Cornwall - England

Cornwall 23-25 May 09

For the second long weekend of May, we headed off to Cornwall, England's most south-western point. We hired a car and hearing the horror news of traffic jams, we headed off earlier than usual, 4am! We were at Devon by 7am and took a break at Topsham. There is a Georgian teahouse there which has won many awards for its cream tea so we had cream tea for breakkie! Yes the waitress did give us a weird look! It was very good!We continued on our journey and arrived at Tingatel castle, which legend has it, is the birthplace of King Arthur. The coastline, was very pretty, not many people, very peaceful. Next stop was Padstow! The village made famous by Rick Steins.. Cafe, restaurant, patisserie, B&B, fish and chips shop, cooking school, every you turn is Rick Stein. We had the fish and chips, to be honest, I had better in Oz! We also tried the creamy Cornish icecream too!Next stop was newquay, which we didn't like at all, touristy, loud, dirty, a lot of jobs with noisy cars. Get me out of here.. Pretty tired by now, we headed for St Ives... The GPS took us right into the middle of the old town. The streets were steep (like 50 degrees) and narrow, some were one ways, it gave us such a headache, it was a mission just to get back out of the town.

The second day, we drove down to Minack theatre, which has to be the gem of Cornwall, and it took my breathe away. Minack theatre is an open air theatre built by hand by Rowena Cade. Its set up on the cliff, with the sea as the back drop. When we arrived and there was a full rehearsal of Evita. We stayed and watched most of it, and took in the wonderful scenary. Not wanting to leave this gorgeous place, we had lunch at the cafe which overlooked the theatre, beach and sea. Food was really good (Cornish pasty and cream tea) and so well priced. This was the highlight of our trip to Cornwall.Mount Saint Michaels was our next stop. It's Englands version of Mont Saint Michel in France. When the tide comes up, you can only access by boat. Whilst we were there, we started the walk to the castle, half way there, we were wading in knee deep water. Seeing as it was about to close soon, we decided to admire it from afar. Back in the car and we headed back to Devon.The third day we headed back to London but stopped off at Dorchester, and Winchester, small English towns. We did their recommended river walk, a spot of shopping and headed home.. The drive back wasn't bad at all, as we totally missed the holiday traffic.

Cotswolds

The Romantic Drive – Cotswold 19-20^th July

After a couple of rainy weekends, we found a weekend with half decent weather to do our first road trip in the UK, the romantic Cotswold. We picked up our hired car Sat morning, and after getting over the shock of petrol prices, and our GPS in placed, we headed off to the English countryside.

Joe was happy to be behind the driving seat, although the little Ford Fiesta was no Golf, it was nice to cruise along the highway away from the city life. The drive reminded us of the numerous road trips we enjoyed back home, however the added advantage here is that the GPS beeps at you when speed cameras were coming up.

The Cotswold is a lovely place, made up many small quaint towns. Cute little English cottages with pretty gardens lined the streets of the town. The English have preserved this area so well, although only an hour and a half away from London, it was light years apart. We felt like we stepped back in time, and everything was moving in slow motion.

We visited various towns such as Stow on the Wold, Lower Slaughter, Bourton the Water, Stanton & Winchcombe and enjoyed numerous Devonshire cream teas in the gardens… very “English”Our favourite was Boughton on the Waters, not only was it the prettiest town (apparently it’s the Venice of the Cotswold with its canals and footbridge) it was the most memorable, as it there we received the phone call from our good friends, Vicks and Vinh who have just given birth to their 2^nd son Isaac. Congratulations guys!