Cornwall Harbours and a day of rest

Our first day of some real rain. It was nice to take advantage and stay in for the morning just generally lazing about and taking it easy.
We hopped in the van after lunch and toured around some more Cornish seaside towns like Looe and Polperro. They are all so lovely - even in the rain.
Excellent pub dinner on the way home. And then in for cosy warmth while the kids enjoyed some episodes of Dr Who with my Aunty.

Campervaning around Cornwall

Fabulous day. We set off this morning after collecting supplies for lunch (Cornish Pasties of course) in Lesley and Nick's campervan around the SouthWest of Cornwall.
After driving through the beautiful Cornish countryside we stopped at an ancient well and Clowty tree - a Pagan site that is still visited today by Paganist. Fascinating place that has been recognised as a special place since long before christianity. It is so fabulous to have my Aunty to tell us about and show us these places, as they are not on your typical tourist routes. Love it.
Next stop - some more ancient ruins of the village Carn Euny - dated to the Bronze Age. The ruins are well preserved as the houses were made from the local granite which has stood the test of time - you can still see the worn places where they would have ground their flours!
Through more tiny country lanes and gorgeous country side to a typical Cornish seaside town of Mousehole (pronounced Mowzel).
Travelling around the coastline we passed St Michael's Mount (as the mist rolled in) before stopping at the third largest natural habour in the world at Falmouth, where we also had a lovely fish and chip dinner at Rick Steins.
Our day out in the van was made more fun by Lilly turning it into an imaginery icecream van at every stop and selling us all sorts of interesting items! Lilly has fallen in love with the van and will be nagging us to get one when we get home! It is a fun lifestyle and we are so glad we had the opportunity to be guided around lovely Cornwall by my lovely Aunty and Uncle. :)
Note for Dad - we love Cornwall but our hearts still belong to YORKSHIRE!

Tintagel Castle Cornwall King Arthur & Merlin

Spectacular day in Cornwall. We have all decided we love Cornwall. We drove over to Tintagel this morning to visit Tintagel Castle - Legendary birthplace of King Arthur. The views and natural landscape around this area are just awesome.
We drove on a little further to Rockey Valley - this would have to be in my top 5 favourite places in the world. It is a divine, magical place - I absolutely love it. We walked along beside the little stream that flows down and then meets the sea. On the way we passed some ancient - truly ancient (1800-1400 BC!) carvings. Brilliant and totally amazing. Loved it.
Tripped back home for another delicious home cooked curry! We are being spoilt in Cornwall. AND the weather is lovely.
After dinner I was able to go and listen to my Aunty singing - she is part of a barber-shop singing group. That was a real treat as they sounded amazing.
My Uncle took us for an evening drive to see some tall ships in Charleston Harbour before settling in for the night.

Par Cornwall and the Eden Project

Fit and healthy start to the day for Ann. Off to St Austel for Aquafit with my Aunty Lesley. Lots of fun and good to get some exercise in as this was followed by a trip over to Fowey where we had beer and fish and chips! YUM! Fowey is a gorgeous seaside town.
While I was exercising Chris took the kids to the beach - only minutes walk from my Aunty's house. Lovely.
After lunch we visited the Eden Project. An amazing place where they have created different ecosystems (biomes) from all over the world. Very clever set up - a bit like Jurassic Park for plants?!
Back home for another yummy yummy home cooked dinner - loving it. Feeling full of food and wine and Pimms! Luvely jubley :)

Bath

After a crappy youth hostel breakfast :) we headed into Bath township. We decided to check out the Roman Baths and boy are we glad we did. Again- they have done an amazing job of bringing the history to life by cleverly preserving what they have found and adding technology to enhance the viewing and understanding of what it would have been like 2000 years ago. Just absolutely amazing what the Romans did and made all those years ago. Absolutely loved the place.
We explored Bath Abbey where they have a memorial to Adml Arthur Phillip together with an Australian flag. He died in Bath. Thinking of home on Anzac Day.
On the road again to Cornwall where we are staying with Ann's Aunty Lesley (Dad's sister) and Uncle Nick. We have been welcomed with a beautiful home cooked meal, wine and a comfy home. Lovely lovely lovely. Glad to be with family again.

Bath via Stonehenge Shakespeare Birthday

We hung around Stratford for a while this morning as there were more celebrations happening due to Will's birthday. There were groups performing snippets of Shakespeare on the streets, more marching bands, flags unfurling and a fabulous atmosphere in the place. Very exciting to be there for this.
We dragged ourselves away from Stratford and headed through the Cotswolds - waved to Mrs Schipilow's hometown on the way :) and stopped off at Bourton-on-the-water. I remember visiting here as a child - this time there were more people. Still a lovely little village with the cute bridges all the way along the stream flowing through it.
On the road again to Stonehenge. WOW! Curious and amazing place.
On to Bath where we found our YOUTH HOSTEL. Glad we have not booked more youth hostels - it was everything you would expect of a youth hostel.

Stratford on Avon

What a day to be in Stratford-Upon-Avon! Shakespeare's birthday! I would like to say that we are so clever that we planned it this way, but it was purely a lucky coincidence. And what a fabulous day we had. We started out with just a wander through the town. The kids and Ann did some brass rubbings - a fun passtime and something to bring home. We wandered on to the Church where Shakespeare is buried and through some lovely gardens.
Next we went rowing on the river Avon - lots of fun and managed to keep away from the barges - just.
We joined a walking tour of Stratford which took us past the birthplace of Shakespeare.
Because of the celebrations we were lucky enough to see an amazing marching band - performing in front of Shakespeare's birthplace - fabulous!
After a really yummy fish and chip dinner - Ann went alone to see the Royal Shakespeare Company performance of King Lear!! How fabulous. What an experience this was - on Shakespeare's birthday no less. Loved every minute of it - even if I did not understand every minute of it :)
Fabulous day.

On the road again - to Stratford on Avon

After saying our farewells to Gainsborough we hit the road towards Stratford upon Avon. On the way we intended to just have a look at Warwick castle, however we were drawn in and ended up spending the whole day within the castle. I was a bit dubious at first - it is a bit more commercial than many of the other castles but in the end we were all really impressed with the place and had heaps of fun exploring the castle including throwing rats, listening to tales of dragons, watching a trebuchet fired and learning more about archery.
We finally got away and found our lovely accomodation in Stratford. Found a really yummy Thai restaurant for dinner - there is good food in England!

Visiting Relatives in Gainsborough

What a busy day we have had! Spent the day catching up with relatives in Gainsborough including Cameron having his haircut by my cousin Pamela, tea with cousin Carol, having lunch at another English Pub, tea in the gorgeous garden of my Uncle Dennis, more tea with my Aunty Janet, more tea with my cousin Linda and finally beer and chips with some more cousins, Faith, Mandy & Kerry, at another English Pub.
All in all a good day with lots of laughs and hugs and kisses. "Other things may change us, but we start and end with family".

Harrogate and York Day Trip

Lovely sunny day today (still freezing though!). We headed off early to Harrogate - my Dad's home town. We went past where he grew up and then went into the town to have tea at Betty's. Felt very posh and thoroughly enjoyed it. We also wandered through the Valley Gardens and past the smelly Royal Pump Room where they pump the sulphur water that my dad and his friends used to dare each other to drink. We were not game this time. It really does smell. But apart from that smell it really is a lovely town.

Next we tripped over to York - another beautiful Yorkshire city. We started with a walk around the old wall. It gets a bit overwhelming at times all these amazing places and the history that surrounds them all. It is hard to describe them. I really do love York. We wandered through the Shambles where the building appear to be on a lean, but they are only built like that because the taxes were based on the ground covered at the base of the building so they built them small at the bottom and then out at the top. Clever.
While in York we visited the Jorvik Viking centre. The history of York can be dated back to the vikings - 800 or something AD! Amazing. So they have built this touristy kind of place to show what their lifestyle was like. It is very clever and interesting. The kids bought a game called Kings Keeper - perhaps an early version of chess? It is quite tricky to play - look it up - you can play in online!
The York Minster is another amazingly impressive building in York but we had run out of time to go up the tower so we just looked inside the entry at the beautiful windows and ceilings.
As you can tell - I really like York.
M&S for dinner - again!