I realise that a blog post is well overdue; there in fact have been several that I've been meaning to write but have left so long that I'm not sure I could remember enough to write anything particularly interesting! So, I have summarised below what we have been up to since Christmas, covering Portugal and Barcelona as a prelude to this new post about our wanderings around the English Countryside; you can refer to Facebook for photos.
Portugal
We escaped the dreary London winter for a bit of sunshine and a long weekend in early March, heading to the Algarve on the southern coast of Portugal. We stayed in Albufeira, one of the largest and more popular towns on the coast, with a highly recommended beach. While the beach didn't disappoint, the town itself was a bit of a let down, having to a large extent been transformed into a resort town catering for the hoards of British tourists that must presumably flood there in the summertime. Being the low season we missed out on the hoards of drunken, sunburnt, 18-20 y/o's, in fact the place was almost a ghost town apart from at our hotel which seemed to be where, no offence, the retirement village on tour was staying.
Apart from that, we enjoyed walking to various different beaches and beautiful scenery on offer, and taking the train to Lagos which had certainly retained much more of it's old charm (though it too was basically deserted).
Barcelona
Over the Easter break (which happened to coincide with Shaun's birthday) we took a trip to Barcelona. It is a brilliant city and I can't recommend it enough. We stayed in the fascinating Gothic Quarter in an Air B&B apartment owned by a chap from America.
We spent a few days exploring the city & admiring Gaudi architecture, eating tapas, drinking sangria and searching for (but not finding) great paella. Highlights were seeing Park Guell, Sagrada de Familia, the Olympic Stadium, walking up Montjuic to see the castle, walking along the beachfront and my birthday surprise for Shaun - an afternoon on a sailing boat.
The Cotswolds
For the May bank holiday Shaun and I went away with Shae and Isaac to the Cotswolds. We took a train to Oxford to pick up our rental car and then drove up to Stratford upon Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare. It is a quaint little town with nice canals, cobbled streets and old buildings. We even stood outside the house where Shakespeare was born (supposedly).
For this weekend we based ourselves in Cheltenham, staying in a self contained part of what I can only describe as a manor!
Over the following two days we drove around countless small towns with all kinds of ridiculous names, such as Slaughter, Stow on the Wold and Chipping Camden. These villages were gorgeous, thatched roofs, cobbled streets and basically like something out of a post-card! Quintessentially English!
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| Shae dancing with the local traveling dancing group |
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| The house Shakespeare was born in. |
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| Stratford upon Avon |
Devon & Cornwall
The route we took - a loop from Exeter, down through south Devon, Cornwall and back through Dartmoor National Park.
We took a train down to Exeter on Friday after work, and thanks to crowds and poor planning, we made it on to the train with about 10 seconds to spare before the doors shut!
We stayed in a b&b overnight then picked up our car in the morning - a mini cooper! Seemed appropriate for an English road trip.
We drove to a seaside town called Dartmouth and had a cream tea (scones with clotted cream and a pot of tea) and wandered about. We then drove to our campsite about half an hour away, pitched up, and then drove to another seaside town called Salcombe, we ignored the signs to park and ride and drove into town - big mistake - the roads were narrow even for a mini, not helped by loads of pedestrians with unpredictable children and dogs. Anyway, we had a Salcombe Dairy Ice cream, I had ginger flavour, it was delicious.
The next day we drove to a town called Liskeard, then caught the train to Looe (opting basically for an extended Park and Ride!). Looe is another small seaside town, quite quaint (they all are). Since we were now in Cornwall, we thought we’d try a Cornish Pasty. I’m not sold to be honest — can’t beat a good ol’ Mrs Macs mince and cheese pie.
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| Shaun eating a pasty. |
In the afternoon we drove down to the Lizard to our campsite (Little Trethvas on the map). Thankfully the weather had picked up so we pitched our tent then went to Cagdwith, a quintessentially Cornish fishing village (complete with thatched roofs) — we walked along the coastal path (along the cliffs) to Lizard Point. This is pretty interesting geologically, but because we wanted to make it back before dark, I didn’t really get time to stop and collect rocks :(. The Lizard is one example of a pretty unusual occurrence where the oceanic crust, including part of the upper mantle is thrust up onto continental crust — it’s made up of serpentinite, which is basically just metamorphosed mantle rock.
We then had a pub meal at Cagdwith, where I think I got some dodgy seafood…
The next day we did a bit of a zig zag, we went across to St Ives where we had breakfast, and I noticed a sore stomach… St Ives is very pretty, but the weather was rubbish so we didn’t stay too long.
We then drove and pitched up our tent at a place just out of St Ives called Gwithian. We then drove to Michaels St Mont, a castle on an island. You walk over a causeway at low tide over to the island. It’s pretty cool. Shame the weather wasn’t great — couldn’t even see the castle at the top of the hill on the way over due to fog!And then also I was sick in the bushes. Not ideal.
I felt a bit better the next day, but still wasn’t up for eating, and so we went to Newquay and slept on the beach for a couple of hours — getting sunburn on only one side of my face! The water there was very pretty — turquoise blue.
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| Newquay |
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| Recovering from food poisoning... |
After the much needed nap, we carried on up to Dartmoor national park which was our last night of camping. We took a drive through some ridiculously narrow roads (I’m talking bushes scraping both sides of the mini), but it paid off, as we reached a high point in the park and got to see some wild ponies up close!
On our last day, we packed up and drove to a place on the edge of Dartmoor NP and took a bush walk through the deepest gorge in England (it reminded me a bit of the Waitakere’s).
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| The Lydford Valley |
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| A bridge from the middle ages at Postbridge |
We then headed back to Exeter and had a few spare hours before our train, and stopped to take a look at the cathedral which was granted by Edward the Confessor in 1060 - sometimes it amazes me how old England is!!
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| These buildings were build in the 12th Century! |
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| Exeter Cathedral |
Anyway, that is all for now - the next blog will be for Norway and then Greece!
Catherine & Shaun
