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Ciao!

… must come to an end.  Our flight wasn’t until 10pm so from Bath we took off to Stonehenge and then spent the day visiting random villages.

We were excited to find a few villages with thatched roof houses as these are not typical in Cornwall (or London) where we spent most of our time.

Our flight to Hong Kong was 11 hours and as comfortable as it can be sitting on a hard seat with food being delivered at random hours of the night! Who has tea at mid night and breakfast at 4am? Breakfast was hot dogs and cakes. Hmmm! Yum. Then another 9 hours to Melbourne. Once we arrived, Sophie was meant to pick us up but she was lost and very upset. She was ‘somewhere near Melton’, so we tried valiantly to direct her back to Tullamarine. In the end, she stopped at a petrol station and a man asked her to follow him in his van. Obviously stranger danger means nothing to her LOL. She arrived in one piece and we were very grateful for the lift home where we were greeted by the others waking up and the dog doing loops with excitement.

Oooh! It’s chilly here. Now to unpack… and sleep.

More pics of our last day here….

Baths are always lovely… and this one was both wet and gorgeous. The weather forcast was ‘Sunny with rainy periods and cloud’.  At least they are accurate with their weather forecasts in England.

I have lots of pics here: Photos of BATH, UK, including some of Colin where he was dragged into a Comedy routine (of course).

Roman baths

Everyone told us Bath was beautiful and it certainly was. It has been nicely preserved and has lots to see. We spent our last 2 nights there, at a B&B about 4 kilometres away. We walked from our B&B to the city centre several times (and back) and all around Bath (for 8-12 hours) easily, with our new found fitness!

The ‘Bizaare Bath’ comedy tour came highly recommended to us by a Fireman at Col’s station. Typically, Colin got dragged up from the audience. The guy blindfolded him and tried to smooch him. Col had no idea until he saw the photos: Photos of BATH. It was a walking tour of Bath by night, which was a well executed mixture of comedy and magic. If you happen to be in Bath, it is worthwhile going.

We booked our trip to Plymouth to see my Great grandmother posed in a famous painting, which is held at the museum there… but as you probably read in my earlier post, we ‘accidently’ found it in Penzance where it was on special display for a month. The funny part is, that the museum in Plymouth was CLOSED on the days we were there anyhow (Sundays and Mondays)!!  Imagine how upset I would have been if I hadn’t already seen it in Penzance.  We spent one night in Plymouth. It wasn’t what we expected but like all of Europe, rich with history and character.

I couldn’t resist this pic of the ‘Wet Wok’ Chinese restaurant sign… Hmmm. You see some sights when you travel!

The GPS has been invaluable, but sometimes Tom (Tom) has led us up some hairy paths, especially in Cornwall. One time, the road was so narrow that the grass growing out the stone walls at the sides was touching either side of the car at once… on a two way road. I have video footage of this so watch this space!

I was excited to find my maternal grandmothers house where she was born, in Camborne (63 North Pde). Her father worked in the tin mines and she attended the Salvos church nearby.  I managed to get photos of both of these also. This Grandmother died 30 years ago at the age of 81. She had her children late and was a strong woman, a pioneer in all things. She made a mean pastry, in true Cornish style!

My paternal Grandmother is now 94 years old. Her mother was from Redruth, which is next to Camborne. The two Grandmothers were good friends, despite their age differences, because of the Cornish link. So we explored Redruth, but didn’t find any real traces of my Cornish blood there! The towns are both mining towns and have merged together.

After picking our car up from the centre of London, we managed to drive the 5 hours to Marazion, in the far West of Cornwall. We soon discovered that the rumours of narrow roads in Cornwall were not exaggerated. The road to Marazion is one car width with stone walls either side (right up against the road) but with traffic often coming from the opposite direction. It is an art form, trying to reverse or pull into a spot to let traffic through and sometimes hair raising. Still, driving through this and the centre of london is NOTHING compared to driving in Nice, Marseille and Lyon in France.

Tide is out at Mont St Michael

Marazion is just gorgeous and has a little island, ‘St Michaels Mont’ with a castle on it… all within walking distance. There is a cobblestoned path to the island, which is covered by sea for most of the day but when the tide is out there is a constant stream of tourists going to see the castle and gardens on the island.

Mousehole, Cornwall

We are very close to Penzance, Newlyn and Mousehole (pron: Mouzel). Mousehole is our favorite so far but all of Cornwall is filled with charm and character.

The Cornish have had the ability to put letters together to create words which are impossible to pronounce! Some of them are just plain funny (Skillywaddins cottage?). I resisted purchasing a packet of ‘Pisky poo’ (chocolate covered raisins) in the local shop. Colin has taken to ‘having a yarn’ to the locals, who are very friendly and amuse us with their accents.

Our visit to Newlyn was filled with anticipation of seeing the beach where my great grandmother posed for a painting. Strangely enough, an unexpected thing happened (ooh ahhh!). One of my dreams in life, has been to come to

A fish sale on a Cornish beach (Newlyn)

Cornwall to see the painting of my Great Gran, by Stanhope Forbes, the most famous of the Newlyn painters. So this was my Number 1 goal for coming to Cornwall and since it is held at the Plymouth museum, I booked accommodation in Plymouth and was all prepared to go see it there at the end of our trip. HOWEVER….we spent a day in Penzance, 2 miles away, and ‘wandered’ into an Art gallery. Lo and behold, the painting was ‘on loan’ to the gallery in Penzance and on their advertising fliers and posters!! I couldn’t believe it. I had no idea it was so huge or so magnificent.  The painting is far more exquisite than the copies and pics I have seen. They would NOT let me take a photo of it: (   Some might find it hard to believe, (said with a hint of sarcasm) but I argued with them about it. After all,  it is ok to take photos in the Louvre and I have one of myself with the Mona Lisa, taken without a flash, (!!!)… but they wouldn’t budge on their rules. It is copywrite, they said. I wonder who owns the copywrite???? Anyhow, no sense in dwelling on it. I bought lots of cards, posters, postcards and books with the painting on it and also found some interesting information about the painter. That was soooo exciting. The art work was incredible.  Much more ‘down to earth’ than the art we have seen in Italy and France.

Minack theatre

Another highlight, was going to the Minack Theatre. It is an open air theatre which was single handedly carved by a woman down a cliff face, looking over the bay. The stage sits about 700 metres above the sea with a sheer drop over the side.

The Minack Theatre is the most famous cliff theatre in Britain, possibly in the world, carved into the granite cliff overlooking the spectacular panorama of Porthcurno bay.

Minack theatre in action

We pre-booked our tickets before we left Melbourne to see ‘The happiest days of your life’ (aptly named?), which is a British comedy. The performance was wonderful but the atmosphere was something I will never forget.

More photos here

We travelled to London on the Paris to London Eurostar train at some awful hour of the morning. You should have seen the aquatic life under the sea from the train window;) We left at 5am, but still managed to drop our baggage off at Nottinghill in London (where we are staying) and go off to Tower Hill for a tour and to Tower bridge, using the metro train system. So far (3 days later) we have not waited for more than 4 minutes to catch a train… and BOY have we caught a lot of trains. Very impressive. The Brits knock their system down continually so it’s no different from home in ‘Connex world’.

Saturday morning we went to the Portabello Rd antique market, which is walking distance from our hotel. We got there early and had a lovely time before the crowds started emerging.

Here is a tip: don’t go to Trafalgar square (or anywhere else in London city) when the gay pride march is on!!! Oh boy. The crowds were unbelievable and so were the sights. No matter. We actually barged our way through the march to get to Big Ben, which took the romance of it all away a little, but we succeeded.

On Sunday we wentt to Hyde Park and got caught in the ‘rap music concert’ crowd. I badly wanted to find some squirrels in the park but they were either hiding… or in the mosh pit at the concert. Colin has seen lots of them because he gets up at 6am and goes walking in Kensington gardens. Hmmm might have to teach him how to take a photo! We also went to see Cristopher Robin and Alice (at Buckingham palace). It was my childhood dream to see the Changing of the guards so we got there 1.5 hours early to get a front row spot. Colin did MUCH eye rolling. It was magnificent and lived up to my expectations… apart from the fact that Chris R wasn’t really there. Unfortunately we were up the wrong end for the fuzzy hat marching but I managed to get some good pics regardless. Lizzy sent her love to all and invited us in for a cuppa but we declined. After all, it’s a bit hard to fit EVERYTHING into our day.

The internet has been ‘difficult’ here and I am not sure if we will have it in Cornwall for the next week but I will keep blogging on Notepad and copy it in when I can.

Tomorrow we are off to Marazian (near Penzance) in Cornwall for 6 nights. Hopefully it will be a little rest for us.

More London pics

Our travel itinerary

Mona Lisa and 'Foo'

We are off to London in the morning on the train from Paris, leaving the hotel at 5.15am…. Zzzzz.

We were ‘Louvred’ today and loved it. Colin is not too good with the camera so my pic with Mona Lisa didn’t work too well;( No wonder she has that smirk on her face!

The sculpture in the pic on the left, is a new variety (created today) by some yobbo from Australia in shorts and thongs. No culture at all that one but still, he made it into the Louvre and that is to be commended.

A sculpted French man

I must say, he identified a French impressionist painting today all by himself. I nearly fainted! Secretly, he has learned a lot about art and artists. You can test him when he gets back!

We were interested to see that the Louvre are taking great care of the Egyptian artifacts. Having been to Egypt and hearing their sadness about their artifacts being taken to other countries, they can be at least re-assured of the care which is taken of them. Between you and me… the Egyptian museum should get some tips off them!! I won’t go there…

It took all day to see all of the museum and we have an early morning

tomorrow so I am off to bed… after tea and red wine… with a little BBC TV.

BOY am I over the BBC news!! The only channel we have had for a month. Zzzzzzz!!

The TGV from Lyon to Paris was FAST. It flattened out all my wrinkles. Whoot! There is a train from Lyon to Paris every 15 minutes on a Monday morning. They travel at 400kph and are more comfortable than a plane. I suppose that wouldn’t be too hard!

Apart from a 20 minute mix up with the taxi driver (and 15 Euro!!) we arrived at our accommodation in Bolougne, Saint Cloud (pron Saint Cloo) a suburb of Paris. The metro station is about 10 metres from our door. If only we could figure out the system it would be great!! Everytime we (mostly Col) tries to go through the barriers with a ticket, the machine doesn’t work. Col has a way with technology. His face when he was stranded on the other side with a dud ticket was a sight to behold.

The trains are so incredibly regular, we have never waited for more than 3 minutes for a metro train. This also goes for Rome and I suspect London? I will find out about London TOMORROW, as we are going on the ‘under the sea’ train from Paris at 6am in the morning.

Paris is better than I ever imagined. I love the Eiffel tower so much;)  We went to the very top but Col didn’t like the top level too much (being such a brave fireman and all).

One of our visits was to Musee Orsay and the French impressionists. I was surprised that they let you photograph the art work so had my pic taken next to Van Gogh and Whistler! The pic to the left is Col (not Van Gogh).

Pics can be found here

Yesterday we went with ‘Fat tire bike tours’ to Versaille by bike (and a bit of train). NO helmets and on the Paris roads. Yikes! It was hair raising, 30 degrees but wonderful as well. First we stopped at a produce market and bought baguettes, cheeses, wine, quiche etc and packed it into our bags. Riding along with a large baguette out the top of your bag is SO very French. Then we rode around the vast gardens of Versailles (about 10miles) and had a picnic in the shade on the lovely green grass, overlooking the lake made by King Louis XIV.

Our tour of the Palace lasted 1 hour 45 mins but wasn’t long enough! The tour guide brushed us up on French history and the King Louis and Marie- Antionette stories.

Afterwards we rode home (after 8 hours) and then went out for tea to a French restaurant!