Holiday in Cornwall

Last weekend (edit – 3 or 4 weekends ago) we flew to the southern most county of England called Cornwall.  This is where you go if you want a beach holiday in England or if you are a surfer in search of waves.  Main reason we went is because Georgia like the celebrity chef Rick Stein and he has a few restaurants in Padstow Cornwall.  Georgia had booked us into his Bistro on the Friday night.  We flew over on Friday morning and picked up our hire car.  I had booked a little manual car becasue that was the cheapest but when we got there they upgraded us to a Ford Mondeo which was an auto.  This was good because it meant Georgia could drive it.  From the airport in Newquay Georgia drove us to Padstow which was about half an hour along a very narrow coastal road.  Back in the day when most of the houses in the villages were built, they build them right out to the road side so where there would normally be a gutter and a footpath, there is the external wall of someones living room.  This made driving very difficult because you could not see around corners and there were lots of places so narrow that 2 cars could not pass.

We made it to Padstowe but because it was so early we could not check in to our B&B.  All the accommodation in Padstowe is B&Bs.  Padstow is a very very small fishing village that had become extremly popular with tourist in the last decade partly because of Rick Stein.  This means it was a bit overcrowded for our liking which was a bit of a shame for such a beautiful little fishing village.

While we waited to check in to our accommodation we just wandered around the town to see the sights.  We went to Rick Stein’s fish and chip shop for lunch which was very very nice.  It’s actually the first time I’ve had fish and chips from a proper fish and chips shop since I’ve been in the UK.  I’ve had it once in a pub in leeds but that doesn’t count coz it was gross.  Anyway, Georgia had Hake and I had Cod and a scallop.

After lunch we went and checked into our B&B and it too was very nice.  It was up a steep hill a couple of minutes walk from the center of town.  It was much better than the crack den we stayed at in London and it cost about the same amount.

On Friday night we had dinner at Rick Stein’s Bistro which is his 2nd fanciest so we had fairly high expectations.  To be honest we were a bit underwhelmed.  The menu had about 8 things to choose from.  4 were fish and 4 were steak.  We both had steak.  I thought the steak was very nice but probably not worth the $40.  Don’t worry, it’s not just me being a tight ass, Georgia was a bit disappointed by it too.

We had booked a sea safari for Saturday but we got a call in the morning to say that the weather was no good so we postponed it till Sunday morning.  The sea safari is a 2 hour long boat ride out to sea to encounter seals, sharks, porpoises dolphins and sea birds.

Anyway, because the sea safari was canned, we jumped in the car and headed south west for St Ive’s.  It didn’t look very far on the map but it took a couple of hours because of the very narrow windy roads.  When we got there it was a beautiful sight.  St Ive’s is another little sea side vilage a bit bigger than Padstow.  You enter the town and wind your way down a steep hill to the sea side.  We went down but there was nowhere to park so we drove back and parked at the top of the hill.

We explored the town and the beaches and found a great little cafe on the beach and stayed there for a couple of hours and had lunch and a couple of drinks.  St Ives was a great town with lots of nice little beaches.  It was my favourite little town in Cornwall.

After we were done in St Ive’s we climbed back up the bloody big hill to the car and headed towards Lands End which is the western most point of England (and pretty much the southern most point too).  More narrow windy roads but there was plenty of interesting scenery to look at on the way.  As we got closer, we would see signs like “The first and last pub in England” and “The first and last post office in England”.  Took about an hour and a bit to get there I think.  It was windy and rainy when we got there.  We parked and headed to the edge of the cliffs.  It was quite a spectacular sight.  Rugged cliffs plunging straight down into the rough ocean.

We didn’t stay too long because there was not much to do other than have a look out to sea so we jumped back in the car and headed back for Padstow.

We went out to dinner that night an when I was in town I bought a box of those little fun snaps that you throw on the ground and they go bang.  I got board of them so wanted to throw the rest of the box all in one go so I waited till there was nobody around and tossed about 30 of them up as high as I could but just as I did, a jogger ran round the corner but it was too late, the missiles had been released.  They landed all around him and he absolutely shit himself.  He thought he was under attack. Me and George were the only others there so he knew it was us.  He gave me a death stare and I said “sorry, I didn’t see you”.  He just kept running after that.

The next day we went on the Sea Safari to check out some sharks and porpoise and dolphins.  The baot ride was fun but we only saw 1 or 2 seals in the whole time we were out there which was a bit of a shame.

We had our flight back to Leeds at 5:10pm so we still ad a few hours to kill so we went to the beach at Newquay.  I was gonna go for a swim but I thought the water was too cold and we didn’t really have enough time by the time we got there.  We just sat on the beach for a while then headed to the airport.

We had a great weekend and were so glad we went.  This is a place where many many English spend their summer holidays.  I’ve written half this post a few weeks after the trip and have been on lots more trips since then so over the next week or two I’m gonna try to catch up.

Work is still ticking along with heaps to do.  We have pushed our deadline for our Belgium launch back twice now but are getting closer.  The deadline is now October 1st so hopefully we’ll take our first bet on my birthday.  Georgia finishes up work this week and she is pleased about that.  Georgia goes home in 2 and a half weeks which is good because she misses everyone but it is not going to be much fun saying goodbye again.  At least it is only 2 months alone this time.

Here is a link to the rest of the Cornwall photos:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lwross.uk/Cornwall?feat=directlink

Talk soon.