For the third and final part of Alison's visit we took a four day road trip down to Cornwall. I had always wanted to go and who better to road trip with than your sister! Now like the rest of our adventures, this one was also chock-a-block and spontaneously planned! We had a brief idea of where we wanted to go, and stayed in Air BnB's along the way!
Day One
We had both heard alot about Salisbury, so decided we would stop off there, since the weather wasn't playing along for a sea-side stop! Needless to say it was the best idea - Salisbury is an old medi-evil town dating back to 1220. The main highlight is of course the Cathedral, which is absolutely breath-taking. We spent hours appreciating the greatness of it! It is home to one the first clocks ( AD 1386), and endless beautiful stained glass windows! The cathedral its self took over 38 years to build and is home to the 'Magna Carta'. To make the experience even better, the organ was been played, which just made the experience even more special.
We explored a but further and admire the rustic medi-evil feel of the town, exploring the other famous landmarks including the
After exploring the rest of the rustic town, we realized we still had a 3 hour drive to our first stop over in Exeter so continued our way down south! We got to Exeter just in time for supper and bed, so didn't get to explore to much unfortunately.
Day Two:
We got up early and headed towards Plymouth for a breakfast stop, I will be honest and say Plymouth didn't really appeal to me - too city like! But Alison had her first true Starbucks and Krispy Kreme experience ! We then carried on south to Land's End!
Lands end is BEAUTIFUL - its the UK's version of Cape Point , not quite the southern most point but almost! You can walk for ages along the beautiful coast line and feeling the sea breeze is refreshing! We were super lucky to have blue skies which made the views even better.
After a great stroll along the coast line we headed down some narrow country lanes to Mouse-hole. Now Pinterest is great, but they don't warn you that the name mouse-hole is literal! The roads are beyond narrow, one car is a squeeze ... so we diverted to just driving through as attempting anything else proved very traumatic ( especially since it was Al's first country lane driving experience). Once we had recovered she enjoyed the country lanes and headed towards our next stop-over in Penzance. Despite the wind the weather was really playing along and so was time, so we managed to squeeze in a visit to St Michael's Mount.
St Michael's Mount is a tidal island off the coast of Marazion, accessible via a man-made causeway during low tide, and just our luck - it was low tide! Unfortunately the Mount itself was closed but the surround and views were well worth it!
Day Three:
After an amazing sleep and the best breakfast at our Air BnB, we headed up to Turo. Now funny story - the whole idea of going here was to have the best Cornish Pasty, but alas our information mis-lead us and despite all our searching we established it was just home to the head office of the store and not the pasties after all! Never the less we took the opportunity to explore and shop - another reason to love Cornwall - All the Surf shops@ My heart was happy! We even got to witness filming of a German film and maybe famous people!
Now hungry and disappointed we headed up to Padstow ... luckily not a long drive but boy was Padstow Buzzing! And to our delight we discovered that not only is it home to Rick Steins Fish and Chips, but the 2016 Cornish Pasty winner! I think it was the happiest I saw Ali the entire trip! And the Pasties were AMAZING!
Padstow won our hearts over very quickly! It is the most adorable festive fishing town - and yes had endless amounts of good food! Everywhere you looked there were kids and their dad's fishing for crabs, laughter and smiles! We also enjoyed exploring the unique side shops - of which I could have bought everything and yes SURF SHOPS :) We also found and amazing coast walk that has great views across the bay and leads to several of Padstow's beaches! And the best part of all was that the beaches were SANDY! My heart was beyond happy!
if you know alison ... you would know that despite all the other good food we had already eaten, we could not have come all this way and not eat the famous Rick Stein's Fish and Chips! Yes we stood in a queue for Fish and Chips .. but I cannot deny that it was by far the BEST i have ever had and def worth every minute!
I managed to convince Alison that we had to see a beach sunset - something i saw almost everyday back home but had not yet witnessed in the UK and in my opinion is the only way to see a sunset! Small problem was that the sun only set at 21h45 and after the day we had staying awake was a feat in itself!
Not that we hadn't had a 'foodie' day already , we topped it off with ciders and brownies at Jamie Olivers restaurant 'Fifteen' on Watergate bay ( That was all we could fit in and afford!) The patience paid off and the sunset turned out perfectly as it should!
Day Four:
For our final morning we headed out to Newquay - known as one of the top surf spots before the return home! Once again we were blessed with amazing blue skies and sunshine, but not quite warm enough to convince me to swim! Fistral beach is beautiful and endless, and am I'm sure gets waves big enough for surfing ( its also home to my ultimate house) ! The town itself is small and could do with a bit of a touch up as it has endless beach front potential! But it was a great place to have breakfast and end off the road trip!
It was sad to have to leave this beautiful coast line and head back to reality, but Cornwall has definitely been marked as one of my favorite places and is still on the list for further exploring!
For more pictures of the beautiful Cornwall: https://goo.gl/photos/Znp2L5GFF3SsRN3a8