Hello friends, I am starting this post on 25th of March 2020 and I expect that by the time I post this, it will be a bit later because it is a. 11:25pm and b. I do still need to process the photos before I can post this. It is officially D-3 of lockdown in the UK due to the COVID-19 virus and D-11 of social distancing for me. I am incredibly lucky to be able to work from home during this time, and definitely keeping positive and trying to stay safe and healthy! 😊
Samantha and I have been trying to not talk about the virus all the time, so earlier today we actually went through the post I wrote when they visited London in May 2018 (see Anita & Samantha Visits!). We spent 2.5 hours reminiscing about our casual sunset stroll across Kensington Gardens, running in the rain from Kings Cross to Euston, me being sassy with Mr Bouncer who wanted to check our ID for a venue we didn't even want to go into, and also me being sassy at Mr Falafel because, well, just read about it in the post!
It just got me thinking about all the events that I haven't blogged about because of 101 excuses but the reality is I love writing these posts because I love coming back to them every now and then to remember the beautiful memories that past me wanted to pass on to future me. And of course to share you beautiful people. So with no more excuses to make since we are now in lockdown, I am taking all of us back to August 2019!
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It was the August May Bank Holiday of 2019. Marion, Maria, and myself met at Paddington station on Friday after work to catch our train to England's south western county of Cornwall! We got some sandwiches for the road because it was about a three hour train journey to Plymouth and it was going to be quite late by the time we got there. What Marion and I didn't realise was that our train ticket didn't have assigned seating and because it was the bank holiday we actually spent most of our journey standing, but hey every great adventure has its hiccups.
Arrived at Plymouth, met with Laura, walked to our accommodation for the night, got confused as to where the entrance was, found the entrance, washed up, feel asleep, woke up, breakfast at B&B, walked through Plymouth to our car rental, took three tries on the same roundabout to get to the correct exit, finally en route to first destination, and ready to rock and roll.
Tintagel Castle is believed to date back to the Early Middle Ages and was the alleged birthplace of King Arthur. What's left of the settlement is its ruins perched on a headland projecting into the Cornish Sea, and I couldn't help but believe that there is no place more beautiful and more suitable for this legend.
After the Castle, we enjoyed our first Cornish pastry from the Cornish Bakery, then moved right across the street to Pengenna Pasties for a quiche and a glass of Pimms. Did I mention the sun was gorgeous this entire weekend?
Stop #2: Padstow
Padstow is a very quaint and adorable working fish town located between Tintagel and stop 3! It's known to also be a foodie location but since we already had lunch, we just stopped for ice cream at Harbour Ice instead. There I got ice cream #1: honeycomb & clotted cream ice cream. SO GOOD.
Stop #3: Porthcothan Beach
Porthcothan Beach is one of seven coves or sandy beaches that make up what is known in the area as the Seven Bays. Backed by sandy grass dunes, this narrow beach is a great spot for surfing and an even better site to catch the pre-sunset lights illuminating the bay! ❤
Falmouth is a town located along the south coast of Cornwall and home to our accommodation (Telford Guest House) for the next two nights! The owners were amazing and breakfast was spot on! Per their recommendation, we went to Gylly Beach Cafe by Gyllyngvase Beach for dinner! As it was a busy Bank Holiday weekend, there wasn't many mains left to choose from by the time we got there, but we definitely had enough to fill ourselves up!
Stop #5: Lizard Point
Next day, we left for UK's southern most point, aka Lizard Point. Known for their rare and unusual flora due to its unique geology, there are tons of trails you can do here that lead to beautiful white beaches and turquoise seas! Here we saw a 260 year old Lizard Lighthouse, spotted a seal (YEAH!) while overlooking Housel Bay (I believe we were around Lions Den / Bramble Rock area of the trail for this), and also ran through a cattle farm in the name of finding a shortcut (yes we took a risk but we didn't startle any cows nor stepped on cow dung, so we can consider this a success)!
Spot the seal (RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE)
St Michael's Mount is a tidal island located in Mounts Bay, Cornwall and is home to a medieval church and castle that is one of many ley line connected monasteries. This line is known as St Michael's line! We arrived on the island by boat and first had some more pasties (steak pasty this time) and more ice cream (clotted cream), before heading into the castle still inhabited by the St. Aubyn family! At around 5pm when we were ready to leave the island, we found that the tide was low enough that we could make it back to mainland using the man-made causeway of granite setts. Joined by numerous other tourists, we braved through the relatively cold Celtic Sea water that was still well over knee height at some areas and made our way back to shore.
Town of Marazion
St. Michael's Mount
Food & ice cream first!
Ariel view of Tintagel Garden
Seeing the path we will eventually cross!
Back to shore
After crossing the Celtic Sea, we dried ourselves and made our way to St. Ives, passing by but not stopping at Carbis Bay on the way. We enjoyed a nice dinner at The Seafood Cafe in St. Ives and bought some cakes from a nearby bakery to be eaten once back in our guest house. Not sure if it was the sugar or the sea water from earlier, but we had quite the night back in our accommodation eating cake and drinking tea, and then it was time for bed.
Stop #8: Eden Project
Greatness is best appreciated when there is a beginning and an end and this was our final day in Cornwall. We woke up bright and early and made our way to Eden Project, home to two large biomes focusing on tropical plants in one biome and Mediterranean plants in the other. Housing the world's largest tropical rain forest in captivity, Eden Project sends a message of environmental sustainability and how we can be better when we work with our environment instead of against it. It was also here that we were all talking about zip-lining one minute but was also terrified the next minute (except Maria) when on the suspended stairs and suspended platform in the tropical biome... anyway we didn't have time for zip-lining.
Back to Plymouth, returned our car, ate another ice cream for good luck (yea right) at the train station, no assigned seating in train but we got to sit most of the way and home we all went. There's definitely so much more to Cornwall that we didn't cover during our 4D3N stay, including a seal sanctuary that I'd happily visit in the future, so I can only hope to be back one day. As always it was a wonderful time with friends and a much needed retreat from what felt to be a very routine year so far! Hope you enjoyed reading about this beautiful trip, I do have a few more trips / events to write after this, so stay tuned! x
p.s. a good message in Cornwall for these trying times.
Listening to "Without You" by Oh Wonder
Images by Maria & I
Sick
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