Driving Lessons and Coastal Castles

Today was another great day of adventures. We woke up to birds singing songs outside the window at Trereife House, it was lovely. We went down to breakfast in the dining room and were greeted very warmly by our host, Pete (who’s family has own the house since it was first built). They offer a small menu of cooked breakfast so I choose one that sounded yummy. This was my first encounter with a new food experience. I had order the scrambled eggs and salmon, which I thought would be scrambled eggs with salmon on the side.

 I was wrong.

What he brought out was a ball of eggs with salmon mixed into it, on top of toast and, if I am being honest, it reminded me of cat vomit. But before we left on this trip I committed to trying new things, so I tried not to look while I choked down the first bite... It was actually really good! I ate most of my plate and really enjoyed it. Trying new things can be good J

Soon after breakfast we set out, which was a little bit sad because we really enjoyed our stay at Trereife House. As we went I tried to soak up the beauty of the Cornish countryside and small villages. We walked back to the train station in Penzance to pick up our rental car. 

This is our car, Nigel ( I had to name it, because I name everything.)

As I said in my last post, the roads here are insane. And poor Brynt got a crash course in British driving. We wanted to visit St. Ives, which was just a short 8 miles away... no big deal right? Well it was 8 miles of roads the size of walking paths that cars, buses, and lorries drove in both directions. 

This, believe it or not, is a two way street. and those beautiful hedgerows
mean that there is no where to go when someone comes the other way... its exciting ;-)

Brynt is a champ though, he took on tiny roads, driving on the right, shifting on the left and British speed demons and did amazing. And the views at St. Ives were worth it, such a lovely beach. 

St. Ives

It was then onto Tintagel Castle. All I can say is WOW. Even if the castle was not there, the views of the coast would be worth it. Truly breath taking. 

Then there was the castle itself. Tintagel is a ruined castle dating back to about the 13th century, it is also claimed to be King Arthur's castle. Imagining what life was like for people then, and seeing the structure they built ( and where they built it) was mind blowing. The history is just so rich.

   

The King Arthur statue- this is apparently a bit controversial.

Some feel it shouldn't be there because King Arthur is a legend and not a

real historical figure.

At one point there was land connecting the two parts of the castle, but in the 

15th century the land linking the two fell into the sea.  

Now, having a castle on a cliff is awesome, and the views of the coast are unbeatable, But getting up there is really quiet the adventure. 

It felt like something from Lord of the Rings...

Needless to say, we got our workout in for the day. Or the year. ha ha.

After Tintagel we headed towards our accommodations for the night. The drive took us through Exeter, and Brynt's first experience with a larger city. I have already talked about the challenges of tiny towns, but big towns have challenges too, especially at rush hour. Overall, we think that the British road system is really well thought out, and pretty user friendly- But, for someone who has never used a three lane, double round-about with stop lights, and only has vague idea of where he is going... its a bit overwhelming. 

Thankfully we got through Exeter alive, and were soon on a fairly wide road, with out much traffic. But we needed to eat desperately because we had skipped lunch and it was almost 7pm, so we started looking for some where to eat. 

There was nothing. 

So, we pulled up the closest restaurant on the GPS and followed the directions... which took us onto lovely tiny roads with hair-pin turns. Excellent. After several near heart attacks we decided to stop at what looked like a grocery store and see what we could find.

 Lucky for us, there was a Pizza van parked in one of the 4 spaces that constituted the parking lot, making fresh pizza in a fire oven, Tuesday just happened to be the only day of the week they came to that town. And it was really good! Either that or we were just starving, but I think it was good :) 

We found our way to the house we were going to stay at not long after. 

I didn't get many pictures of the house, but it was amazing. Built in the 18th century, belonging to the host's family for something like 6 generations, and originally part of the Killerton Estate - Sprydon House was awesome. 

What we really loved about this house was the beautiful views and woods around it. When I was a kid and reading stories where there were woods, this was what I imagined. It was magical, it felt like Robin Hood or Peter Pan might walk through at any moment. A Red Fox even darted across our path while we were walking along, I thought that was fantastic!

What a day!