The room where Talbot Fox invented photography

From there we went to visit the village of Lacock and Lacock Abbey.

Lacock village is famous for its picturesque streets, historic buildings and more recently as a TV and film location. Scenes from two of the Harry Potter films were filmed in the Abbey and throughout the village.

The Abbey, is a quirky country house of various architectural styles, built on the foundations of a former nunnery. There are still the medieval cloisters on the ground floor, dating back to the 1300’s and on the first floor the more modern by comparison house with it’s odd rabbit warren collection of rooms weaving around the former nunnery.  Wealthy ladies used to stay at the nunnery when their husbands or fathers were away for long periods of time to preserve their chastity.

A notable owner of the Abbey was William Henry Fox Talbot the inventor of photograpy.  There is a museum of cameras through the ages along with the story about William Fox Talbot.  There is also a photographic exhibition of Michael Palin’s travels taken by his friend and travelling companion Basil Pao.

On Sunday we took a ride on a steam train on the Avon Valley Railway.



Us at Bitten Railway Station

The steam engine changing over

From Bath we vistied the nearby village of Bradford on Avon and had a walk around the town and visited the Saxon church, the oldest church in England.

Back in Bath we went to Sally Lunn’s and had a famous Sally Lunn bun.  The buns are huge soft and very light. Made to a unique and secret recipe.  Sally Lunn's has been a bakery since about 1680 and the building itself dates back to the early 1400’s.

We visited beautiful Bath Abbey with it's beautiful stained glass windows and ornate ceiling.  We were lucky to time it when  there was a choir practising for a concert later that night so we sat and listened to them for a while.

We walked all over Bath, along the Avon River, through the parks and gardens, stopped and watched people in kayaks delibrately turning them upside down.  They had to try really hard to turn them upside down and they right themselves again almost instantaniously.  Our walk also took us to look at the Circus and Royal Crescent, the very expensive Georgian houses in cream coloured sandstone of Bath that form a 1/2 moon shape on either side of the road.  The Crescent looks out over a lush green lawn fenced and gated for the exclusive use of the residents.  One notable resident of the Crescent, was Isaac Pitman, the man who invented shorthand.

After our trip to the Eden Project we got back in the car to continue our drive to Bath.  Our Tom Tom had set an interesting course and had put in a few hair raisingly narrow winding lanes for us.  I put in the street name Englishcombe and wondered why it didn’t ask for the street number.  It wasn’t until we arrived at the village of Englishcombe that I knew why. We were able to re program and get to the right address.  We arrived at the B&B to discover the door wide open.  I rang the bell, no-one answered.  I peered in the two front windows to discover the furniture stacked up and covered in painters sheets and ladders and paint tins everywhere.  I continued to ring the bell and no answer.  I went to the car to look for a phone number.  I was beginning to be concerned about the place by this time.  I then went and got Colin who wandered around the back of the house and discovered the man happily gardening unaware of the doorbell.  His wife had gone to station to collect some other guests and she thought we weren’t coming till 6pm, confusing us with yet another guest.  All was well in the end and this is a lovely B&B at the top of the hill with magic views of Bath.  A 20 minute downhill walk brings you into the city.

Here's a couple more photos of the Eden Project

On the way to Bath we decided to visit the Eden Project.  It’s an eco sustainable garden project and they have these big biomes where they grow tropical plants.  It has the largest greenhouses in the world.  One tropical and one mediterannean .  It is done very well.  The tropical one was my favourite. It was extremely hot in there.  30 degrees outside and at lest 40 inside.  It was so hot they closed the staircase that goes up to the roof which was a pity as would have liked to do that.   They featured every tropical region of the world and showcased houses and huts that show how people live in each of these regions.  It is same in the Mediterannean with large terracotta pots of geraniums and decororate tiles and hammocks in the sun.  They showed the Californian dessert and the cacti plants that grow there.  We spent quite a few hours there and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The fog that has come over St Ives while we were out enjoying brilliant sunshine and warmth elsewhere in cornwall.

We visited two National Trust properties Trerice and Tresslick.  The first is a house that belonged to the Arundall family and tresslick is a garden.

One of many tin mines that dot the moors around Cornwall.

We visited the Minack Theatre which was amazing.  Completely blew us away.  Rowena Cade created the theatre she was the architect and the builder.  She was quite elderly by the time she was building the theatre and it is an amazing feat to have carried sand up the side of the cliff in hessian bags like she did.  She also found these 12 foot long wooden beams on the beach and carried them up the cliff.  On returning to beach she found some customs officials who asked her if she had seen any wooden beams from a Spanish shipwreck, she said, yes she had, and had carried them up the cliff to her theatre.  They took one look up the cliff and decided that there was no way this lady could have carried them up there and they left.  The beams are now part of the dressing rooms for the performers.

From there we went to Zennor to see the Mermaid of Zennor in the church.  There is a pew with a carving of a Mermaid.  The carving dates back to the 14^th century.

Yesterday we visited the village of Crantock   Crantock is a really pretty little village with white stone cottages with thatched roofs. 

The Old Albion Hotel that Colin frequented as a youth is still there.  It is also very pretty with a thatched roof.  We went in and ordered lunch, a Cornish pasty and a ½ pint of cider. 

Here's an example of a narow country land that we have driven many of over the days here in Cornwall.

After breakfast this morning we walked through St Ives and up the big hill to the little church of St Nicholas and battlements and defences left there since WW2.  There is also a coastal watch tower. 

We then got in the car and drove to near Bodmin to go and visit Lanhydrock built in the early 1800’s.  There are 50 rooms to visit within the house.  I was fascinated by the kitchens and huge open spit range

Our next day trip was a tour of northern Cornwall.   We began by going to NewQuay.  It is a very large town and has several beaches.  It draws the surfing crowd so there a lot of night clubs and it’s definitely a young persons town.  There is house on a large rock outcrop in the middle of the beach with a swing bridge linking it to another house the main cliff.  It was once an art gallery but is now cordoned off as private property which is a pity it would have interesting to go there.

Our next stop after NewQuay was Bedruthen Steps.  You park your car high on the cliff top, follow a short path across the rocky cliff top to a set of stone steps that lead down onto a beautiful beach.  The entire beach is cut off at high tide, so there are big signs everywere as the tide comes in fast and covers the beach and the steps 2 hours before high tide.

From there we went to Padstow which was very crowded and we went to a couple of car parks and were unable to find a parking spot so we decided to abandon Padstow and instead we headed to Port Isaac.  There was a car park high on the cliff and you had to walk down very steep roads to reach the town.  It is very pretty.  Famous for being the location of the Doc Martin TV series.  You can buy souvenirs and Doc Martin postcards from one shop in town.  You get the impression the rest of the town doesn’t want to know about it.  The very steep paths lead eventually down to a very pretty little fishing harbour dating back to the 14^th century. It’s narrow winding streets are lined with white washed cottages and traditional granite slate fronted Cornish cottages many of which are listed or of historical importance.  We wandered all around Port Isaac taking photos and very high up on the hill is the house used in the TV series as the surgery.  Quite a lot of people were there taking photos. We did as well.

From there we drove along some very narrow winding lanes and eventually reached Tintagel a ruined castle on the rugged coastline.  There are trails leading up to the castle and there is also a church to explore.  The village of Tintagel is very pretty to walk around and there is also an historic post office.

From Tintagel we went to Boscastle, a tiny port with a natural harbour, set in a narrow ravine, and has some very attractive thatches and white-washed cottages.  There are some lovely cliff top walks and spectacular ocean views.

We took a drive to find Cape Cornwall.

We drove through the countryside on very narrow winding roads and our first stop was Pendeen Light house. 

We actually thought this was Cape Cornwall.  There were two short walks you could do.  One path lead to the lighthouse and the other up over the cliff with fabulous views out to sea.  We then continued on our drive across the fields filled with wildflowers in yellow, pinks and white. The hillsides were dotted with the ruins old tin mines and pump houses. 

We drove into St Just and then spotted the sign to Cape Cornwall.  We followed an even narrower winding road with big hedges either side.  This eventually reached a National Trust carpark and we spoke to the Nat Trust lady there and said we would like to join.  Well, we were treated like royalty.  An Irish lady full of good humour.  She told us to park and come back to the hut and she chatted and chatted excitedly to us and said we had made her day.  We parted with 73 pounds and in return we received an info pack and directory and the parking sticker.  She gave us a spare parking sticker which meant we could stick one on the windscreen and we know have one to either take home or use if we are someone else car.

The lady then showed us this object that a woman and her child had found on the beach that morning.  It was a very heavy squarish metal object.  We were thinking it was perhaps and old WW2 bomb and she obviously had, had that thought too.  And she said, oh don’t worry I am pretty sure it’s not a bomb.  We hope not.

We then went off to explore Cape Cornwall.  You start from high up on the cliff and can take a walk to a lookout even  higher up on the cliff or walk around the base of the cliff. At the top of the lookout is a memorial to the fact that the Heinz company had purchased the whole Cape for it’s centenary and gifted the entire lot to the National Trust.

The views are amazing.  You can see Lands End and you have the English Channel on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other.  There are a few small fishermens cottages, small rowing boats at the entrance to the harbour and rows and rows of lobster pots.

Along the route we came across a stone circle in a paddock.  We parked the car and climbed over the stile and went and had a look.  Quite amazing.  We were the only ones there so we walked around the stones and touched them and wondered like everyone else what it all means.  Later looking at the map we discovered they are called the Merry Maidens.

St Ives at sunset.

We just happened to be driving through Helston yesterday along the route of the torch relay.We were trying to find a parking spot and were stuck in a traffic jam and next minute along came the torch.  We jumped out of the car into the middle of the road as torch bearer came past.  Very exciting.

We have arrived in St Ives. We have rented an apartment for a week. 

To reach the aparment we had to go down a flight of stairs to The Warren and then another steep set of rough stone stairs and along a narrow walkway, then through a gate and onto a metal walkway over the cliff and then into the apartment. Dont look down if you are afraid of heights  What a spectacular view we have.  A very dramatic cliff top location.  The apartment is lovely.  A big picture window with a window seat with plump cushions, a nice living area and up a couple of stairs to a bedroom with a comfy bed and next door a bathroom with a proper shower.    There is a spiral staircase down to the kitchen, which is well appointed and there is a 2^nd bathroom down there.

It is very picturesque here.  It is very steep and the streets and laneways are narrow,  winding and cobblestoned.  The cottages are rough stone, all shapes and sizes, some squeezed in up little tiny cobblestoned lanes and steep steps. 

Some are painted white with brightly coloured doors and window shutters.  It is very much an artists colony here, so there are lots of shops selling paintings, photographs, beautiful pottery, exquisite glassware and all manner of arty crafty things.  There are pubs, restaurants and cafes galore. 

There are lovely sandy beaches and tiny coves and bays to explore.  Late yesterday afternoon the sun came out and cast it’s special light over the bay.  It’s the light that draws the artists and photographers here.  We watched a beautiful orange sun go down over the water last night.  It is a truly magical place.

Tomorrow the Olympic torch relay is going through Penzance.  At about 8.30am starting from Lands End.  If we are up in time we might go and have a look but I am sure there will be huge crowds.  David Beckham is here in St Ives.  He has apparently taken over the hotel castle just up the road.  We wondered if we might see him in town, but we didn’t.

We have arrived in UK.  Touched down at Heathrow yesterday afternoon.  We collected our hire car and headed off to our first stop, Tiverton in Devon. 

Then today it was off to Dawlish, also Devon but on the coast.  We are in a B&B right opposite the beach.  As I am writing this the weather is suddenly improving.  The clouds are clearing up and there are patches of blue sky, hooray.  It has been freezing today and very windy.

Here's a photo of London taken out the plane window as we came in yesterday.