The Holiday

Thank you to Martin for prompting me to stop doing some actual work and write some more about my holiday.

You must remember that the weather wasn’t so good the week we were away, but we did try and make the best of it.

Anyway, you’ve heard about what we did on the Saturday after we arrived in Cornwall, so now on to Sunday. We went to Lanhydrock (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-lanhydrock/). Lanhydrock, for me, is in many ways the epitome of what the National Trust is about. I marvelled at the magnificent architecture and the exquisitely manicured lawns. We took some stunning landscape shots of the property, but none as good as the ones on the National Trust website.

Most of our days out were, and still are, structured around feeding times, so it wasn’t long before we needed to feed the baby. Wifey and I both had a Cornish pasty in the restaurant, which was delicious. Baby had his baby food, but, as usual, we couldn’t get the food microwaved as the NT Health and Safety policy forbids catering staff from heating baby food. This incenses me and I may blog a separate post about that subject another time.

After lunch we toured around the house which, as usual, was superb. The kitchens were a sight to behold. Photography was not allowed inside the house, not that I have a flikr account anyway.

After Lanhydrock we drove onwards to Mevagissy. We passed the first car park thinking we’d find something a little closer to the town, but after a very tight squeeze though the town we ended up back at the first car park we came to. Our visit had started badly as driving through Mevagissy is a traumatic experience and our oversized estate car was a leviathan to manoeuvre through the implausibly narrow streets. When we arrived back at the car park, the attendant was overtly rude. I parked very close to the attendant and he was rude to every single motorist that entered the car park. It surprised me a little as we, the motorists, were collectively paying his wages. I don’t think he liked tourists very much…..

We disembarked from the car and loaded everything up; buggy, baby, changing bag, camera, Wifey’s handbag, coat for the baby, coats for us, blanket for the baby, and set of for the town. We negotiated the narrow streets, which, even without the car, was still almost as problematic. Tourists, buggies, cars and locals all in a narrow street does not make for harmony.

We arrived at the harbour only to find a fish stall serving what we thought was fresh cockles and muscles. Wifey was just about to get some cockles when the person serving restocked the display with frozen ones from Tesco! We didn’t have any cockles that day…

A rainy trip around the harbour ended with a cream tea in a dockside coffee house, which, was surprisingly good. We had expected a poor quality tourist rip off, but we needed somewhere to feed the baby. What we found was a good quality, reasonably priced coffee house who were only to happy to accommodate us, the baby and the buggy. And they warmed his bottle with no fuss what so ever.

A brisk drive home in time for another feeding time and that, my dear readers is what happened on my 36th birthday.