So we started off in a leisurely fashion, detouring to
Harlech, where the castle didn’t look as impressive as Beaumaris, so we popped
into a little café instead for hot drinks & a piece of toast for Wes. I had
pocketed the large slice of bread that came with dinner the night before &
smeared it with Vegemite for my breakfast that morning. Wes declined all offers
to share.
Next stop was Corris (meaning female dwarf), which was a
Welsh slate mining town. We were intrigued by signs to King Arthur’s labyrinth,
but when we stopped it was basically a boat ride for children, so we moved on!
Our final stop was Cardigan, because we had read some weeks
ago that the owner of the bookshop, Book
Ends, had decided to raffle his business, and it was won by one of his
favourite regular customers. Fortunately it was the last week for the owner
& he was thrilled that we knew about him. We bought a couple of books &
wished him well in retirement.
We finally arrived at our B&B on Newport Road; about 15
minutes walk from the city centre & were underwhelmed by the standard
offered. We have a king size bed, a terrible shower & not much else. Then
we realised that what we thought was costing us $140 per night, was actually
$70, but we still hate the shower!
That night we had dinner at a local Italian restaurant, Gardineria
di Sorrento, where we were overwhelmed by courtesy until we had spent about
$140 there having olives, pasta & profiteroles!
Chocolate for him
& lemon for me!
After I was stuck in the shower & had to be rescued, we
approached breakfast with some trepidation. However, the large jar of Vegemite
allayed our fears & we enjoyed fruit with muesli & yoghurt, followed by
toast. Wes always tries the marmalade in honour of our first trip to the UK,
where we met our dear friend, Squiz, and the two of them rated every marmalade
at every breakfast place we visited together.
We walked into the City Centre & started our visit with
a tour of Cardiff Castle, which is most impressive. The audio really helped our
understanding & because we have been to the Island of Bute, we appreciated
all that the second & third Marquess of Bute have done for Cardiff, even if
their wealth came from mining!
I walked the steep
stairs up to the highest point of the Keep & saw Wes below listening to the
audio
Our next move was to take the Hop On Hop Off bus, which
provided us with the most comprehensive tour & commentary of Cardiff. It
didn’t encompass the cricket ground, but the bus driver was very happy to give
us very clear directions after he couldn’t persuade us to look at their rugby
stadium instead!
Next stop was the Museum, which houses a large art gallery
as well. Much of the art was donated by Gwendoline & Margaret Davies,
grand-daughters of David Davies, who spent their wealth acquiring art for
Cardiff.
Renoir’s Blue Lady
We walked around the City Centre again looking for an early
dinner, with no luck & ended up at The Four Elms pub about 2 minutes from
our B&B, where we had fish & chips & scampi & chips – total
cost $20 as we ordered before 5pm. I was very keen to avoid Halloween at all
costs – I have not embraced it!
We left our B&B & drove to Glastonbury. As happens frequently,
road-works added 45 minutes to our journey. We stopped at the Abbey Tea Rooms,
a café that celebrates 30 years in business next year & enjoyed tea &
crumpets.
We decided not to visit the Abbey as we had lost so much
time & went for a walk around the town instead. It made us think of a mediaeval
Nimbin. We visited the Norman Church of St Benedict instead & had a couple
of lovely chats with local ladies there. Wes read about the lepers’ window but neither of them knew
where it was. We found it later when we went outside.
We then had a long drive to Falmouth in Cornwall, where we
are now. There was no-one at our AirBNB & we hadn’t been given the key safe
code, so spent 90 minutes sitting in our car waiting. Wes rang AirBNB help
& they were extremely helpful. Eventually the cleaner arrived in a taxi
& opened the door for us. However, Deborah, who controlled the heating from
next door, didn’t get home until after 8pm, by which time we were freezing
cold. She was very apologetic, but had no answer for why she hadn’t read our
messages over the past two days asking for the key safe code.
Our accommodation has a spacious bedroom/sitting room, long
galley kitchen & the tiniest bathroom ever. Deborah promised to leave the
heating on all the time for us, but we woke cold again this morning and the
heaters didn’t come on until 7.30am, by which time we had watched all the Derby
Day races, consumed hot drinks & put lots of clothes on to stay warm.
Yesterday we drove to Port Isaac, home of Doc Martin, which is just as pretty as
it looks. We had fun wandering around the winding streets, looking at the shops
& finally having Cornish cream tea with heart-shaped scones in the Chapel Café, recommended by Terry Borg,
who has friends living in Port Isaac.
Wes has been wonderful, doing all the driving on this trip.
I am in charge of Glacier Mints supply, working out parking machines, reading
signs & interpreting the Tom Tom, when it isn’t immediately clear what she
wants us to do.
Our next stop was Tintagel, home of King Arthur’s Castle,
which, of course, was closed for renovations. However we did see the beautiful
old Post Office, which made up for the disappointment.
Our final stop was Mullion Cove, where Wes has traced the
Saundrys (my maiden name) back to the 16th century, where they lived
for about 100 years. The car park operates on an honesty box system!
Last night we had a meal without chips! Hooked was our choice of restaurant
& it was wonderful. We shared a dozen Cornish oysters, yum, and Wes tried
the local marwong with kale & mushrooms, while I enjoyed seafood linguini.
This morning we walked into the city centre for breakfast
at Fuel, which opens 364 days a year
for breakfast, lunch & dinner. I chose kedgeree, while Wes had a Falmouth breakfast
of Cornish sausage, bacon, mushrooms & poached eggs. We wandered along the
roads marvelling at the number of good quality galleries & clothes shops
here, before I popped into what I thought was a hair-dresser with two bored
girls chatting. It turned out to be a barber, but the delightful Estonian girl who
charged me $5 to trim my fringe, was a find.
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