Cornwall Trip Day Eight, going home

There were a couple of things I wanted to see and photograph on the way home, the Tamar bridges and the transporter bridge at Newport.  If I got to see the transporter it would be three transporters in one year, our own over the Tees, the one in France over the river Charente in Rochefort and the one in Newport over the River Usk.

First stop than was at Saltash or Saltmill, down to the river Tamar to see the bridges from there, just my luck, Brunel's rail bridge was covered in scaffolding and tented out for work.  The work on Brunel's bridge even spoiled the photo of the road bridge.  With a very disappointed me, we continued on our long drive home.

The traffic out of Devon was very slow but we turned out of the traffic jam towards the next bridge, over the river Seven in Wales.   I thought I might get photos of the two Seven crossing bridges but it was not to be.  I did however get some good shots of the transporter and if we had more time, could even have crossed over the river and back again.

Our next stop was in Monmouth for lunch but it was very busy and parking spaces were sparse. We got parked and found a nice pub for food and while we waited for the food to arrive, I set off to find an interesting looking bridge we has passed on the road into the high street.

Monnow Bridge across the River Monnow, is the only remaining mediaeval fortified river bridge in Great Britain with its gate tower still standing.

After a nice meal and a new beer and while the girls had an ice cream, I had a mess about with the panorama setting on the camera.  Monmouth looked like a very nice place and well worth another visit sometime.

From there it was still a long journey home and a painful one for me.

Day Seven

Cornwall Trip, the Draught Beers

This has taken some time to do but I have been unwell. These are the beers so far, as I have not yet finished all of the bottles I bought. In fact I will do the bottles in a separate blog.

Cotleigh, Owlzatt, England

4.4% amber colour with a thin head, caramel aroma, slight caramel taste.

Frys, Ruby Chough, England

4.5% deep red colour with a thin head, malty aroma, smooth caramel tasting bitter.

St. Austell, HSD (Hicks Special Draught), England

5.0% deep amber colour with a good head, fruity aroma and a bitter caramel taste.

St. Austell, Proper Job, England

4.5% deep gold colour with a good head, sweet subtle lemon hop aroma, smooth dry bitter citrus hop taste.

Tintagel, Arthur’s Ale, England

4.4% amber colour with a good head, malt and hop aroma, bitter hoppy taste.

St. Austell, Dartmoor Best, England

3.5% amber colour with a good head, malt aroma, bitter malt taste.

St. Austell, Trelawny, England

3.8% amber colour with a good head, not much aroma but a nice traditional bitter taste.

Sharp's, Doom Bar, England

4.0%, deep gold with a good head, malty aroma, good caramel malt taste, not bad

St. Austell, Tribute, England

4.2% amber colour with a good head, malty hoppy aroma, fruity flavour, a nice bitter.

Otter, Otter Ale, England

4.5% deep amber colour with a thin head, rich malt aroma, bitter caramel taste.

The Cornwall Trip.

Cornwall Trip Day Seven

 Day seven, 9th August 2013

Usual for me up early in pain, take tablets, drink lots of tea to get ready for the day ahead.

For my warm up walk I took Georgia with me, we went over to the train striation, to check which platform we needed to be on.  If you are on the wrong platform when the train arrives there is no way to change and you just have to miss your train.  We were on platform 2, the one were we had to cross over the level crossing.

While we were out, we had a play with the panoramic setting on the camera, to make identical twin Georgias.

Georgia, Dot and Me were first back over to the station and on the right platform, the others were on the wrong side with the crossing closed. Luckily the crossing reopened before our train was due.  I was surprised that it arrived on time.

Our transport for today was a three carriage commuter train, we has designated seats for the train back but on this one it was everyone for themselves.   The train was on time but it didn't leave on time, a leak had been spotted, the driver had to checkout the leak and the breaks before we could continue.

After about ten mins, we on our way but split up all over one of the carriages, after the next stop, when people got off, we all got seats together.  It took about one hour twenty to get to Penzance Railway Station, I enjoyed the ride but not the crowds (being too close to too many people). 

Out of the station we headed for the beach, we turned right and followed the sea front until we could get down onto the sand.

One of the first things we came to was a pub, so we popped in for a beer but it was really just to use the toilets, honest.  We sat outside to have our beers, it wasn't the best place as we were next to a busy road, I would put a photo here but I seem to have lost any I had.  What I did get a photo of though, was a gold postbox next to the pub.  These gold postboxes were placed in the home town of every UK gold medal winner from the 2012 London Olympics.

This one was for Helen Glover MBE, a rower and a member of the Great Britain Rowing Team, Helen won gold in the women's pair with crewmate Heather Stanning.  A coincidence as the gold postbox close to the twins school is for Katherine Copeland, a member of the Great Britain Rowing Team.  Kat, who went to the girls school, won gold in the lightweight women's double scull with Sophie Hosking.

Just along from the pub is a lido, the Jubilee Pool, the UK's largest seawater lido.  The others all went in there rather than the beach, while Dot and I went for a walk along the promenade.  Georgia had decided that she no longer needed to wear her wetsuit (she has very sensitive skin), so she gave it a go.   She was right and seemed to be fine in the salt water of the lido.

We walked along the promenade in the nice warm sun as far as the outskirts of Newlyn (about as far as I could walk), before heading back to meet up with the others.  After we turned back we got very good views of St Michael's Mount, bringing back good memories of our visit to Mont Saint-Michel in France.

After our walk we had a cup of tea in the cafe above the lido where we got a very good view across the bay and also of the girls playing in the pool (yes I know I said tea).

Although taking photos is not allowed in the lido, it is from the cafe, where we took photos of Georgia and Emily playing in the pool.

By the time we finished our drinks the girls were out of the pool dried, changed and ready to go. They met us at the cafe and we set off into town for a late lunch. It took us a long time to find somewhere to eat but we did eventually and I also got a new beer, (review to come in a septate blog).

By this time it was nearly time to get the train back, just enough time though to look in a few shops before going back to the train station.

The Train back was a lot nicer than the one there, this was the London train and we had numbered seats, there was also a buffet car.  So Tim and I set off down the train for some drinks.

Straight off the train, the river was perfect for the girls to play in, it was flowing just right to play on their boogie boards.

While the Nicole and Tim took the twins back to clean up and then order our supper from the Chinese, Dot and I waited in the pub.  I didn't take long before they were all back to join us for our last pub drinks in Cornwall (I even got a new one), as it was home tomorrow.

Day Six or Day Eight