Holiday Time Adventures Part 2: Cornwall!

Right. After spending the night in Bristol, I caught the train back to London to meet up with Joy. We then got a train to Reading (why I didn't meet her in Reading I dunno since the train back went through there anyway. My planning skills...just I don't know) where we picked up the car. I was mega scared to be driving and had my fair share of mini heart attacks the first day. This country has way too many roundabouts, by the way. And roads that are far too narrow.

Anyway, we started off by going to Jane Austen's house in Chawton. It was a nice house.

After that, we went to Stonehenge. I was way excited about it. As excited as I could be while simultaneously trying not to drive us into a ditch or something. We spent an hour or so wandering around Stonehenge, listening to the audioguides, and taking pictures.

Once we left Stonehenge, we stopped on our way through Salisbury to see the cathedral there. Then we made our way to our Exeter hostel for the night.

Day 2: We drove for quite a while then stopped in a little fishing village called Looe to have lunch and take a little break. 

Making friends with Nelson the Seal...

Lunch: Smoked salmon and prawn salad

And sticky toffee pudding for dessert! I think they
put Pop Rocks in it cause it was crackling.

After lunch in Looe, we drove on to St. Michael's Mount, our first castle of the journey! It was on a little island a bit away from the shore. In high tide, you have to get a boat over (as we had to on the way over). On the way back it was low tide though, and there was a pathway that you can walk between the island and the shore in low tide. Pretty cool.

I'm so strong!

Sweet dining room, yo

Replica of the castle made entirely of corks

We walked back on the path!

We drove to Land's End next so we could watch the sunset over the Atlantic Ocean, which is pretty cool!

We stayed the night in Penzance (Pirates of Penzance, woot!).

Day 3: We went to Tintagel Castle, the "legendary birthplace of King Arthur". I was excited like whoa about some King Arthur. It was situated on two hills. It used to be connected between the two but the bit in the middle fell ages upon ages ago. There were some ruins that date back even before the castle ruins on one of the hills. So it's a pretty old place.

Steep stairs! This is the part where it would have been connected but fell in the middle.

Hanging out on cliffs. As you do.

This was the part where we were meant to go to Dunster Castle next, but they decided they were too good to be open at normal times so we just went to Boscastle instead. We walked on some paths and hung out on more cliffs. Then it was adventures in finding the Minehead hostel. It was hidden and up a mountain with a ridiculously unsafely small parking area. I don't even want to go into all my issues with that place. Anyway, the next day we just headed back to Reading and then it was back to London.

Bonus! Here's some pictures of how small the roads were:

Crazy, right? And these are supposed to function as 2-way roads. Um...how?

Stay tuned for posts about the Diamond Jubilee and my birthday.

Until next time,

Duchess

Holiday Time Adventures Part 1: Manchester and Bristol

So much has been going on lately I'm gonna have to make 3 or 4 different posts so it doesn't turn into one massively long ramble. Let's go in chronological order. Starting with Manchester and Bristol then. Stayed at June's place in Manchester for a couple of days at the end of last month. Mostly, I just lazed around in the back yard cause it was warm and sunny for a change (please come back, nice weather!). So that was nice. Got back on a Sunday afternoon and I set out the next morning for Bristol.

I spent a few hours wandering around Bristol seeing a few of the sights and parks and things.

Went to a nice old cemetery to start off with then headed to the cathedral and ended up happening upon a film shoot they were doing right by the cathedral. I didn't see much but someone said Keira Knightley was in the movie and I could tell they were all in like Victorian era dress. After that, I wandered over to Cabot Tower to get a bird's eye view of Bristol and its surroundings. That was quite nice.

 

 I was mega tired from climbing all those steps so I went back to my hotel room and took a nap before the Passenger concert. It was one of the best concerts. I videoed the whole thing basically. Here's him doing "The Sound of Silence" which was absolutely hauntingly beautiful (I nearly cried):

Here's one about rain that basically sums up England (he drops the F-bomb in this one just to let you know):

This is my favorite that the opening act, Stu Larsen, did. (Look, ma! He's Australian):

So that was Bristol. Tomorrow I'll write about Cornwall and the Jubilee. And sometime I'll have to write about tomorrow and everything we're doing for my birthday. Yay! I'm 25!

Until next time,

Duchess