Continued from Part 4…
Thursday started like any other morning, we got up, had breakfast, and got on the road to start our adventures. We were booked into Tintagel Castle for 10am, so set off from the hotel at 8:50. Listening to a podcast on the way, we arrived just after 10 and walked to the ticket office. But the castle was closed.
We were told that they had to close the castle due to high winds and that they’d sent emails out to anyone that had booked a ticket. Lo and behold, I had an email on my phone that had arrived about 3 minutes after we left the hotel saying the castle was closed and I was being refunded. A shame, but it was so windy even at the ticket office, we probably would’ve been blown off if we’d gone across to the island. We did however meet a lovely old cat in the car park, who was very friendly, so it wasn’t a complete bust.
We kept to our plan and set off towards Wadebridge, where we met up with Mum and Dad for a spot of lunch. The weather was miserable, so we went to pretty much the first restaurant we came across, which was Route 39, an American Bar and Grill. The food here was great, but I forgot to take pictures. The salad bowls were enormous!
After an hour or so, we finished our food and contemplated our plans for the rest of the day. A National Trust property was on the agenda, but it was raining very heavily, so we decided to just go back to the hotel and get some rest instead.
By the late afternoon, we were a little more energized and ready to go out for dinner. We were booked in at the Polgooth Inn, just a 5 minute drive down the road from the hotel. It was a really nice traditional pub, with great service, and very good food. Another strong recommendation here!
We both had pizzas and desserts. Delicious!
After this, we retired back to the hotel for an early night, ready to check-out in the morning.
Friday morning was a little calamitous. We were due to meet up with the family in Fowey (pronounced “foy”), but Helen and I both felt unwell, so after checking out of the hotel, we went to get some COVID lateral flow tests from St Austell. Luckily we were both negative, so it’s just a cold, but still not a great start to the day!
When we eventually got to Fowey, just over an hour late, we grabbed a table at Havener’s Bar and Grill for some lunch. Mum, Dad, James, and Sam met us at 1pm and we ordered cream tea for everyone, only to find out there was just 1 left. So we ordered that and a few sandwiches. Lovely food, though! And some good entertainment when a customer started shouting “HELLO, HELLO!” at the waiting staff because he’d apparently been trying to get their attention for 15 minutes. The restaurant manager thanked him for making a scene, and his wife walked off embarrassed. I don’t blame her!
Fowey was a beautiful little town on the coast, so after lunch we had a look around all the shops, picking up some nice hand-made glass coasters before setting off for the next destination.
The rest of the family were staying in a house in North Cornwall by Magwan Porth, so we drove up to join them for the rest of Dad’s birthday (October 1st, today) and the night. The view from the house was incredible, especially as the sun set over the Celtic Sea!
For dinner, we had an in-house catering team cook up a three-course meal, which was delicious. I had duck to start, lamb for main, and a sticky toffee pudding for dessert. Others had scallops, sea bass, and lime cheesecake. Everything was very rich and flavorsome, and the women doing the cooking were lovely. I was worried the menu was going to be too posh for my palette, but it was great, and I’d definitely do that again.
Once we were all suitably full of good food and good wine for those that drink it (everyone except me), we played a couple of games of “Poetry for Neanderthals”, which is like Articulate, but you can only use single-syllable words. Each team won 1 game, but we were all too tired for a decider. Helen got the most three-pointers, and Mum got the most minus-one-pointers. Very entertaining and funny, especially with the inflatable bonking stick!
Happy 70th birthday, Dad! Hope you had a good one!
On the Saturday morning, everyone got up and met for breakfast at 9ish. Dad cooked (what I’m told was) a delicious fry-up, but I stuck to some plain cereal due to a continuation of yesterday’s illness.
After this, we said our goodbyes and got on the road at around 10am. Unfortunately, due to traffic, and several petrol stations running out of fuel (we stopped a few times on the way to try and fill up), we eventually got home at around 4:30pm, six and a half hours after we left Cornwall. This meant we were also too late to collect the cats from the cattery tonight, so we’d get them in the morning.
So now we’re home, let’s check up on that plan…
So all-in-all, about a 60% success rate with the original plan. The main obstacle was the wind and rain, so had we had better luck with weather, it would’ve been more like an 80% success rate. Either way though, it was a great holiday, and we had a really good time. It’s nice to be home though!
Shame about Tintagel and you two not feeling so good on Friday but you certainly filled the rest of the trip with exciting things. Really pleased you enjoyed the dinner that James and Sam arranged , we’d certainly do that again too.
Great to have your company in Cornwall and thanks for bringing the game with you.