The Wet Westcountry
Aug. 28th, 2018 07:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luckykaaI love the South West of England. Gorgeous beaches, lovely countryside, cider and some really pretty little villages.
Friends offlickums were renewing their wedding vows. In Cornwall. I was invited to come along. I encouraged flickums to arrange an extra day so we could see the rest of the area. Manchester to Cornwall is not a short trip, after all. It makes sense to make the most of it.
So we went down. Stopped off overnight in Bristol with friends, because I was terrified of Bank Holiday traffic, and wanted to get down there nice and early. As it happened, we didn't get particularly stuck. No idea if that's because traffic is overrated, or because we left early. So we arrived with oodles of time to poodle around Cambourne, find where the hotel's car park is, park, get changed, and set of for a 50's re-wedding.
I had fun. Flickums looked awesome in a red dress with polka dots, and I had a stylish red and black shirt, which was possibly a little casual but I worked well as an accessory. Had a lot of fun chatting to people Bride seemed a little upset that they weren't playing the music she wanted, but I think everyone was having a lot of fun anyway.
Next day it rained. Rather a shame. I was hoping to go to the beach, but I can't go swimming in the rain. But we went to Healey's Cyder farm. They did offer tours of the cider brewery, although they are closed on Sundays so we decided to just look around the farm. Flickums had fun saying hello to all the animals. I had fun sampling the ciders.
Next stop was the Bodmin and Wenford railway, Rather popular, probably because it was an activity that people could do in the rain. They have quite a nice collection but there didn't seem to be much of an opportunity for just train spotting. Would have been nice if there was a place where they displayed the engines.
Next stop was Restormel castle. A ruined castle with a few signs indicating what it once would have looked like. But it was all a bit wet and 'orrible, and ruined castles don't have a roof, of course. so we jumped back in car and headed towards guest house near Bude. It was a cosy little place, at the top of a hill near a cliff. We went to Bude and hunted down food. First place seemed a little too sports-bar. Reviews were positive about the beer and food, but I was a little sceptical about whether I'd like it. Next place we tried looked nice on the outside but not so great inside. We tried a third place. Looked great, but it was packed, and they couldn't find room for us for another 2 hours. Pizza place was similarly full. But we did find a decent enough pub that served some pretty good food at very reasonable prices. And I had a glass of cider!
Spent the rest of the evening wandering around the town. Strolled along by the canal. Realised we'd gone the wrong side for the beach. A dog jumped in and seemed to have fun swimming to the other side. We felt it was probably better just to walk. Paddled, went back to pub. Flickums bought me a cider and thus achieved her goal of buying me a pint of cider. We returned to guest house and got in out of the gold wind, and enjoyed a cosy night inside with the wind howling outside.
All that remained was an epic journey home. It's nice that I have a co-driver. Stopped off at the expensive and terribly middle class Gloucester services.
The holiday haul included 2 types of cider, a bottle of ginger wine, two types of cheese and some nice bread.
Friends of
flickums were renewing their wedding vows. In Cornwall. I was invited to come along. I encouraged flickums to arrange an extra day so we could see the rest of the area. Manchester to Cornwall is not a short trip, after all. It makes sense to make the most of it. So we went down. Stopped off overnight in Bristol with friends, because I was terrified of Bank Holiday traffic, and wanted to get down there nice and early. As it happened, we didn't get particularly stuck. No idea if that's because traffic is overrated, or because we left early. So we arrived with oodles of time to poodle around Cambourne, find where the hotel's car park is, park, get changed, and set of for a 50's re-wedding.
I had fun. Flickums looked awesome in a red dress with polka dots, and I had a stylish red and black shirt, which was possibly a little casual but I worked well as an accessory. Had a lot of fun chatting to people Bride seemed a little upset that they weren't playing the music she wanted, but I think everyone was having a lot of fun anyway.
Next day it rained. Rather a shame. I was hoping to go to the beach, but I can't go swimming in the rain. But we went to Healey's Cyder farm. They did offer tours of the cider brewery, although they are closed on Sundays so we decided to just look around the farm. Flickums had fun saying hello to all the animals. I had fun sampling the ciders.
Next stop was the Bodmin and Wenford railway, Rather popular, probably because it was an activity that people could do in the rain. They have quite a nice collection but there didn't seem to be much of an opportunity for just train spotting. Would have been nice if there was a place where they displayed the engines.
Next stop was Restormel castle. A ruined castle with a few signs indicating what it once would have looked like. But it was all a bit wet and 'orrible, and ruined castles don't have a roof, of course. so we jumped back in car and headed towards guest house near Bude. It was a cosy little place, at the top of a hill near a cliff. We went to Bude and hunted down food. First place seemed a little too sports-bar. Reviews were positive about the beer and food, but I was a little sceptical about whether I'd like it. Next place we tried looked nice on the outside but not so great inside. We tried a third place. Looked great, but it was packed, and they couldn't find room for us for another 2 hours. Pizza place was similarly full. But we did find a decent enough pub that served some pretty good food at very reasonable prices. And I had a glass of cider!
Spent the rest of the evening wandering around the town. Strolled along by the canal. Realised we'd gone the wrong side for the beach. A dog jumped in and seemed to have fun swimming to the other side. We felt it was probably better just to walk. Paddled, went back to pub. Flickums bought me a cider and thus achieved her goal of buying me a pint of cider. We returned to guest house and got in out of the gold wind, and enjoyed a cosy night inside with the wind howling outside.
All that remained was an epic journey home. It's nice that I have a co-driver. Stopped off at the expensive and terribly middle class Gloucester services.
The holiday haul included 2 types of cider, a bottle of ginger wine, two types of cheese and some nice bread.
