Devon and Cornwall

Saturday 12^th July, the day before we left London, Andrew and Xavier walked from the apartment to the AVIS location near Station and collected the hire car.  Listed as a Citroën Picasso (or equivalent), we got ‘the equivalent’, a Vauxhall Zafira.  The car was fine, but we were lucky we ditched our largest suitcase in Uzes, as boot capacity of the Zafira was far less than the Picasso or the Peugeot 5008 we had in France.  In fact, it was quite a tight luggage squeeze, even without the largest suitcase.  Caveat emptor re ‘the equivalent’ car.  Fortunately, after this we had two ‘wins’ - we didn’t have to worry about congestion charges because it was the weekend, and Andrew jagged a great ‘free’ park right outside the apartment.

The next day we packed, cleaned the apartment, then drove west out of London.  The drive was relatively simple, despite not having GPS (caveat emptor re ‘the equivalent’ car!), with light Sunday traffic.

About half way to our Torquay destination, we met our great friend Ruth Cooke-Yarborough and her husband Peter for lunch at a community pub called The Plough Inn.  Ruth and Peter had very kindly allowed us to stay in their London apartment, and then selected a great lunch venue to catch up just off the M4 and not too far from their home in Marlborough.  The kids were quite well behaved (although I think ipads were involved), so we were able to have some nice adult conversations.  It was lovely to meet Peter, and to see our friend Ruth again.

After lunch we re-joined the M4 , before diverting onto the M5 and eventually arriving at the Carlton Hotel in the TLH Leisure Resort in Torquay.  The resort is made up of 4 hotels, which surround and share access to recreational facilities including indoor and outdoor pools, carpet bowling rink, ten pin bowling alley and arcade games.  When choosing where to stay Andrew was attracted to these facilities (and the modest room rate -  but to be fair there were not a lot of alternatives), and they turned out to be the highlight of the resort.  The room and included dinner were OK, …. but just OK.

Shortly after unpacking we went downstairs to the dining room, for our first ‘included dinner’.  The photos below show the décor, along with Grace giving Elle some attitude (via the hand), and Xavier once again falling asleep at the dinner table.

After dinner, Elle offered to put the kids to bed, so Andrew could walk down to a pub (attached to the resort), to watch the Football World Cup Final.  Upon entering the large open plan bar, with 2 large TV’s, Andrew felt that he lowered the average age by a few years.  With the grey army occupying the chairs in front of the screens, he opted to watch Germany defeat Argentina standing at the back of the room, close to the beer taps.

The next morning (Monday 14^th July) we drove to Babbacombe, a ‘suburb’ of Torquay.  The primary reason was to check out the highlight attraction of the model village, but a quick look past the entrance gate didn’t impress us, so we opted to give it a miss.  Instead we wandered the streets, had a nice coffee and cake in a café, walked to the cliff overlooking the beach, and had a great fish and chip lunch at the award winning Hanbury’s restaurant.

On the way back to the hotel we noted a sign to the Hotel Gleneagles hotel, the inspiration for ‘Fawlty Towers’, so we decided we had to pay a visit.  The hotel is quite unlike the one in the TV show, but an old manager inspired the Sybil character, and that is enough to make the Gleneagles famous.  Inside there are a lot of press clippings about the Hotel and the TV series, and another connection via Basil’s Bar.  Upon exiting, Andrew insisted that William allow him to execute the traditional whacking of Manuel’s head by Basil.

That evening after another 3 course dinner at the resort, at the same table, and after Xavier had gone to bed, Andrew took Grace and William down to the bowling alley and Arcade Game area.  Both kids switched between assisted and unassisted bowling, but in the end William managed to beat Grace by 1 pin (and was pretty pleased about it).

The evening finished up with a couple of car racing games.

Tuesday 15^th July was a big driving day, not helped by missing roads/getting lost once or twice (no GPS, caveat emptor re ‘the equivalent’ car!!).  Our first destination was the small village of St Nelwyn East in Cornwall, to see the church in which John and Christiana Jenkin were married early in the 1850's, just prior to emigrating to Australia.  John and Christiana are Andrew’s Great Great Great Grandparents, the grandparents of Wilfred (Pop) Jenkin, who Andrew remembers quite well.  The inspiration to visit the church came when Grandpa Wally sent Andrew a postcard picture of it from Tupper’s family history collection.

St Newlyn East is surrounded by farmland, hosting mainly crops.  Near the village the narrow roads were crowded on both sides by very long grasses and high hedges, with not enough width for a second vehicle.  This made driving somewhat scary, but fortunately when we did see other cars, we were not in a narrow section.  The village is small making the church near the centre quite easy to find, and parking nearby no problem.

The sign at the entrance to the church grounds indicated that the church no longer has a full time priest. Instead, it shares one with a larger church in the region, and she visits twice a week to deliver mass.   On the day we arrived, nobody was anywhere to be seen, but fortunately the church door was not locked and we were able to enter.  We spent about 30 minutes inside the church and the same walking the grounds outside.  It is very attractive, both inside and outside, and Andrew enjoyed the visit.  No evidence of the Jenkin surname could be seen, despite looking at most headstones outside and some documents and pictures inside.

Leaving St Newlyn, we then drove for about 20 minutes, to the Cornish seaside holiday town of New Quay.  Elle found a highly recommended café for lunch, specialising in Turkish Pides, and we ate some of these for lunch overlooking the large beach below.

Turning back towards Devon, we drove to the pretty tourist and fishing village of Polperro, near Looe.  Tourist cars are not allowed in the town due to the congestion problems they would cause, so after parking in the large carpark just outside, we walked in and wandered the streets for an hour or more.

Our own ‘daredevil’, liked this monster truck poster for an upcoming stunt show in Looe.

Late that evening, after arriving back at the resort, we had another 3 course dinner, at the same table.  Between courses William still had enough energy to draw one of his famous dragon-laden masterpieces.

On our final day in Torquay (Wednesday 16^th July), we thought we had better see Torquay.  First stop was a Devonshire Tea Café (we couldn’t leave Devon without sampling their famous local fare).  The photo shows Elle and the kids enjoying tea and scones outside the café. What it doesn’t show is Elle losing it with all of them, after their selfish loud behaviour threatened to ruin the experience.

The photo below shows a panaoramic view of Torquay Harbour from in front of the café.  I think the potential treat of riding the Ferris Wheel may have been lost following the poor café behaviour.

The photo below shows that Grace was at least smiling when she received the overflowing marshmallow topped hot chocolate.

After the café, we wandered the streets of Torquay, did some shopping, and then went back to the resort for a swim.  Then finally we had another 3 course dinner, at the same table!  Departing Torquay for Winchester on Thursday 17th, we had several possible routes we could take.  However, as Andrew had never been to Stonehenge, and was keen to do so, the route was chosen.

Upon arriving at Stonehenge before midday, Xavier fell asleep, so Elle (who had seen Stonehenge in 1996) stayed in the car, and Andrew, Grace and William visited the site.  After hearing the many stories that the stones are small and the site not that great a tourist attraction, Andrew was pleasantly surprised to get a real buzz while walking around the site.  The audio guides for adults and children were also enjoyed by all.

Back in the car, and after lunch in a small town nearby, we then drove to Salisbury.  Soon after entering the city we spotted a great looking George & Dragon Hotel, and we had to stop to get a photo of William next to his favourite animal and best friend’s name.

We then tried to get a park near the famous cathedral, to have a quick look, but it was very hard to navigate in the centre of the city (no GPS, caveat emptor re ‘the equivalent’ car!!!), and we couldn’t find any parks when we thought we were close.  So, we decided to just head straight to Winchester instead.