Southern England 2009
Winchester, Cornwall, Bath, Cotswolds, London
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Rough Itinerary2009-04-08 00:23

Google map of the trip

Sunday, 4/12:leave ABQ, fly Delta

Monday, 4/13: arrive Heathrow, rent car, drive to Winchester in Hampshire, stay at Dawn Cottage

Tuesday, 4/14: Winchester: Cathedral, Petworth House, Bignor Roman Villa, Arundel Castle, Chichester Cathredral, Fishbourne Roman Palace, Portsmouth Harbor

Wednesday, 4/15: Winchester

Thursday, 4/16: Winchester to Mowey in Cornwall

Friday, 4/17: Mowey: Saltram House, Mt. Edgecumbe, Eden Project, Lost Gardens of Heligan, Trewithen Gardens, Trelessick Gardens, St. Mawes Castle, Glendurgan Gardens, Lizard Peninsula, Tintagel Castle

Saturday, 4/18: Mowey

Sunday, 4/19: Mowey to Penzance in Cornwall

Monday, 4/20: Penzance: St. Michael’s Mount, Trengwainton Garden, Porthcurno Cove, Land’s End, Minack Open-Air Theatre, Geevor Tin Mine, St. Ives -Tate, Trerice Stately Home, Padstow, Cornwall Coastal Path,

Tuesday, 4/21: Penzance

Wednesday, 4/22: Penzance

Thursday, 4/23: Penzance to Bath in Somerset

Friday, 4/24: Bath: Cheddar Gorge/Caves, Glastonbury Abbey, Wells Cathedral, Stourhead Gardens, Longleat House

Saturday, 4/25: Bath

Sunday, 4/26: Bath to Chipping Camden, Cotswolds in Gloucestershire

Monday, 4/27: Chipping Camden

Tuesday, 4/28: Chipping Camden to Heathrow, turn in car, train to London

Wednesday, 4/29: London

Thursday, 4/30: London

Friday, 5/1: London

Saturday, 5/2: London

Sunday, 5/3: fly from Heathrow: London to ABQ

Weather Links2009-04-10 17:08

Click these links to see what the weather is where we are.

4/13-4/16: Winchester: closest is Southampton

4/16-4/24: Cornwall: closest is Plymouth

4/24-4/28: Bath and Cotswolds

4/28-5/2: London

We are back on line2009-04-19 14:40

Well there aren’t as many Internet cafes as we thought there would be so we have been on strict ether-silence, but that’s all changed now. I’m at Pinky Murphy’s a hippy-era coffee house in Fowey, which I’m sure you pronounced ‘Foy’ in the British way. Don’t tell but the wifi password is sharethelove.

Quick summary: we spent three days in Winchester, one day in Lyme Regis (Janeites take note) and are just finishing three days in Fowey. Tomorrow we go to Falmouth for three days, then maybe up to Bath area.

Driving2009-04-19 14:53

By Charlie: Driving, well, hmm. The driving-on-the-left thing is a concern but not the biggest one. The main thing is the roads are extremely narrow. You can be going through the country with clover fields on both sides for as far as you can see and the road is two-lane blacktop with no shoulder. Sometimes the ‘shoulder’ is a stone wall, which really makes you nervous. Only a painted line between you and the lorries.

One thing about driving on the left is that it is hard to stay close to the center. You tend to drift off to the left. I hit a few curbs the first day or two. Now I think about it a lot and I am getting better (by Wynette: and Wynette keeps telling him to move over). Oh yes, the two-lane roads. Every few hundred yards they narrow down so that two cars can’t really pass each other. I keep lecturing to Wynette, couldn’t the sheep do with 10 feet less of their huge field and make this road little wider? I can see the narrow street through old historic towns but out in a field? Also they never have passing lines are places to pull off to the side. I go slower than most people and would be happy to let people pass but there are not places to let people pass you. (By Wynette: and Wynette, the navigator, keeps telling him to slow down even more.)

The driving is quite stressfull. I guess I mentioned that. Still I’m glad we have a car since it is easy to get places that are not served by public transportation. (By Wynette: But next time we’ll be smart and get a Smart Car.  We have a small one, Peugot hatch back, but for these roads would be nice if it were smaller.  It seems 90% of the cars here are smallish hatch backs.  Very sensible people here.)

Food report2009-04-19 15:19

By Wynette:  We are in Cornwall and had our first pasties here.  Steak and vegetable were very good.  Light flaky crust.    You buy these in bakeries and deli-type places and then take them somewhere to eat.  We went down to the bench in the church yard. 

Breakfasts in the B&Bs are HUGE.  Lots of meat and eggs and mushrooms and tomatoes and (not so great) beans and cereal (great muesli) and tea and coffee and other goodies.  We are slowly learning how to ask for what we want.  The first time they said “do you want a full English breakfast?” we said “sure” and boy was that a lot of food.  Charlie: by a ‘lot’ we mean a full serving of bacon, a sausage, and ‘hogs pudding’ (sausage patty) plus two eggs, toast, tomatoes, and mushrooms. We’ve been eating a lot.

We’ve had about 3 really good cups of (Assam) tea.  Other tea has been ok.  At least good and hot and plenty of milk.  To use this Internet place all you have to do is order something and the computer is free. So we had a “cream tea”:  scones with strawberry jam and LOTS of clotted cream and fresh strawberries and a big pot of tea.  This is the hippy place Charlie mentioned so they call it a “cream tease”.  Charlie said “cream tea is a small industry here.”  Charlie: you walk along the street and every place has ads for its cream tea. ‘Dorcet cream tea’ or ‘cornish cream tea’.

We’ve had lots of good seafood, being on the south coast and all.  We had a bouillabaisse feast a couple of nights ago.  My favorite meal so far.  We’ve also had a couple of curries.  Too bad we didn’t try a salmon pasty we saw in a window in Winchester.  Charlie: the bouillabaisse was amazing. We had a cider first, on an empty stomach, and so it made it that much more festive ;-)

Charlie: I have been having cider in most places. It is not quite as good as I remember, not as good as we have been getting in ABQ. A bit too dry. But still pretty good. Cornwall is known for its ciders so we’ll keep trying.

We’ve also had a couple of meals consisting of “pub grub” (you pronounce it “poob groob”).  Both were in pubs recommended in the guide books and food was good.  Or “lovely” as people say here about every 5 minutes about just about anything.  No criticism.  It’s a lovely word.  So far no stranger has called me “love” and I’m eager for that.  The first time that happened to me in London, back in the early 70s, it made me feel a lot less home sick.

Like the US the museum-like places have good food. We have eaten at two ‘stately homes’ and the food was very good. Today we had clotted cream bread and butter pudding — custard with clotted cream and bread — very good.

Metric2009-04-19 15:25

By Charlie: The UK is mostly metric but strangely the road signs are all in miles and the auto speedometers are in miles. Also they still give you pints in pubs. Interesting mix.

Oh, another thing, they use this strange time system based on 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 7days in weeks, variable–sized months, etc. These Brits should get hip and get metric! 100 second minutes, 100 minutes in an hour, 10 hours in a day, 10 days in a week, etc.

The first B&B gave us a old-style key to the room, but the outside key was a modern key with cutouts on the side, the newer kind that are much harder to pick. I saw this video on the web about ‘bumping’ locks. Basically every lock in the US can be picked with a bump key in about 20 seconds. The gravity/pin technology is just fundamentally flawed.

More Driving2009-04-20 16:02

It’s getting a little easier but you still have to be on full alert. A road with a full lane on each side now seems like a freeway. They have the same road signs, that is, the same meanings but the words are different ‘give way’ rather than yield for example. We are beginning to like the roundabouts, they are pretty easy once you get the hang of them. Also, you can use them to  make a u-turn, handy when you go past things which we do all the time.

Winchester Cathredral2009-04-20 16:07

Remember that song, with the Rudy Vallee megaphone singing? It kept running through my head. The cathedral is the longest in England, another is the highest and another is the biggest — good to spread around the ‘est’s. During one of the religious wars one side, presumably the anti-catholic side, broke most of the stained glass windows. Later they put them back but they could not reconstruct the pictures so they are just stained glass abstract painting. They did manage to put together a few of the so you see a saint head and torso here and there. Still pretty though.

Jane Austen on the beach2009-04-20 16:27

Several of the places we go lay some claim to Jane Austen. She went to Winchester for six weeks to see a doctor about her Addison’s disease and died there. she is buried in Winchester cathedral so that is a big thing I guess. You can see the house where she died but it is a private residence. Bath has a Jane Austen house. Lyme Regis, or just Lyme in  Persuasion, claims her too. It is a bit like ‘George Washington’ slept here in the US. The grave marker, on the cathedral aisle floor, didn’t mention her books. They said it wasn’t seemly for a woman to write novels then.

We went out on the ‘the Cobb’ which is the stone wave break that curves around the harbor, It was where Lydia (is that right?) jumped into her officer’s arms but fell and hurt herself. It still has some pretty dicey stairways.

Lyme Regis was pretty nice, a seaside resort, and it looks like all the seaside resorts I have seen, they all have a similar character. It was a beautiful day and lots of families ans kids were on the beach, and people strolling along the boardwalk, lots of ice cream cones, lots of cream teas on the beach. Lots of dogs too, the Brits like dogs and they are allowed in lots of places.

John Fowles lived around here also and set the French Lieutenant’s Woman here. (did you pronounce that ‘left-ten-ant’?) There was a scene in that on the Cobb also, I hear, I didn’t see it.

Lots of babies in carriages too. In fact we have seen lots of babies in prams in all the beach towns and in Winchester

They had a row of little pastel-colored cabana-like little buildings. You can rent them but we saw someone painter her’s so maybe owned it. A few were open and 3-4 people were sitting on chairs around them.

Lyme Regis2009-04-20 16:30

Playing with the town name in Lyme Regis. Store names: Lymelight Books and Prints, Sublyme used clothing, Lyme Stones, Lyme Boy Clothing.

The Weather2009-04-20 16:32

Post by Wynette:  Everyone here talks about the weather — a lot.  I guess that’s what you talk about when you don’t know someone very well but you want to be friendly.  People are friendly and cheerful and helpful here in SW England. Maybe because the weather is so nice?

We’ve been amazed how good the weather has been.  We’ve been here a week now and have seen no rain. The past few days have been quite sunny.  Not too hot, not too cold.  We couldn’t ask for better weather.  How nice to be in England when springtime is here. We’ve seen many daffodils on their last days and probably literally hundreds of thousands of tulips in their prime and of a huge variety of colors.   The grass/countryside is lush lush  green and most trees have leafed out, but barely.

We are in Cornwall which does have milder weather than most of the rest of England.  The gulf stream passes right by.  Yesterday we went to a stately home (Lanhydrock) with huge gardens.  Their rhododendrons were in full bloom.  Huge trees thick with bright red blossoms.  I mean TREES, probably 40 feet tall.

Elders2009-04-20 16:37

We keep passing these warning roads signs that say ‘Elderly people’ and have a picture of a stooped old man and woman slowly crossing a street.

They have things like thrift stores but they call them charity stores and they all have a charity, like some disease or homeless dogs. We saw one where the charity was ‘the elderly’

We passed another road sign today that said ‘Disabled People’ but they used exactly the same graphic as the signs that warned of ‘the elderly’.

Seems like a pattern.

Technology Report2009-04-21 16:53

By Wyntte:

CELLPHONE: We found it to be easy and cheap to get cell phone access here. We unlocked our T-Mobile sim chip before leaving (have to contact T-Mobile to do this). Then we got here and at an “Orange” store they gave us a free chip to use here and we can make calls for 20 pence (30 cents) per minute. One plan lets you make calls to states for 6 p. a minute. We thought we were on that plan and made a couple of calls to the states and used our entire 10 pounds-worth of prepaid calls. We thought the guy in the store had set us up for that but he hadn’t. Now we think we have it set up correctly but are going to avoid calls to the states just in case. In general we do recommend getting a sim card here. It’s easy to make calls and really helps if you need to call ahead to a B&B or whatever. If all is set up ok, 5 pounds goes a long way.

CAMERA: Unfortunately, our digital camera is not working. Somehow the lens got stuck in the “out” position and won’t retract and the camera refuses to turn on with the lens in that position. We’ve gone to a camera store and they tried but couldn’t fix it. We’ve done web searches for “lens error, restart camera” and tried all the suggestions there (seems to be a common problem). I miss having a camera. Lots of pictures I’d like to take. Guess we’ll either have to figure out to fix this one or buy a new camera or just paint pictures with words.

GPS: Actually our Tom Tom GPS is working fine and has made it a lot easier to navigate the roads around here.

IPODS: Also working great. Good for listening to books when you are haven’t yet fallen asleep and your traveling companion is snoozing away and you don’t want to disturbe him with a light or page rustling. And, if I can’t fall asleep dharma talks (on the ipod) usually do the trick. And I really enjoy listening to music (shuffle all my favorite songs) and working puzzles on the airplane.

INTERNET: There’s a pretty good place here in Falmouth that we’ve used twice now. Very funkier (even funkier than Pinky Murphy’s in Fowey). But convenient location and work just fine. Hopefully next trip we’ll have a little laptop and can take advantage of wireless that is abundantly available. Charlie said he thinks internet cafes are on their way out since people just want to work on their own laptop and I’m sure that is true.

KINDLE: (Charlie) I read my Kindle every night. I brought something like a dozen books on it although I won’t even get through one. Lots of choice though. I like the Kindle, it is a old Version1 one but still nice. Recommended for trips.

I am reading Ken Jenning’s book about trivia and being on Jeopardy. He is really a quite entertaining author.

Walking2009-04-23 15:59

Charlie: Walking, that is, light hiking is good in Britain. I have been on a few section of the Southwest Coast Trail. This run along the entire coasts of Deven and Cornwall, the SW part of England, something like 350 miles. The trails are well-kept and have lovely views all along. They go along cliffs and past pastures with cows and sheep.

Public access to trails seems to be important in Britain. If traditional trails go through private land the landowners must continue to all access to walkers.

I walked a few miles up the trail from Falmouth yesterday and it was beautiful. All coasts have a lot in common. The cliffs and rocks were not that different from what I have seen in Italy, California, Oregon, Washington, etc.

We still have not figured out whether we are supposed to pass on the right or left when walking. It seems like it should be on the left, like driving, but many people seem to prefer passing on the right.

And, for us, the most dangerous part of driving on the left is remembering to look right when you cross the street.

Falmouth 1944 and 20092009-04-23 16:09

We have spent 4 days in Falmouth (leaving for St. Ives tomorrow).  My dad was in the navy in WW2 and they stopped here.  He checked his notes and he landed here April 19, 1944.  We got here april 19, 2009.  Exactly 65 years to the day later!  He stayed 3 days, we are staying 4. What a coincidence.  We didn’t even plan to come here originally but decided to come here at the last minute.  So, I’ve thought a lot about my dad while we’ve been here and what it must have been like when he was here in 1944 during the war.

We went to two beautiful gardens this morning about 5 miles from Falmouth.  One was named Trebah (http://www.trebah-garden.co.uk/).  Wow, what a place.  It has a small ocean beach at the end and we learned that the US sent troops to Normandy from that beach in June 1945.

More metric2009-04-24 15:10

When you buy vegetables and other things by weight the prices are listed in per kg and per lb. I think I read recently that Britain petitioned for and got a waiver to continue listing in both for a few more years. I guess it is the older people who have more trouble with the change. I remember something in “1984” where someone was complaining about how he liked pints not half-liters or something like that.

I passed a sign that said 6′ 11″ overpass in 200 yards. We have our TomTom set to give distances in miles and yards.

Cornish Pride2009-04-24 15:15

One of the guidebooks said that there is a persistent, albeit hopeless, movement for Cornish independence from the UK. They certainly have a lot of regional pride. They have “Cornish ice cream”. We had some, it didn’t seem that different that other premium ice creams. Places advertise “relax it’s Cornish coffee”. How different could it be?

But I just saw a “traditional Cornish cream tea” which REALLY is different, that is, “put the jam on first”, and that is, put the jam on the scone then the clotted cream. Clotted cream is think, like butter so this makes no sense to me. I can’t see how it would work well, but it is Cornish.

Beware the Seagulls of St. Ives2009-04-24 15:17

Wynette.  St. Ives.  We bought Cornish pasties for lunch (mine was lamb with mint) at tiny bakery recommended in Rick Steve’s guide book.  We then found a park bench overlooking the harbor to sit on while we ate them.  I laid mine down on the bench (on its wrapper) to free my hand to dig out my hat (it was a little cold sitting there). Practically the second I laid it down a seagull swooped down and tried to grab the pasty and demolished one end of it.  It happened so fast and was scary having the big gull so near and so agressive and so sudden.  A lady passing by advised me not to eat even the end he didn’t touch.  So, I threw the whole thing out.  Only got one bite (all delicous flaky crust) before it happened, so I still don’t know what lamb with mint pasties taste like.  Charlie gave me half of his chicken and bacon pasty and we decided that would be enough lunch for the two of us.  We’d seen signs earlier warning about the seagulls but I forgot about that when I laid down the pasty. I’ve never seen seagulls be so agressive.  I guess they’ve taught each other tricks around here.

St. Ives2009-04-24 15:24

We got to St. Ives today and I like it a lot already. The guide books say it is “artistic”. It has lots of galleries and it has the Tate St. Ives branch, so maybe so. Kind of like a Cornish Santa Fe. Some books complained it was too commercial and affected. It seems nice enough although certainly more upscale than Falmouth seemed. Falmouth seemed a little shabby the first time we saw it but we came to view it as homey.

The town is built on a peninsula and the end has a smaller little bulge they call “The Island” which is a park basically. Very nice views and steep cliffs around it. Crashing waves on rocks and the blue water that makes. It could be Monterrey CA if you ask me, it looks so similar. I walked a bit down the Southwest Coastal Trail and it was all quite beautiful.

The SW Coastal Trail is great. In he her direction it follows a local train so you can walk down and take the train back, although the pamphlet you to take the train out and walk back. Seemed backwards to me unless you have a precise knowledge of your hiking limits. Whatever, it is pretty cool. A nice trail and every mile or two there is a pub so you can have a nice local ale or a bit to eat or maybe a nice Cronish cream tea with the jam on first.

The harbor is quite pretty, when we came the boats were all aground, sitting in the wet sand. Low tide we assumed but there were about 20 boats. I looked at it later and a few had floated again. I suppose they all are now.

Wynette maybe talked about the seagull incident. The town has seagulls, pigeons and crows. I wonder who would win in a fight between them?

Sunday Roast2009-04-27 19:17

Wynette:  Around Cornwall we had noticed that the pubs advertised a “Sunday Roast” served just a few hours on early Sunday afternoons.  We never quite made one of those since the hours are so limited.  Yesterday (Sunday), as we were driving from the far tip of SW Cornwall to Bath, we needed to stop for lunch and Charlie remembered about the roasts and thought maybe we could find one on the road.  We were on a “dual carriageway” (known as “freeway/interstate” to our US readers) so knew we’d have to leave the highway to find a place.  I studied the map as Charlie sped along.  Saw a little town named “Altarnun” 30 miles ahead just off the highway (we remember the name because it’s altar-nun and Charlie was raised catholic).  The guide book said Altarnun had a little hotel/food place named “The Kings Head”.  Charlie said “that sounds like a pub, let’s give it a shot”. 

When we saw the Altarnun exit we pulled off and about 200 yards later we were in a TINY village and there was “The Kings Head” and on front was a large banner that said “Sunday Carving 12 to 3, booking recommended” (or something like that).  We couldn’t believe our luck.  We asked if they had room for two more and Bridget Jones (just joking but she reminded me of her) said “certainly” and a younger woman take us to our table.  She said “help yourself to the meat and other food on the carving table” and I’ll bring you your gravy. 

We had our choice of any or all of the following: beef roast, pork roast, gammon (I had to ask, it means “ham”), cheese cauliflour, (amazing) roast potatoes, squash, applesauce, cabbage,  stuffing balls,  little sausages wrapped with bacon, and yorkshire pudding.  (I’m sure I’ve forgotten something.)  I’d never had yorkshire pudding before.  They’re kind of like popovers with the top sunken down.  We spooned gravy in them and ate them like that.  Very good. 

It was an old place and just exactly as you’d probably imagine an old English pub in a tiny village half way between Lands End and London.  Just about everyone else there was local.  Across from us was a table with 6 women probably all in their 70s or 80s, chatting up a storm.  They were very friendly with us, asked us where we were from, were very sypathetic when they found out we were from New Mexico ( re. that flu they’ve been hearing about so I’m sure they thought we were having it in NM because of the news about Mexico).  At one point I snapped a picture of Charlie eating his Sunday roast and they all thought it was amusing that I wanted a picture.  As they were leaving one woman in the group stopped by our table and told us that in Yorkshire you always eat the Yorkshire pudding (with gravy) BEFORE the meal.  She said that is to fill you up so you don’t eat as much of the expensive meat that comes later.  (We weren’t in Yorkshire so I think it’s ok that we ate the Yorkshire pudding along with our meat.)  I asked her if she came for the roast often and she said she tried to come frequently.

The woman behind the carving table who carved the roast for us was fun, too.  We asked her if we were supposed to help ourselves to the veges, etc. and she said, with a smile, “if you don’t get enough to eat, you have only yourself to blame”.  Practically everyone there chatted with us.  We said how lucky we felt we were to have found this place just off the highway and two different people said “this is one of the best roasts you’ll find”.  Later on, the carving woman was taking a break and sitting with some people at a table near ours and I heard her say “I don’t mind cooking at home, but a ‘please’, and ‘thank you’, and ‘that was lovely’ makes all the difference.  I don’t get any of that at home.”  (Those were her exact words, I wrote them down.)  Charlie and I surmised from that that she was also the cook.  We had some tea at the end.  Some of the best tea I’ve had on this trip.  The whole thing cost us £15 pounds (for both of us).  I.e., about $10 apiece, including the tea.

When I was growing up, my mom often made (delicious) roast beef for Sunday dinner (lunch).  Dad grew the beef  and mom cooked it.  I wonder if that tradition came via their UK heritage.  I also, as a young girl, I remember drinking tea with milk and sugar and loving it.  Must be the Brit in me.

Yorkshire pudding2009-04-28 19:14

Wynette gave a good account of the “traditional carvery” Sunday roast we had. I wanted to add that “yorkshire pudding” is what I call popovers. Flour, eggs, and milk cooked for 50 minutes. My Mom used to make them all the time and, as it happens, I just got on a kick for them and made them 3-4 times in the last few weeks before we left for England.

Bath2009-04-28 19:31

Charlie: They say, bah-th, but somehow it seems funny to say it that way and we find it hard to do. Strangely, Len, a British judge on Dancing with the Stars always say samba, as SAM-ba, like the name Sam, and the Brits say pasta with the same kind of ‘a’ so why Bah-th?

Whatever, the city is very nice. We got a great deal on our B&B it is called “Abbey Green Guest House” and is very nice. Old architecture but modernized very tastefully. We have a huge room, a very large main room and then another small room, and then a bathroom almost as big as our whole room in the St. Ives B&B.

Speaking of that, the B&B we stayed at in St. Ives was named “Rivendell”. No big conference about what to do with the ring though, just a nice visit. The room was quite small but overall we liked the B&B a lot once we had everything put away. (Wynette: it helped to pretend we were in a tiny stateroom on a ship cruise.)

Apparently England still has an extensive canal system, once used to haul freight but now used for houseboats. One canal runs through Bath. Today I walked along it for quite some time. It is very peaceful and pretty. You pass by people’s back yards and lovely meadows. Almost all of the boats are old, wood freight boats converted into houseboats. They call them “narrow boats” and they are narrow, maybe six feet wide, and long, some maybe 50-60 feet long, and low, like five feet high. If you saw the movie “Chocolat” they look very much like the boats that Johnny Depp’s gypsy family used. I guess France has a similar system of canals.

There are hills around Bath so the canal has many small locks. They seem to be self-service. I saw a boat go through one today. They open some pipes and the lock fills in about five minutes. Then they open some large wood doors, by hand, using a long lever. They go in and then let the water out, and move on. Anyway, it seemed like the people in the boat just did it themselves. There is no power required since the flow of the stream does the work.

Sad events2009-04-28 19:40

Charlie: Not to us, but where we have stayed.

We had had great weather the whole trip until we got to St. Ives. The first night in St. Ives there was a big rainstorm with high winds. Along the coast, about 10 miles from St. Ives, a car was washed off the road during the storm and three people died. We heard about it the next day.

We went into town and several of the shops on a low street had been flooded. (Wynette: shops we’d been in the day before.)  People kept saying they had just spent millions on a flood protection system and it failed the first time it was tested.

This morning, in Bath, we turned in a car at the rental place two miles from town and walked back along the canal tow path. We came to a boat with police in it using poles to look for something in the river. There were four more police and three firemen on the shore and a gaggle of on-lookers. Apparently someone had jumped off the bridge and they were looking for the body. That’s the first time I have come upon something like that in real life. We watched a while and then moved on. It was like the high-speed chases they cover with helicopters in LA, its kind of gruesome; some it is hard to stop watching.

Later:  Read in news they found the body after bringing in divers.

Flood in St. Ives2009-05-11 18:22

Wynette: As Charlie mentioned in previous post, there was a flood in St. Ives when we were there.  We found a video of the St. Ives main street during the flood cleanup, taken the morning after the flood. (The video starts out slowly but about 1/3 way through it picks up a bit when they start walking down the street and showing what was happening in front of the shops that were flooded. Check out the pastie shop.)

Here is our picture of the street, taken on the same day:

We walked up and down this street the day before and the day after the flood and saw the cleanup depicted in the video. We half expected to see ourselves in the video.  It was sad to see so many small local businesses with ruined merchandise, closed shop, etc. especially in these economic hard times.  Here’s another video if you’d like to see more of the St. Ives flood cleanup.

It was a bit strange: we had such fantastic weather nearly the whole trip and the one rainy patch turned out to be quite extreme.  Charlie and I got soaked walking from our restaurant to B&B the night it all happened but had no idea the storm was going to wreak such havoc.

Good Food in Cornwall2009-05-11 20:04

Wynette: We have been back from trip a little over a week but want to add a few things that didn’t make the blog earlier.  So here goes …

Cornwall is surrounded on two sides by the Atlantic Ocean, so fresh seafood is plentiful and we ate lots of it. Many places (especially the museums and stately homes and garden restaurants) made a point to mention that they serve fresh local food.  We liked that.

We ate in some fantastic restaurants in Cornwall and want to mention them:

Sam’s, 20 Fore Street, Fowey, Cornwall, PL23-1AQ, Tel 01726-832273  www.samsfowey.co.uk We had great fun sharing a HUGE delicious bouillabaisse .

Hunkydory Restaurant & Bar, 46 Arwenack Street, Falmouth, Cornwall, www.hunkydoryfalmouth.co.uk.  We tried to go to The Seafood Bar but it was full and we didn’t have reservations so ended up at nearby Hunkydory, another place recommended in our guidebook.  We were not disappointed.  The food was delicious and I regretted I didn’t have my camera with me to take a picture, the food was gorgeous and colorful, a work of art.  (Not quite as literally as in Art’s Deli in Studio City, California, where “every sandwich is a work of Art“.)

The Seafood Bar, Quay Street, Falmouth, Cornwall, Tel 315129:  We were careful to make reservations the next night so we could eat at The Seafood Bar.  Turned out not to be nearly as crowded as the night before when we couldn’t get in. The owner Kerry Duffield told us she bought the restaurant 3 years ago after working there the previous 8 years. The previous owner owned it 30 years. It’s a tiny little place just off the main street above the harbor in Falmouth.  The food was exceptional. We shared a seafood chowder appetizer and then each had a fish main course; the fish was prepared perfectly.  The service was friendly and we had fun chatting with the owner and the woman who served us our food (and helped me find my umbrella when I had to go back for it).