Devon & Cornwall

Hi All,

Had a very busy weekend. It started Friday night, where Kristin & I went out for dinner with Les & Kay to a local country pub, The Horse and Jockey. After dinner I went and watched Les play skittles. His team (12 players) played away at another Ely club. There are 5 rounds where each player has 3 balls to knock downs the 9 skittles (5 is considered a good shot). The total number of skittles "skittled" at the end of the night determines the winning team. Anyhow the opposition went first, they were in fine voice, chants and songs for each player- Les's team, a bit older, didn't watch the opposition, they stayed in the bar. When Les's team "skittled", the opposition goes to the bar - and this continues all game! A good excuse for a drink I think!

Saturday morning we headed for Devon and Cornwall. The first stop was Minehead, which is situated above the Exmoor National Park on the coast looking across to Barry (near Cardiff). We followed the coast around the Exmoor and had lunch at Lfracombe. The views along the way were spectacular. Dave's little Renault Clio struggled up some of the hills (25% gradient in some cases). The Lonely Planet book describes "Clovelly is almost impossibly beautiful" and I think it is probably correct! A traditional fishing village with no roads or cars but extremely steep cobblestone lanes down to the harbour. This was a similar story in most of the coastal villages in Devon and Cornwall. If you ever get the chance go to Clovelly - fantastic!

From Clovelly we went to Tintagel, the castle ruins here are allegedly the birthplace of King Arthur. We basically went hill climbing at Tintagel and managed to scale down a cliff, Kristin did look funny sliding down the cliff!

Next stop was Padstow, another quaint fishing village/holiday town. As the day was getting on, we headed over to over accommodation at Golant (near Fowey, pronounced "Foy"), about 2 km from the Youth Hostel and the GPS died - as it was getting dark and the hostel was in the middle of nowhere off a little country lane - a slight panic set in! As we rounded the next corner - luckily there was a sign for the Hostel!! After we booked in, we set off to Fowey for dinner - about 3 miles, but it was not a place to go to at night time and not knowing anything about the place. Very little traffic goes into Fowey as there is no parking anywhere near the shops/pubs/etc., the main street is just one car wide. When we parked at the top carpark after doing a lap of the town - remember the GPS wasn't working - we walked down into Fowey, it was eerily quiet for a Saturday night - no cars = no noise! We had a meal at the "The Lugger", a traditional fishing town hotel.

Sunday morning we headed off to Golant (on the Fowey Esturary) - at 8:00 am without a soul around, it was idyllic and then we headed back to Fowey for a daytime look and it made a lot more sense in the daylight! Reminded me a lot of Metung and the Gippsland Lakes.

Next stop was Truro, the only city in Cornwall, so we had a quick look at the cathedral of course!

From Truro we headed to the most Southerly point of Britain - Lizard Point. Lizard Point was excellent and was similar to the coastline near Flinders/Cape Schanck. The day was perfect - no wind and plenty of sunshine.

From Lizard Point we decided to go to Land's End and just pass through Penzance, but at the last mile before Penzance we saw the turnoff for St. Michael's Mount (we thought it was further away!) so we made a quick turn - this was the best decision we made all weekend- St. Michael's Mount is a monastry/castle built on an island on Mount Bay, off Marizion and looks over to the harbour of Penzance that is accessible at low tide by a rocky causeway - about 300 metres off the mainland. A must see if you ever get to Cornwall!

From here we went to Land's End - got the obligatory photo at the signpost - but we weren't as impressed as we were at Lizard Point - a bit more "commercial"! To finish the day we travelled along the coast to St. Ives - a typical Cornish fishing town come holiday resort - and I didn't meet any man with seven wives or lots of cats!

From here we started the drive back to Cardiff - via Plymouth and Exeter. A very busy and enjoyable weekend. Be in touch soon - all the photos have been posted.

Quiet March weekend & ICE Hockey

Hi all,
It has been a quiet week here in Cardiff for us. I went to the soccer again last week, Cardiff v Watford (2-1) but Les and I left at the 90 minute mark (score 1 -1 at the time!!!) so we missed the winning goal, but we were lucky enough to hear the roar outside!!
Kristin worked on the weekend and I was struck down with a cold/flu. I am getting over it but have had a couple of days of work.
Declan is playing another rugby match this week. Wales lost their last game of the 6 nations against Ireland (who won the tournament - undefeated - Grand Slam) but it was a fantastic game to watch on TV.
Next weekend we intend to travel to Cornwall and see the sights - Tintagel, Lands End, Penzance, etc.. and we are going to try a Youth Hostel at Fowey on the Sat night.
Cheers!
LATE POST: Billy, Declan and Andy also went to see the Cardiff Devils v Nottingham Panthers in ICE Hockey. Sarah's brother Rich got us some tickets. It was interesting to see ice hockey live and the players can move extremely fast. I nthe warm up we stood behing the goals and the puck travels at very fast speeds and slams into the goalie and when it misses him and the goal it bangs into the perspex walls with one hell of a thud!

Bristol, Wells & Glastonbury

We went for a drive on Sunday to Bristol, Wells and Glastonbury.

It must have been hot here (~12 oC) because there were a large number of people in Bristol wearing shorts and thongs! We decided to go to Bristol City FC ground (Ashton Gate) first - mainly for Jason and to buy a BCFC shirt - store not open. today was the BCFC v Cardiff game and there were about 200 police there 4 hours before the start!! The ground only holds a maximum of 22,000 - memories of suburban VFL in Melbourne!

Next we went over the Suspension Bridge (by car and foot) - a great engineering feat for something built in 1830! It spans the Avon River about 100m above it. Checkout the video of Kristin! Just like a little kid!

From the bridge we went into town and tried to buy a shirt, but you can only buy them at the ground!! So we had lunch (vegemite sangers again) outside the Bristol Cathedral.

A trip back to Ashton Gate at kick-off time - store not open! So we went off to Wells and then to Glastonbury. The Tor and Abbey at Glastonbury were worth the visit and the Cathedral at Wells is spectacular (Wells is the smallest cathedral city in Britain).

One last trip back to Ashton Gate - all closed - so when we got home I bought the shirts online!!

Cheers.

More on London - Sacred site tour

We got the bus from Cardiff Sunday morning (5 pound each!!) and arrived in London about 11 a.m. From Victoria station we walked to Harrods(sacred site #1) and Kristin thought she had arrived in Heaven!
We then went to Hyde Park and ate our vegemite sandwiches. From there we decided to walk to Lords, unfortunately Andy took a wrong turn, but on the bright side we went pass Gordon Ramsay's Restaurant, we considered eating there but we knew it would be no match for our vegemite sandwiches! F@*! me!
We then walked down Oxford street and Baker street. At this stage it started to rain heavily and we actually went straight past the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221a Baker St without noticing it!! DOH!
By the time we arrived at Lords (sacred site #2) , we were dripping wet. The last tour of the day had already began, but we were lucky enough to join in. It started at the MCC Committee room, similar to the old MCG stand and Committee rooms. We then went into the Home Dressing rooms and onto the balcony overlooking the ground. Not impressive! then we went on a tour of the ground from different viewing points. the Investec Media Centre (looks like ET) was impressive and gave a great view of the ground. Kristin and the boys went onto the ground (weren't supposed to!). We also got to see the Ashes Urn in the Museum.
From Lords we walked to Abbey Road (sacred site #3) and took the obligatory Zebra crossing photos - although we had to wait our turn with the other tourists!
That night we went to a pub near Piccadily Circus/Covent Garden/ Leicester Square with Lisa & Brendan (a young Aussie couple from Melbourne).
Monday morning we got off the bus at Westminster Abbey(sacred site #4), and walked by Big Ben and Parliament Houses to the London Eye. The London Eye was magnificent and the views wonderful - checkout the photos and video.
We then walked to Trafalgar Square and went inside the National Gallery. There were many familiar paintings but most important was Constable's "The Hay Wain"(sacred site #5) . We also saw another of Van Gogh's Sunflowers apparently there are about 5 originals in the world - all slightly different (we have seen 2 now -Amsterdam and London - maybe we should find the others!).
After lunch in Leicester Square we walked down Whitehall, peered at No. 10 Downing Street through the Iron gates and onto Westminster Abbey.
At Westminster we went to the Commonwealth Day ceremony. Lizzie and Phil dropped in and Gordon Brown managed to get there also. It was a lot of pomp and ceremony but quite enjoyable. After this we had to catch the bus back to Cardiff. An enjoyable trip!
We were supposed to go to Belfast this weekend, but in light of the recent shootings, we have postponed the trip. We will probably go to Bristol on Sunday for a drive instead.
Take care, Andy.

London

Hi All,
Just a quick note, will try to add more soon. Just got back from London and have posted pictures on the Web Albums. We continued the theme from Egypt of visiting religious sites. A summary of what we visited: Harrods (sacred to Kristin), Hyde Park, Gordon Ramsay's Restaurant (sacred to those who like to swear), 221A Baker Street, Lords (sacred to the boys), Abbey Road (sacred to the baby boomers), Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, London Eye, Trafalgar Square, National Gallery, Downing Street, The Queen at Commonwealth Day and a return bus trip from Cardiff to London.

Cheers, Andy.

Soccer & St. David's Day

Hi all,

We have had a much quieter week this week. Back at school and Kristin has worked nearly every day. Billy and Andy went to see Cardiff City play QPR (Queen's Park Rangers) on Wednesday night at Ninian Park. It ended at a nil all draw and to be honest the result never looked it was going to be any different to that! Even the Cardiff people were disappointed with the game. It would be more interesting to see Rosebud seconds play Dromana seconds on a very wet Sat. afternoon with 5 goals kicked for the whole match!

Today Billy, Declan and Andy went to the St. David's Day march in the city centre. It was a bit bigger in size to the Anzac Day parade at Rosebud - a touch underwhelming!

See more pics on the Web albums.

Hope all is well and we are off to London next Sunday & Monday for Commonwealth Day (at Westminster Abbey and the Queen) and then later that week off to Belfast for a conference!