfect day.

anniversary lunch

We also bought a print in Padstow, which I'll frame and blog sometime soon. There was lots of beautiful sea-side art to choose from but that's not how we roll.

Love

Claire
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