On & Off the Road

Well, not really….

Today, we departed Cornwall and continued our journey.  When approaching a roundabout, our gps will announce “continue through the roundabout, THIRD exit.”  Or first or second or whatever.  The third exit basically means we are to turn RIGHT.  We miscounted.

And so our 5 minute journey from St. Ives to the A30 in Hayle became a 30 minute trial driving down by far the narrowest lanes we’ve driven so far!  At last we arrived at the A30 and began our trek north.  From St. Ives to Ilfracombe, in Devon, is only 120 miles.  Supposedly it would take us 3 hours.  Not on these roads it doesn’t!

But first we had to detour (getting lost because we listened to the GPS) to Port Isaac.  If you are a fan of British TV, you might have heard of the program “Doc Martin”.  This delightful program about a successful London surgeon who develops a sort of fear of blood and so retires to the life of a country doctor in Cornwall takes place in a mythical town called Portwenn.  Portwenn is, indeed, Port Isaac!  The town is every bit as quaint as the tv show suggests.  Though of course it is a huge tourist stop, with several shops advertising that they are the ONLY authorized distributor of “Doc Martin” souvenirs!

It’s a nice long walk down from the cliffs (on very nice wide paths) to the town and we wandered around for about an hour, then scedaddled for our next stop.

Just a short 10 minute drive (and 40 minutes later) we arrived at Tintagel.  For those of us hindered by our American version of English, that’s pronounced tin TADGE l – the a as in CAT.  Again, we parked outside of town and wandered around, visiting the old post office (check the photos) then wandering to the town hotel where we could view the Tintagel ruins across a little bay.

We then walked back into town, bought a Cornish Steak Pasty, and ate as we walked down the VERY steep hill to the ticket office.  We saw a brief film, then went to buy our tickets.  The lady suggested that there were “lots of steps, and of course there’s the bridge” and suggested we walk up to the bridge where we would be able to see the steps.  There would be another chance to purchase tickets there (at about $6).  Well THAT didn’t happen.  You guessed it, about 50 feet shy of the bridge was yet another bridge…. and Eric was totally incapable of proceeding. I might have made it past the first bridge, but I could see the main one further up, and there was NO way I could handle it.  Though, of course, the steps while hard would likely not have been too much!

I offered to go purchase a tea while Scott went on ahead but he assured me he’d done it 30 years ago and it was okay.  So we turned around and headed out.

We are now settled in a very nice little place, the Score Valley Country House Hotel, a charming little B&B set quietly down a little valley.  The picture we took last night before bed didn’t turn out for some reason, so after our day today I’ll get a good one, and post it!

It’s off to our Breakfast so, ta ta!

Sunday morning, after a nice breakfast of Wheetabix (a breakfast cereal) toast and coffee, Scott and I drove down to St. Michael’s Mount, across the bay from Penzance (fabled land of Pirates… AAarrgh!)

We were lucky to arrive during low tide, so we walked across the causeway to this ancient hilltop monastery, then climbed the hill and toured the facility.  Once again, I was somewhat limited to what I could see because of acrophobia!  Imagine a huge monastery turned baronial hall situated high up a crag located on an island in the middle of a bay on the Atlantic coast.  The walls of the castle were sheer with the cliff walls!

From there, we drove to Penzance where we ate our first Cornish Pasties!  That’s pronounced past ey.  The a sounds like an a in the word can.  Quite tastey!  See the picture!  Okay, there’s not a picture of a pasty…

After lunch we drove back to St. Ives (after briefly getting lost) for a little bit of shopping.  Then, BACK to Penzance to the Merry Maidens, a circle of 19 stones erected by stone age people of England a thousand or more years BC.  After exploring these stones, we searched out Carn Euny… for pronunciation, try CAIrn Yoonie.  This is a stone age town that saw constant habitation from 500 bc to about 400 ad.  That’s longer than Europeans have been in the Americas!

After dinner at the Life Boat Inn in St. Ives, where I had the Steak & Ale Pie with chips (french fries) and Scott had Bangers & Mash, we drove up to a little town called Nancledra to get a sunset shot of St. Michael’s Mount.  Unfortunately, the clouds and the sun did not cooperate.

We wrapped up our evening sipping whiskey with our hosts at Chy-An-Creet.

Once again we successfully embarked on our journey by 7:30 am today.  We set out on England’s M25, the major road circling London, then transitioned to the M3, and eventually, by hook or by crook, we ended up on the A30, through Salisbury.

We were well on our way to making it all the way to St. Ives by 2 pm or so until we saw a sign for a castle that we’d watched a documentary of on TV… Castle Drogo.  This is the last castle built in England, around the years 1911 through about 1931.  Here I realized just how small English roads could actually be!  The road up, and the road down, were single lane wide paths.  Imagine meeting up with a delivery truck on that!  One has to backup until one finds a wide spot in the road!

After 2 hours at Drogo, we made a bee-line for Chy-An-Creet, the little bed & breakfast that we were to stay at in St. Ives.  We arrived around 5, then walked down to the cute little village of St. Ives (a 12 minute walk down), where we ate our first and only… so far… hamburger in England.  After our burger and an ale, we wandered back to the B&B (a 15 minute walk UP).  After I caught my breath, we grabbed our jackets (it was chilly – as usual) and drove off for the 19 mile drive to Land’s End, via Sennen Cove.  This road was also a very narrow trip!  Here we walked down to the cliffs on the furthest most point of the Island of England.  We saw a marvelous sunset, then headed back.

Well, I do owe you all a bit of an update, now, don’t I?

Thursday morning, we picked up our rental car, a Vauxhall Meriva, then parked it at Molly’s while we once again traveled down to “Merry Olde London-town” by train.  The post from Thursday explains what happened that day, and the quite bizarre and wondrous happenstance of encountering my brother, Bob, and his wife Marcy, at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Friday morning, Scott and I rose early, about 6:20 am.  We wanted to be on the road as early as possible.  As it turned out, we encountered very little traffic as we were going pretty much against the flow.  Most traffic in this area of England (Mill Hill is north, and we were driving North-East) is coming INTO London.

We had a nice peaceful drive, though admittedly it took me a great deal of time, even as only a passenger, getting used to traffic circles.  I have to say, though, that now that I AM used to them, it’s amazing we don’t use them more in the US.  Each turn seemed to take us on to a smaller road.  It’s amazing that there is so much traffic on roads that, in the US, would be one way only due to the width… simply a single or single and a half lane.  And the roads often come right up to the edge of a house or building.  As in to within mere inches!

The purpose of our drive to Ipswich was to see Scott’s old stomping grounds around RAF Bentwaters, a joint US/RAF base (RAF for those who may not know, stands for Royal Air Force).  There’s not a lot left, however, if you hop on over to our photos, you’ll see a picture of Scott standing next to a sign for the base.  The Air Base was shut down in 1989.

After that, we drove over to the North Sea where we saw the fishing boats come in.  Then we headed to Sutton Hoo,  It is a fascinating archaeological site dating back to around 620 AD.  We had a good wander around, then it was off, once again to Colchester the oldest city in England, dating back to the time of the Romans.  However, because our GPS deposited us in the middle of a field well outside the city, by the time we had found our way into the city and to the museum we wanted to visit… we got there just as it closed.

So, from there, we made our way home.  We needed to get to bed early so that once again we could get on our way early.

Hello all you friends!

I think I made this one in just in the nick of time, beating my promised 72 hours.  Unfortunately, for the past 2 and a half days, we’ve driven several hundred miles and have not had internet access until just now.  I had hoped to write as we drove, but Scott has needed all my help.  I haven’t even been able to nap!

And today is by far the nicest day we’ve had here, by far.  And so, I think I shall renig on my promise to post more, and instead Scott and I shall take off again for town and a spot to eat!  You’ll just have to cope, I fear.  When I do return, I plan on writing a post for Friday, Saturday, Sunday AND today.

I do have more photos up but not labeled.  And they may NOT be labeled until, well, sometime in June!

Hello faithful reader(s)!

Scott and I had another long day, and so once again, YOU are getting cheated.  If you haven’t been checking out our photos, go here and take a look!  There’s a challenge hidden in one of the photos!  You have until we leave England next week to enter it!

Tomorrow, bright and early, Scott and I leave for Cornwall!  Sometime in the next 72 hours, we PROMISE we’ll find time to post a proper blog, and get all the photos labelled!

Gracious we’ve been busy!

I have a lot to write about… but not tonight… it’s 11:30 pm, and we’re zonked.

But I do have to share this.  Scott and I made it to St. Paul’s Cathedral today.  Scott climbed to the top… I chickened out.  So, I’m sitting in the main portion of the Cathedral, and turn around….

And THERE was my brother Bob and his wife, Marcy!  All three of us raised quite the ruckus, got shushed by the docent, and stared dumbly at each other for a time.  Well, I stared dumbly!

Later we met them again (this time planned, of course) for a nice dinner at a little pub near their hotel.

I’ll write more in the day or two ahead!

OK.  That’s shared, it’s time for bed!

Hi all!

We’ve been having the time of our lives! And we’ve done tons of walking!  I may not walk for at least an hour after getting home from England.  (Actually longer… I’ve got a nice blister on my toe, and the chaffing I referred to earlier has gotten really bad.)

Tuesday, we went back downtown.  We’re in Mill Hill, a northern suburb of London.  It’s about 40 minutes by train and “tube” (subway) to downtown London.  And it’s a 10 minute walk to the train station.

By the time we got to downtown, the area around St. Paul’s it was 12:00 noon.  We had hoped to tour the cathedral then climb it’s dome.  We climbed the steps at 12:02, and they had taken the last tour for the day because there was an event scheduled.

So we wandered over to the Imperial War Museum and spent the afternoon there.  I was fascinated, as I knew I would be, by all the implements of war.  Then, we went through their Holocaust exhibit.  We left afterwards.  That was too intense, but an experience everyone should have at some time in their lives.  We know it was bad.  We know it was beyond any words to describe how horrible it was.  And then one visits a Holocaust Exhibit, and one realizes that it’s even worse than we thought.

After, we wandered up to the Thames, and rode on the London Eye.  That is incredible!  Even for an acrophobic like myself!

Today… not sure.  We’ll figure it out as we go.

Hi all,

I’ve not written quite as much as I’d hoped to.  But then I hadn’t taken into account how the days would unfold.

We’ve been up until nearly midnight every night, and we are sleeping later than usual.  Right now it’s only 9:30 am here London time… all my Omaha friends are still sound asleep!

So, let me summarize the past few days.

Friday, May 11.

Roger, my manager, drove Scott and I to the airport.  Catching our flight went without hitch, and we then spent 3 hours killing time in Minneapolis.  Our flight to London boarded without incident of any kind, at 9:40 pm.  Scott and I couldn’t sit together as the plane was full.  I watched Captain America, ate the absolute WORST meal possible, and fell asleep at about 12:30 am.

Saturday, May 12.

I got about 3 hours of sleep, scrunched between two very sound sleepers!  Landing at Heathrow was smooth, and we just about whisked through Customs, and stepped foot legally on English soil.

Martin Brune, my cousin Molly’s husband, met us as we came out of the Customs zone, and drove us the 40 minutes to their home in Mill Hill region of London.  After settling in, we (Martin, Scott & I) headed, by train and tube, down to the area around London University, for Bryan’s Stag Party.  We enjoyed a beer and a Jagermeister (to the extent one can enjoy Jagermeister) shot, then left Bryan and his buddies  to the remainder of their evening.  We returned home.

Molly was home, and we sat and chatted into the night, heading off to bed about 11:30.

Sunday, May 13.

Scott and I slept until 10, then got dressed and made our first solo foray into London.  You can view our pictures, here.

Returning around 8ish, we chatted again with Molly & Martin, and downloaded pictures.  I got a bit tipsy, as my back had been killing and wine was the only muscle relaxant I have… having left my prescription at home!

Monday, May 14.

Again, Scott and I slept until nearly 10:30, and didn’t get into town until 1:20 pm.  We spent the entire day in the British Museum viewing especially those areas of interest to Scott in his archaeological pursuits.  I was thrilled to tag along and watch his enjoyment!

After dinner at a downtown pub, where I FINALLY got to enjoy a delicious meal of “Fish & Chips”, we joined Molly for a pint at another pub, then met up with Bryan and Elizabeth for an evening of Theatre… a thoroughly enjoyable “Sweeney Todd”.  We had hoped to have another pint with them, however poor Bryan was still reeling from his Stag!

We got back home at 11:30 and went straight to bed.

Tuesday, May 15.

And now we begin a new day.  No clue what we’ll do.  Scott and I spent the morning labelling all of Sunday’s photos, and rearranging them in to their correct order, so go visit them again!

Good evening, my friends!

It’s nearing Midnight in London, and I’m about done in for the day.  Scott and I estimate we walked about 7 miles today.  I’ve developed a bit of a problem with chaffing, and my back gave me fits today.  Enough so that we eventually found a pub, The King’s Arms, and had a pint to see if a bit of alcohol would help my back relax.  When we got home, I had a few more experimental glasses of wine.  So, to quote the English, I’m a bit pissed.

Why not wander over to www.scottneric.com/photoalbums and check out our pictures of today.  Find the challenge and answer it correctly!

G’night, y’all!