St. Ives, Room with a view!

 

   View from our room at Chy Morvah (means house by the sea) with other side of St Ives Bay in the distance, and close in, the swimming pool for our use.  I was hoping to have a swim today when I got back from my first day's hike but our group did not get back until after 5:30 and I was in desperate need of a cup of tea and a shower.  

For our first day of walking, Wendy did one of the shorter guided walks offered, walking from our hotel, through lovely woodlands to a high point with a sweeping view of the coast, then down to the beach at Carbis Bay. It's a huge expanse of beautiful sand, with the usual beach amenities of hotel, restaurants, coffee bars, ice cream stands. We sat and watched some kayak lessons while we had our lunch. After a brief walk on the beach we made our way back to St. Ives and 'home'. 

    For our camino buddies, look at the signpost Wendy came across on her walk.  Hard for us not to follow the shell!

    Marion's walk is called The Coastal Path and there are 11 participants with 1 leader.  Wendy's walks are called The Classic Walks and she can chose from easy, medium and hard.  There is a leader for each group and there are 25 to 30 participants who each day choose the walk they want to do the next day.  My (Marion's) group started the coastal path along the northern coast of Cornwall at Treyarnon Bay.  This is not very far south of Padstow for those checking maps.  We were dropped off by bus and walked from there right along the coast line to Porth, on the northern outskirts of Newquay.  17.5 km and 1345 feet of ascent.  Lots of ups and down and by the middle of the afternoon I was beginning to wonder about my idea of fun!!  It was a pretty warm day and hard work.  We hiked for 6 hours with a 30 min. lunch break and a 1 hour bus ride on each end.  I was beat when I got "home" but after a couple of cups of tea and a nice long shower I felt human again.

Topsham / Exeter

We were met at Exeter train station by our friends Pat and Francis, and driven in their little car to their home in Topsham, a village just south of Exeter on the River Exe. Pat was one of the 6 founding members of the Confraternity of St. James in the 1980's, and continued to play a pivotal role in that major Camino group for many years.  We first met them when they followed us as hospitaleros in Corbigny, France in 2010.  And amazingly, during our short time together there, Marion found out that Francis was writing a book about her great-great-great-great grandfather!  So during this visit we had lots of chat of the Camino and of family trees. He expects his book to be published in the next few months. 

On Friday we returned to Exeter and had an excellent tour of the town and its Cathedral.  Both are very knowledgeable about the history of the area, so we were in good hands. The Cathedral has the longest Gothic nave in England, and some beautiful painted statuary and wood carvings. There are lots of Roman ruins scattered throughout the centre of town, many incorporated into pedestrian areas. Then we were treated to a lovely salmon lunch at the Devon and Exeter Institution, a members-only club with its own private library where Francis showed Marion some books he had used in his research. It looked like a typical gentleman's club. 

   Francis and Marion

After afternoon tea we did a walk around Topsham to see the old houses, some built by former sea captains in a Dutch style, copied from those they had seen when delivering wool to Holland in the 1600's. Folks retire to this area now and these renovated properties are very expensive. 

    River Exe Estuary

We were so well-cared for by Pat and Francis  - wonderful hospitality.  "Thank you" seems an insufficient way to say farewell.  We're now on the train to St. Ives to begin our two weeks walking holiday there.  Hope to finally be able to go on line when we are in our room at Chy Morvah, St Ives.

Wendy and Marion

"They're Changing Guard at Buckingham Palace, Christopher Robin went down with Alice".

Day1:  We are now confirmed KLM passengers. Best flight and food we have ever encountered travelling overseas - in economy.  (Having never travelled in first class or business class we can't comment there).  We decided to go right to Windsor after arriving since we wanted to visit the Queen and we heard she stays there now more often than at Buckingham Palace.  

    Windsor Castle

Turns out she is still up at Balmoral for the summer, but we are going to Scotland later so maybe we can have tea with her then.  In the meantime we have a very pleasant B & B in Windsor for our first night in England and tickets to see the Castle along with the Great Kitchen. When we arrived at the Castle for our pre booked tour of the kitchen we were told it was closed for a large banquet that night.  I did suggest that we could help peel the potatoes but apparently that was not even funny!  Lucky for us we were staying over and could get the first tickets the next morning. This turned out even better for us as we were the only two on that tour, along with two in training to give the tour.  After our first day's tour of the Castle we stopped at a little place for a nice cup of tea!  We are now really in England! 

    Cream tea for two

We feel really lucky to be at the Castle late in the afternoon as there are no tour bus loads full tourists.  We just walked right in to see Queen Mary's Dollhouse and then the state apartments.  Pretty cool place and with a good audio guide we learn as we go.  We were both pretty well toast by the time we got to tea (having been up for over 24 hours by then) but made ourselves carry on to find the train station and look after tomorrow's tickets before hitting a pub for fish and chips.  We weren't sure what kind of night we would have right under the approach for Heathrow airport but all was well - the landings and take offs seem to happen about every 2 minutes, but stop between 11pm and 6am.  After our tour of the Great Kitchen we had another very good cappuccino and bought our lunch to take with us at the fabulous Marks and Spencer's picnic lunch section.  We were sorry to see that they don't carry little cans of wine anymore.  

I am writing this on the train to Exeter where we will spend a couple of nights.  Lucky for us we got a train employee who spent lots of time with us yesterday proving to us that we would really save lots of £ if we bought a seniors rail card.  We save 1/3 off every ticket.  We love to travel by train but it's expensive and confusing in England with I lots of different train lines.  She has started us off on the right foot (feet) we think.  

We did see the changing of the guard for Christopher Robin fans, but unlike Buck House, it's done on smaller scale at Windsor Castle. Nice big band though (more men in the band than the guard!) and they marched through the town afterwards.  

    Changing Guard at Windsor Castle.

Not sure when we will be able upload this.  We don't think our friends in Exeter will have internet available.  Having a great time, wish you were all here with us!!!

Cheerio

Marion and Wendy

“Kits, cats, sacks, and wives, How many were going to St. Ives?”

As we prepare to head off on our next big adventure to England and Scotland we find that our bodies are not in nearly as good shape as they were last year when we were preparing for our walk of 750km in France.  Both of us have suffered sore knees to the point that we have not been able to do the preparatory hiking we like to do in the spring.  We have been visiting orthopedic doctors, physio therapists and massage therapists instead.  Wendy is now on the list for an MRI but not until 2015 so that is no help.  Her knee doctor has suggested that she might spend more time in the pub this time, than on the trail.  She asked for that in writing! 

So we head off with knee braces and a bottle of ibuprofen in hand.  We went to purchase our travel medical insurance and had a good laugh when we find that we are totally insured except for our left knees.  We could have insured them too but only by paying big bucks.  Really??  How silly is that.

 We are excited about our 2 weeks in Cornwall, based in St. Ives, and then wandering by bus and train to visit some old friends and some new places in England and Scotland.  Stay turned for the ongoing saga of the two un-insured left knees!

                           (Knees up Mother Brown, knees up Mother Brown)

Home again, home again, jigging jig!

61 days in Europe: 53 days in France & 8 days in Spain

45 different beds to sleep in

38 days of hiking 730 kilometres

new friends - countless

Incredible new experiences and memories - priceless

But still, when we arrive home, we so enjoy:    

our own bed, pillow, and shower and for M, a cup of #10 Murchies tea (in that order)

These boots are made for walking

And that's just what they did

One of these days these boots will....

Most likely Walk On

another great adventure.

Last Stop - Bilbao!

We are spending our last four days in Bilbao, Spain. Being here has been a bit of a language shock - as suddenly everyone is speaking Spanish, and French doesn't work as well as it did. However, we are both very mixed in our attempts to speak, and usually end up with some English, French and Spanish in each sentence. The waiters just laugh at us!

Of course the "must-see" here is the Guggenheim Museum. It's just across the river from our very modern hotel (a quick change of pace from 'old town' San Sebastián). We visited it yesterday and both loved the amazing architecture. There are no/very few straight lines in the entire structure. It's hard to understand how anyone could design such a place.  We spent a couple of hours exploring it. However, we were not so enamoured of its contents; guess ultramodern art is not our thing. 

Note the wide paseos or walkways along the river - very spacious and very well-used (dog-walkers, runners, seniors, families with kids on scooters, us). Also red tower over bridge which is another art installation.

  

Guggenheim Atrium    

Pedestrian Bridge over River Bilboa

The Museum has spawned other very modern buildings and bridges in the city. There are pedestrian shopping  streets, a metro and a very slick tram system (very quiet and all tracks are grassed).  We've briefly visited the old town here, but have really enjoyed the contrast of seeing a contemporary side of northern Spain.  We did find a neat spot for coffee this morning - a 1903 cafe, brimming with atmosphere, and good pastries and coffee too. 

  

Cafe Iruna - check the ceiling!

  

  nummy salad (served on an interesting curved plate) here in hotel dining room

What we really love is the pedestrian oriented city centre.  Many shopping and eating streets are pedestrian only.  Cars only on the major through streets.  Even with all the shops closed today (Sunday) there are lost of folks out walking around - families and teens and young adults.  It's fun to people watch here.

One more day before we hop the plane for home!

A new favorite place...

 We arrived in San Sebastion 3 days ago in the rain and wind and still we fell in love with the place immediately. We've got a great place to stay in the old town, with a gazillion restaurants and pintxo bars within a stones throw. This is the way we love Europe - little cobbled pedestrian streets, vendors at the markets displaying their wares, umbrellas in the main town square where you can sit and have coffee or wine and watch the world go by. And this place is absolutely stunning.  It is around a bay like St Jean de Luz with a wide beach but it's a much bigger town and does not seem to be just for tourists. We cannot believe how many places there are to eat, coffee, bars, restaurants and more bars.  Most of them serving tapas, (called pintxos here in the Basque Country,) all day.

We went for pintxos our first night here. First had a very small piece of tender steak in Bearnaise-like sauce with fried potatoes and zucchini slices. It was so good that we had a 2nd one along with a couple of glasses of Rioja red wine. 

Also a coquille st Jacques in garlic sauce. Then we met a Spanish gal who is a tour guide for an American company, chatted with her for a bit (about pilgrimages and independent travel). She took us to another bar for a dessert called Bob Limon. Looked like fried egg but was really a mango compote inside meringue. We had to eat it in correct order - next was a lacey cake (centre left) then a small piece of VERY raspberry fruit leather (almost invisible on black slate on right) and then the middle of a flower (far left) that was amazingly lemon - a real zinger!  The chefs are all young guys who like to create and experiment.  All was served on a flat slate. 

We've had a great time with the food here. In the evenings the bars are crowded with people eating and drinking - best food we've ever had in Spain!

We've also done some walking in town and along gorgeous beach shoreline, took funicular up Mt Igeldo for a wonderful view over town and the Pyrenees that lie just beyond the coast. But the obvious highlights are as described above. 

A typical pintxos bar laid with choices

The Bubble Busker with merry-go-round in background. Everyone (parents, kids, grandparents and tourists) out walking the Paseo in early evening. 

La Concha Bay at San Sebastián

Tomorrow we make our last move - to Bilbao. We fly home from there on Nov 5th.