Read, Write, Ramble

Today, no it was yesterday, we caught a taxi from our Kensington Hotel around to Victoria Station, where Wallsy, true to form, bumped into a colleague and his wife from Australia.  We never fail to go away, anywhere in the world without Wallsy seeing someone he knows from the emergency services back home.  The Gatwick Express leaves from Victoria Station, so Sloane Square was a convenient accommodation location to access that particular airport. I’ve never flown out of Gatwick before, although we did pick up a hire car from there once. Airwick Gatport (as a tired Wallsy called it over coffee) is huge. It even has an elevated rail link between terminals.  Once there we navigated our way to the correct terminal, and bought a coffee before saying farewell to Wallsy who is continuing his adventure for a further two weeks. Mark, Julie and I ran the gauntlet of security checks and found our far flung gate lounge, down with the Easy Jet gates - ours was gate 682 (that’s a lot of...

Today was a travel day; one of those long drawn out days that you prepare for with military precision, all the moving parts having to be meticulously timed. Time of leaving the apartment Time of arrival at station. Time of dropping off hire car. Time of getting taxi back to station. Time of departure of train. Time of arrival of train etc.  All the parts meshed together well.  There were flurries of activity (like dropping Julie and I and all the luggage at Truro station), interspersed with lengthy periods of waiting (waiting for Mark & Wallsy to get back from dropping the car; waiting for the train… ).  Then there was the long but interesting train journey to London. We passed through the Cornish countryside, across the Brunel Bridge at Saltash, along the coastline at Dawlish, across the edge of the Salisbury Plain and past the Pewsey white horse carved into the hillside.  For most of this journey the train was standing room only, luggage bays were full before w...

The man in the Cornwall Museum yesterday was adamant that we should not waste our time and money going to Lands End, and I can now see his point. However, there was a Parkrun to be experienced there and that was the draw card.  We were all up early and on the road by 07:30 for the one hour drive from Truro to Lands End. The morning was cool and breezy and spirits were high. We arrived in plenty of time, paid the extortionate parking fee (we didn’t want to buy the car park!) and joined the friendly bunch of parkrunners waiting for the briefing. Held on a gravel cycle path this out and back x2 course had spectacular coastal views which kept distracting me from the task at hand.  We all completed the run successfully with a good mix of walking and jogging and a few good photos caught on the run. Then we went in search of refreshments. The cafe, which we had been told would open at 10, wasn’t. The pub which we were told did parkrun breakfasts, didn’t (at least not that we could fi...

Mark and Julie set off with the car this morning to return to St Columb Major and try to unearth some more evidence of the place where Julie’s family lived.  Wallsy and I on the other hand, walked up to the railway station and caught the train to Falmouth, a twenty minute journey to a pretty harbour town.  We alighted at the Falmouth Docks Station and then walked to the point where Pendennis Castle sits. We walked around the castle moat and then back along Castle Drive on the other side of the peninsula until we reached Castle Beach with its cute coloured bathing boxes, and the Castle Beach cafe. The cafe consisted of two garden sheds end to end, set right on the beach at the edge of the rock-pools, with both indoor and outdoor seating. It was a very nice location for lunch.   After lunch we explored Falmouth town a little, described by Wallsy as semi-purposeful wandering, and then caught the train back to Truro, this time from the town station.  We visited the Cornw...

 It was already a warm morning in Bovey Tracey by the time we ventured out after breakfast.  I had had one of the best sleeps I’ve enjoyed since being away. The Cromwell Arms was comfortable, the staff were obliging and the breakfast was nourishing, I would highly recommend a stay there.  Once we had eaten we packed our bags and loaded them into the Caddy before walking across the road (via an op shop of course), and over to Tim and Kathy’s.  The decision was taken to go for a walk to the local Heritage Centre which is located in the disused Railway Station, but we unfortunately found it closed. Something for next visit!  The next plan was to go to Lustleigh and the Cleave Hotel,  for lunch with Tim and Kathy, before we set off on our onward journey. Tim had the wonderful idea of making the trip to lunch in the Morgan 4-seater sports car. Getting it out of the garage is no small undertaking in a village with a driveway and backyard such as theirs, but we we...