Tremont Hotel Newquay

... we nevertheless enjoyed a stroll around the steep streets of the town and after a drink at the Golden Lion decided on "The Old School House", built in 1875, for our room for the night. After passing the religous studies room we were ushered into the english room with commanding views over the fishing boats in the harbour. Looking forward to sampling some of the local seafood tonight.

... chapel (well, ruins of) which dates from around 1000AD, and the castle itself was established around 1233AD. After a walk around the windy headland, we headed for Newquay, which is a popular town/beach for surfing. My favourite part of Newquay was definitely the house on top of the tor with it's own suspension bridge!

It was a shopping and driving day today. We went for a bit of an impromptu tour around the Bodmin Moor area (didn't see the beast unfortunately) and then went to a big department store called Trago Mills where I bought a big road map for when I get a job driving around Europe.

Not much else to report for today, but we did see a cool scooter with thousands of mirrors and a tail!

For our first full day away, we did some shopping in the morning, then went for a walk around Looe, a small seaside town. Looe was mainly based on the fishing trade, but also had quite a lot of shops to browse.

We saw quite a few people fishing for crabs, using a small mesh bag with some bait on a line, and it was amazing at how quickly the crabs were being picked up...20-30 seconds was enough in some ...

For my next trip I was off to Cornwall in the South West for a week with my Nan, aunties Jeanette and Marion and uncle Roland. We stayed at Lakeview Villas, about a 5 minute drive out of Liskeard.

Today we drove down from London, and aside from a bit of a holdup at Bath, it was a smooth drive down.

... Walkabout (she normaly hates walkies... either the couple of pints or the lack of mental exercise has made her brain soft). Anyway we had another beer there. The best thing about the place is the view of the beach and the free wifi. We both lost our heads and ordered food which was edible but nothing to get excited about and then watched the free movie they put on the big screen.

... full of steep, narrow, winding streets impossible to park on. So we decided to cut our losses and find a park close to the Eden project which was our first port of call in the morning. Still, the dark made our task of finding a good freecamping spot a difficult one, and took another hour before we had settled in for the night. I was pretty crabby by this stage so finding a spot to stop was a welcome relief.

The Eden Project opened at 9am and we were the first ...

... castle was spectacular, built on the island site just off the coast in the 11th century. Painting and drawings through the castle showed the long history. It also housed some unusual gifts like a 2000bc mumified egyptian cat and a Samuri suit of armour.

The Island is also a pilgramage site and still has a church at the top of the castle. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited once unannounced and the family were not home ...

... YUM!!!

To work that off we took the long way back to our van via the coastal nature walk. Although still warm the clouds started to close in which seemed quite appropriate fo the scene.

We we got back to the van it started drizzling with rain. It continued off and on for the rest of the day.

... and led to Koos and I napping in my van and Pete in his in a parking lot. Unfortunately we awoke tthe next morning to find that we had both been issued fines - both for "1 individual sleeping in van" - of 60pounds!! - thank **** the attendant hadn't seen there were 2 of us in my van - who knows what would have happpened!? So Sunday was spent hung over and driving back - after ,of course, Pete woke up the neighberhood with some serious donuts!