Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Easter Weekend in Cornwall

This year for the long Easter weekend holiday, we decided to stay a bit closer to home than we have the past few years since we were unsure how traveling with a small baby would be. However, since it is a four day bank holiday weekend, we wanted to take advantage of the long weekend and so we drove down south to the south west coast of England in Cornwall.

One of our first observations about this trip was that we had no idea so many camper vans existed in England! Apparently they all congregate on the M5 (the motorway route to get to Cornwall) on holiday weekends and we experienced traffic with what seemed to be the entire population of camper vans in all of England on our way down to Cornwall. Once we arrived in Cornwall, it seemed that we were passing camping sites around every turn. It is very unlike any other part of England we have seen.

The other observation about this trip was that we truly enjoyed the food in this corner of England. The seafood was definitely fresh and we ate some at every meal. Cornwall is known for a few other food items - cornish clotted cream, clotted cream fudge, and cornish pasties, all of which were excellent right at the source!
While the newscasters kept reporting on the "Barbecue" Easter weekend weather we had in the UK, it still was not as warm by the coast as it was inland --- BUT a weekend without rain in England is fairly uncommon, so we treasured every minute of the sunny skies!
Little Crosby sporting her sun hat, ready for some time outside after checking into the hotel.

Mom and Dad's idea of relaxation the first afternoon there - snacks and beverages while overlooking the beach at the hotel!
Just call her Stevie Wonder.....trying out baby sunglasses for size. Crosby was not pleased!

On Saturday, we drove up the coast to a town along the water called Padstow. It was a cute little town with a port and shopping market area, but it is most famous for being the home of Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant and other ventures.
Driving in Cornwall was a bit hair raising. The streets are very narrow, quite windy, a bit mountainous, and there are thick and high hedges lining most all of the roads. I left the driving to Scott!
A very English looking scene in town.
Scott & Crosby at the water in Padstow.
A fudge shop....the clotted cream fudge was amazing!
We had lunch at Rick Stein's Fish and Chips shop right on the water. It was nothing short of DELICIOUS! Tip: If you are going there, they do not accept reservations. You need to queue outside and they seem to wait for the entire restaurant to clear out, and then they seat the next group of people in the queue. It was worth the wait!
We had freshly caught oysters and deep fried oysters to start. Both were amazing.
And then I had monkfish "fish and chips" - deep fried in beef fat. MMMMMmmmm heart attack good!!!

After a walk around Padstow, fish and chips for lunch, and some cornished cream ice cream for dessert, we made our way along the coast and decided to stop at a National Trust site -the Carnewas and Bedruthan Steps to walk along the stunning coast there.
These yellow flowers/ground cover were very prolific along the coast at this point. I am unsure as to what flower or plant they are, but they were very pretty.
We took Crosby in the stroller along the coastal path.
The views were unbelievable.
Such a pretty coast!
And then back to our resort/beach area of the hotel.
It is a big surfing area.
Scott & Crosby on the beach. Crosby didn't care for the wind too much, so she slept through the walk, while bundled up.
Family portrait on the beach with a sleeping baby!
The cliffs along the beach had lots of rocks (and signs for falling rocks) but beach -goers seemed to camp out in the caves all around.
A great sunset over the water.
Easter Sunday in the sun - Miss Crosby sleeping through a beautiful morning again!

2 comments:

Iota said...

Lovely!

Gorse. The yellow flowers are gorse bushes. If you go back in the height of summer, on a hot day you'll hear popping, which is the noise of the gorse seed pods popping open. If you rub gorse flowers in your hands, they smell like coconut.

There's another plant which looks very similar, called broom. Broom bushes aren't prickly, so easy to tell the difference.

Anita said...

The coast is beautiful! It reminds me of some of the spots we saw in Ireland. What a great long weekend away.

Crosby did an excellent job on her first holiday, didn't she? Good for you all.