We're baaaaack!!! - so stay tuned

We intend to finish this story of our trip, which would have already been done, except for the lack of internet access in various places.

So, next is Truro, in Cornwall...

St.Mawes castle, English Heritage,

Sunday, 29th May - (Catch-up)

It started as a coolish morning, and we decided to go and have a look at St. Mawes Castle. It is through the town and up on the headland, and you have to crawl though the town and past some really nice houses to get to it. The crawling is twofold - first you have to wait for dawdling tourists and locals, and secondly the road is so narrow, it really only affords access one way and you have to tuck in to allow people to come past. Of course it isn't helped by any of those places where people decide they just have to park, and so you creep past them as well. 

The castle itself, when you get to it, is set down into the headland, and was never involved in any battle. The people of the time realised that it could not be defended from a land-based attack (from behind), and so the poeple holding the castle surrendered without firing a shot! It was never damaged during the Cromwell era either. It is a really nice "round" castle with gun turrets in all directions, and much more within the walls than you have any concept of until you get inside. It is little changed from the Henry VIII times

The castle doesn't appear to have been 'lived-in' as there are no grand rooms, and it hasn't been remodelled or Victorianised. After crossing the bridge you descend to different levels and then out the bottom to the gardens, which are right on the sea wall, looking across to Pendennis Castle near Falmouth.

After our tour, we decided to re-join English Heritage, and use the membership for the rest of our trip, as we will be going to Pendennis, Tintagel, Stonehenge, Dover, and Deal castles, and it really does benefit you to join if you know you are going to visit these places, as it saves heaps on individual entry fees.

We're back!!! well to Southampton really...

Saturday, 2nd July - FAST FORWARD TO BELGIUM AND SOUTHAMPTON...

Well, we've done it all now, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, and Belgium, and at the moment we are about to re-enter the English Channel, after having had a great day in Brugge.

If you never go anywhere else in this area, go to Brugge. It is soooooo beautiful. The only thing that spoiled it for us today might have been the amount of people there! It was the start of the summer holidays (kids), plus all us cruisers and other tourists. Still, it was a wonderful place, and we just loved it.

All big bags out in the corridor for taking off the ship tomorrow, and we have a night in Southampton before going up to Heathrow on Monday for the flight home.

However, we are determined to finish this blog of our "adventures", so keep watching. 

( I will have new access to the internet tomorrow in Southampton, so we might get a chance to stick in some new posts).

Is the world still out there? We haven't had any news about Australia for 3 months!!!

See youse all soon.
 

At sunset, I just happened to be out on deck and took this...I'm going to call it "Solar Power" (the sun behind a power station)

Wells, Torquay, Plymouth, Cornwall...

25^{th May} – Wells Cathedral continued – We weren’t sure how much time was left on the parking, so we decided not to see the Bishop’s Palace. On the road down to Glastonbury, we could see in the distance a distinctive hillock with what seemed like a tower on top, this turned out to be Glastonbury Tor, but as you get closer, it doesn’t seem  to be as prominent.

Stopped at Exeter services which was quite complicated to get into, and out of and then after the turnoff to Torquay, it gets more complicated, but perhaps by pure luck, we found the Premier Inn. We think it has been re-hashed from an older hotel, and they are also building a brand new section next door, and this has taken up most of what must have been a bigger car park. Unfortunately, we (and others) had to park away from the hotel, and walk back, which is not good with bags etc.

Still, the location is very nice and overlooks the sea, and the promenade. Our room was one of the smallest we’ve had but at least there is a lift here, and so the journey up to our floor wasn’t too bad.

After the mandatory nap, we went across to the promenade for a walk. There is a connecting stairway/ramp which gets you to the promenade, and we walked along for quite some distance in the sun. It was a little cool, but very pleasant, and there is a huge hill above the area which has more hotels/guest houses up at the top, reached by an enormous zig-zag stairway, which wends its way up and down to connect the two areas. There are a lot of grand old houses and guest houses, probably from the Victorian era, and the 19^th Century,  at the top level.  

Dinner here was one of the Beefeater restaurants attached to Premier Inn.

Thursday, 26^th – Torquay / Plymouth / Cornwall - (catch-up)

Thought we might do m ore sightseeing in Torquay today, but it was raining so we headed off for our next stop which is Plymouth. We’ve been using our big road map atlas thing and it has been good, but where they mark some roads as RED and some GREEN, to distinguish the type of road you might be on, i.e. major/minor, we have found that the reverse is often the case from what you expect. The green are supposed to be better. The M’s are yet another thing and OK if you want to get from A to B in a hurry, but you then have to literally go with the flow or be passed by all and sundry, and it is a bit hairy at times!

We went via Dartmouth, and the road was a little challenging, but  very scenic, and we chose to go cross the river (Dart), at the higher ferry which goes across to the town of Dartmouth.  Not much except a cable ferry at the crossing point, and you can see across to the town, with the usual amount of boats and yachts. It was drizzling still but we had to stop and take photo’s of the most beautiful large 4 masted sailing boat which was gliding up the river.

Wanted coffee but this town is one of those that didn’t seem to lend itself into getting into it easily, and parking yet another problem, so we moved on. The road from here towards Plymouth was very picturesque, but so slow as we had to negotiate many small villages with the narrowest of streets, and yet we passed buses coming the other way!

As you come down from these heights you get to Slapton Sands which has a long beach to one side and a lagoon on the other. Looks like one of those popular holiday places where people take cottages or their own caravans.

We’d been warned by the people at Plymouth Premier Inn that there were road works going on and negotiating our way into the hotel might be difficult!! They were right, as it took us three go’s to finally find our way there, and this involved going through most of the city traffic. Once there, it is a newish hotel in the chain and had a lift, (yay), so we were not worried about all the bag carrying etc. A really nice room up on the top floor, with a view across the marina to the harbour, and the city.

Although it was a little cold, we went for a walk later and around to the harbour, and across a lock, which allows boats in and out of the marina and maintains the water level. Pedestrians can cross this lock, and the walkway goes all the way around and back to the area where our hotel was. Nice spot, but not conducive to hanging around as the weather wasn’t good. Looked for somewhere different to have dinner but they were either too far away, or didn’t appeal, so we settled for the hotel place called Lockyer’s Quay, and had some really nice Duck and Pork sausages, and settled in for our last night before our next self-catering place at Cornwall.

27^th May to 3^rd June – Torquay / Plymouth / Cornwall 2 – (Catch-up)

We opted for what we thought was the easiest way out of Plymouth, and took an immediate left trun into a multi-storey car park! Having retraced our steps, the trip to St. Austell was quite easy and we stopped there to buy supplies for our week in St. Mawes, Cornwall, which was to be our next self-catering place. We got all the basics and thought there would be some market stalls but they turned out only to be a veg stand, and some plants. A great deli, and then Lee went into a store called Iceland, and said it was one of the strangest supermarkets she’d ever seen, and we worked out later that it was almost all frozen foods!!!

View from the apartment

Fairly narrow roads down here and the locals think they can drive however and how fast they want to. Eventually found the flat at the bottom of a VERY steep drive, which ends up in a boat yard, but with a great view out over the marina thingy and the estuary. Lovely unit on the top floor up 17 stairs, (are you sick of stairs when you start counting how many there are??). Still, once established, we unpacked for what was to be a very relaxing week, but one I discovered had no internet access!!  That would mean arranging something else for this blog.

Sat. 28^th – Woke to a colder day after yesterday’s sunny one, and after a simple (for a change), breakfast of fresh strawberries and yoghurt, toast and vegemite. Then drove down to the town to have a look and they have quite a few shops including a supermarket, various restaurants, pubs, etc. On a daily basis there is a little shop near the wharf that sells freshly baked bread, and it always sells out very quickly, (not surprised as most of the bread you get in the shops is very dry and heavy), and like the local butcher, once it’s all gone, that’s it! There is also a post office and we were able to send some more things back to lighten our load. Things like pamphlets, and guide books to houses and gardens, etc. Most of them will arrive after we get back, as we have sent them surface mail, and the trick is to keep it under 2 kilos, otherwise it gets very costly.

I did a savoury mince to have one of our nights, and today we just did a simple piece of grilled chicken and salad, and yummy bread. So nice to be able to do your own, and not have to make do with pub or restaurant food.

Leaving Gloucestershire, and heading for Cornwall...(photo's later)

Wednesday, 25th May - (Catch-up, at sea on the Azura, heading for Dublin)

We are to be in Cornwall on Friday, at the next self-catering place in St. Mawes.

Today we headed for Torquay, but on the way we decided to visit Wells Cathedral, which was recommended to us by Colin's cousin, and/or Linda from the small cruise, who said it was beautiful and worth a look.

After negotiating our way through and out of Bristol, we went through some very pretty countrside, (isn't it all?), and some nice towns like Chelwood, which reminded Lee of Carbridge up in Scotland.

There were the usual towns with odd names like Chewton Mendip, and more beautiful stone buildings and walls, and of course plenty of green space. This part of the country hasn't had much rain this spring.

Like most, Wells Cathedral is visible from a distance, but not as spectacular as Lincoln or Ely. Parking isn't easy in some towns, as we've mentioned but we found a spot, and also found the required coffee place for our morning fix. This one is Coffee #1, which is quite good.

You approach a town gate, and the cathedral and buildings are through this gate. The design is very much different, with two towers at front, and one at the back.

Inside the cathedral is breathtakingly beautiful, with what they call scissor arches, apparently invented in Wells, to counteract the problem of sinking foundations.

The stone is beautiful,, and the columns are fluted quite deeply, and how on earth they 'designed' them and constructed them is a real mystery. Everything seems to fit together so perfectly. 

I am falling in love with cloisters! I know they had their use in being able to walk around and meditate, etc., out of the weather, but they look so inviting and cosy, and 'comforting', I guess that was their purpose? There is also a very interesting undercroft, with a display area, and Lee also took a photo of some roman numerals, but the C's looked like D's, and there was an effigy dating back to the 13th/14th Century, AND it had graffiti on it, some dating back to the 1500's!!

more in next post...

Cousin Colin and the family villages...Part 2

Tuesday 24th May - (Catch-up)

After taking the photos of Codrington Court grounds, we headed down to Little Sodbury, via a very narrow lane. No trouble finding St Adelines church and the village which is only a cluster of really nice homes (probably some have been re-done). The church was rebuilt in 1859, from the stones originally used for the original chapel. It is where William Tyndale worked on his translation of the Bible.

There are only fairly modern burials in the churchyard (e.g. post-1859), and Lee believes from her research that most ofd the burials in the 1600/1700's were in Old Sodbury.

 

We met a man and his daughter who were having a jog, and he explained to Lee that Little Sodbury is right on the edge of the Cotswolds, and, and it is Sodbury Vale where the countryside flattens out. He also said that Chipping Sodbury was built in the 1200's or possib;ly earlier and was to replace Old Sodbury, which he said was a 20 minute walk, but we decided to drive!

Had lunch at The Dog Inn, (circa 1590), but not a memorable one as the quiche was zapped in a microwave. On up the hill to the Old Sodbury Church, which is in a fabulous location, overlooking Sodbury Vale. Some stones were still readable from the 1700's, but lots of unmarked and/or unreadable ones as well.

Lovely church inside. There were some plaques on the wall for the name Brookes, and we took photos as there are some Brookes/Brooks family connections that were in Old Sodbury, (Mary Brooks married William Beazer - Gordon's 4 X Great Grandfather).

Our final visit was to the Cross Hands Hotel, which has been renovated and bears no real resemblance to its earlier days, so we took a photo from across the road, just for the record.

Not a bad morning of discovery, but both tired now and back to the hotel for the requisite nana nap.

Cousin Colin and the family villages...

Monday, 23rd and Tuesday 24th - (Catch-up)

We rang Colin about 10.00am and went over to see him and sat chatting for a couple of hours. I had my digital voice recorder with me, and forgot all about it, and so a lot of what we talked about is memory.

Colin had suggested we go out for lunch to a place called the Gumstool Inn, which he had known from previous visits. It was a lovely place and quiet, and on the way back, he took us past and through Horton and Chipping Sodbury, pointing out places he knew and had worked, and his brother's house, where Maurice and his wife lived.

As we'd had such a large lunch, we opted to have a couple of starters (entrees) for dinner, and then shared a cheese platter, and that made for a really nice meal, and not too much.

On the Tuesday, we had decided to try and see as many of the villages and places relating to the Bezer family that we could find.

small part of Wapley Common

First we went into Yate, and found where William Bezer and Hannah Turner were married in 1730. As with many churchyards, the stones were very old and unreadable, and many graves had no stones at all, so the frustrating bit about not actually finding anything continues. After Yate, we went all the way along the lane that runs by Colin's house, and found Wapley Common, and yet another area of allotment gardens, which we hadn't known of last trip. Wapley Common is huge and so peaceful. We are still in awe of just how much land is still "countryside", especially when you think of the population of this country. It includes Wapley Bushes (wildlife area), and was quite different from Westerleigh Common where Colin had driven us through yesterday, which had lots of roaming cattle, contained by cattle grids at either end.

There was also a grand gateway to a large property, which had no name on the gate, but we might be able to identify it from the lovely hand-drawn map Colin gave us last trip.
Further up the hill we took this photo of the Old School House, which belongs to Colin's cousin Shirley.

The Old School House

Colin had told us that great-great granmother Hannah Bennett had worked at Codrington Court
before she was married, and her initials are carved in the lintel, and that Codrington Court was opposite the Codrington Arms, which we found opposite the gates of the estate, and is now called The Wishing Well Hotel.

Part 2 next time