Category: Europe

North Cornwall

Before we left North Devon for home (which at the time was in west Surrey) we headed on down the coast to have another look at the North Cornwall coastal towns of Boscastle, Tintagel and Port Isaac – famous for the Doc Martin series on ITV. Of course getting there involved a stop off at another beach – Sandymouth, and the return was via the coastal road and a quick stop at Widecombe Bay. Writing these travelogues makes me understand why it is that I arrive back from  holiday needing a holiday. I don’t seem to do relaxing! Continue reading North Cornwall

North Devon: Gardens

Of course it wouldn’t be a holiday for me without visiting a garden or two. And North Devon has several, including one in Clovelly itself – Clovelly Court Gardens (entrance  is included in the price to the village). Unfortunately the gardens closed at 4 p.m. so we were too late this time as we were still in the village. We did drive over to Marwood Hill Garden just north of Barnstaple where you will find beautiful gardens and lakes and a wonderful café which serves great cakes – we had a clotted cream tea with ginger scones! Continue reading North Devon: Gardens

North Devon: Clovelly

The other must-do in North Devon is a visit to the village of Clovelly, where you have to park (and pay) to enter at the top of the village. Like Robin Hood’s Bay in North Yorkshire, this village is inaccessible by car. Originally the main occupation of the village was fishing – for mackerel and herring. Nowadays the fishing is only done on a limited, sustainable basis and the main income is from tourism. The steep and uneven cobbled streets run down to the harbour where you can visit the Red Lion Hotel for a welcome drink or food or grab a snack from the Quay Shop or Seafood Shop. You can hop on a Land Rover for the return trip if you don’t feel like hiking al the way back to the top! At a price, of course. And you can get a ferry from here out to Lundy Island, that lump of rock seen in the background of some of my photos in this region where the Atlantic meets the Bristol Channel. Continue reading North Devon: Clovelly

Spring in North Devon

A couple of years ago we went to North Devon and stayed in a National Trust Cottage near the pebbly Peppercombe Beach.

The cottages were traditionally built out of cob in the late eighteenth century, to house the officers of what was then called the Preventive Service – tasked with policing this wild stretch of coast to prevent smuggling – and later evolved into the life saving Coastguard Service Continue reading Spring in North Devon

“Eviva España”

In 2002 shortly before the birth of my daughter’s firstborn she decided that we should go away for another Mother / Daughter bonding holiday. Any of you who have read about the Italian Adventure will immediately understand my sense of foreboding. However, she is a very persistent daughter and desperately wanted to get away from the dreary cold English winter to a warmer climate, if only briefly. We discussed Ghana, Sharm el-Sheikh and other sunspots not too far from the UK, but dismissed each and every one because of the vaccinations involved. Eventually we decided on Southern Spain and she found us a bargain holiday in a hotel close to Algeciras. Continue reading “Eviva España”