It is September 6th and we are in Plymouth. At this point, nothing had been planned on what to see. So Pat and I discussed options at breakfast. There happened to be a Lydl (grocery store) one block over. So like other mornings, Pat and I would get up and go there to get food for breakfast. However, the night before I bought stuff for cream and bacon pasta that I would make. More on that later. So Pat and I decided that we would go to the beach. But which beach? There are so many in Cornwall on both the north and south sides. Well, we had heard good things about the beaches in Newquay…about an hour plus drive. Everything is an hour plus drive, even if it is 5 miles….I swear!!! Lisa wanted to first go to the Pilgrim Steps where the Pilgrims supposedly set sail. So after getting into our swim suits and beach attire, off we went.
The marina where the Pilgrims set sail was small with lots of boats. There was a museum and stuff there. But other than that…not much. There were lots of celebratory plaques there that have been placed over the years recognizing their launching. But I’m not sure anyone is certain that they left from here. Nonetheless, it works.
After visiting the Pilgrim steps, off we went to Newquay. It was a nice drive to Newquay and the GPS took us to a beach (Lusty Glaze Beach) that was small and you had to hike into. But once we got down to the beach, there were eateries and a very nice beach. The surf was a bit rough, perfect for surfing. As a matter of fact, there was a small surf school going on while we were there. I was the first and only one to actually swim in the quite cold water. Pat got in too. But I don’t remember him diving into waves and stuff like I did. I love the sea. Surprisingly, a couple was getting married down there. And they had a guy who played saxophone and violin to electronic music in the background. It was all easy rock stuff. It was awesome to be there on the beach and having such wonderful music filling the air there. We each purchased a pizza for lunch there (which was quite good for the location). We spent about 3 to 4 hours there.
It was about 3:30 PM when we came out of the beach. On the way back to our BnB there was a National Trust site that was highly recommended not far off our path back. So we stopped in. We paid about $75 each when we first arrived in England to buy a National Trust card. We have way exceeded that amount if we had to pay for each site we have visited during our time here. It gets us free entry and parking at all National Trust sites in England for 1 year. Well worth it.
Lanhydrock House was the stop we made. If I remember correctly, we took a shuttle from the parking lot down to the house. The house, as most houses, are large and full of tons of paintings and antique stuff. The funny thing here was that we were pressed with time to get through the whole house since we arrived around 4 PM and they closed at 5. Well, we decided to do our ‘own’ tour and went the wrong way…backwards. Denise knew we were doing it wrong. What was funny was watching the National Trust people react to the crazy Americans doing it totally wrong. They didn’t quite know what to do with us. Eventually, however, they got us on the straight and narrow and we were able to tour the whole place (but not the grounds much). One thing I remember about this house was the kitchen areas. They had rooms for grilling meats (huge spit), a room for bakery items, a room for salads and vegetables, and a room for pastries. Pretty crazy. The rooms were all amazingly large. Anyway, I’ve never seen such in other houses.
We arrived back to our Plymouth flat with enough time to eat dinner in. I made the pasta with some good bread that Pat purchase and corn. And we always had some form of ice cream or treats to follow the meal up. I’m certainly going to get fat! Oh well…already there before I started! :-)
Some pictures:
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