25th 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 19th Century, at the top level.
Dinner here was one of the Beefeater restaurants attached to Premier Inn.
Thursday, 26th – 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.
27th May to 3rd 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. 28th – 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.
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. 
