Greg and Deb's Travel Blog

We have enjoyed our last 10 days with family & friends. Great catching up with everyone. We were well nourished in every sense of the word. ?

This morning we said our goodbyes to Monica & Len.  We decided we would stop at Blackpool on the way. At one of the first complicated roundabouts we took the wrong exit and found ourselves going 30 minutes out of our way ?our GPS is pretty good, but we are not fans of the voice, so have had her turned off for the last 4 weeks.  We put her back on after that detour ?

We have condensed these 10 days into 1 post as we have taken things very easy, a mid holiday break if you like.

Day 43 July 1 2019   Ipsley (Birmingham)

We had a quiet morning, did a bit of shopping, and in the afternoon watched a bit of Wimbledon Tennis and went for a walk around the local lake.(Arrow Valley Lake). It was great to watch Ash Barty win her first round singles match. 

We are going to post a condensed blog for our time around the Birmingham area. In the mean time here is an observation from me that really doesn’t fit in anywhere else.

Was hot overnight, but cool breezes were blowing this morning, was more pleasant.  We enjoyed our breakfast at the table by the window with the beautiful view over the garden.  I hadn’t walked through the garden yet, so spent some time there before we left.  Was delightful.  I must remember to walk in the gardens of Adelaide when we get home.  

Had a lovely breakfast this morning sat by the window overlooking the garden was delightful.  

Left Padstow just before 9am after saying goodbye to Gary & Angela who works for him.   Gary is 72 and still working hard. We enjoyed their company.  

We chose to stop off in Exeter this morning, it was nearly half way to Bath.   What a great choice it was.   

We decided to have a more relaxed day today before we start travelling again tomorrow. A walk around Padstow and its surrounds and an early dinner was the plan.

We left after 9am this morning, got into Clovelly around 11am, was longer than we thought.  Clovelly is privately owned, by the descendants of only three families since the 13C.  You have to park up the top, pay £7.50 each and walk down a steep hill,  over cobblestones to get to the little fishing village and the harbour.  It is a really quaint, tiny village with a couple of museums that are well fitted out from the early 1900’s.   It is a marvel to me that the village could be built there.   It would have been hard work.  It was an interesting and worth the visit.

Left around 10am this morning and headed to Polperro.  It is over the other side of the peninsula from Padstow, we had missed this area on our way to Brixham.   Took about 50 minutes to get there. It is a 13 century fishing village, it has a very small, quaint harbour which we wandered around.  Then we walked up around the head of the harbour and checked out the views.  You can do some very long walks along the coast around here, we didn’t today ?

We left before 9am this morning and headed to St Ives.  The jewel in the crown for Cornwall.  We had a plan to visit the Barbara Hepworth sculpture gallery and garden.  First we had to find a park, which is not an easy task in most towns, made all the harder by ridiculously, narrow roads.   But it is 10am, on Monday and we are lucky.  We find a small carpark, with a few spaces left and it is only a five minute walk to the gallery.