Log Forty One – Cornwall and New Hampshire

13 October 2017

The last two weeks of this odyssey is upon us and it’s hard to believe that we are suddenly running out of time.  In the last seven weeks we have spent at least one night at 16 different locations.  Our accommodation has been very different from 4 star hotels and cottages through to small one room bed sits.  We have travelled on planes, trains, ferries, busses, cars and by foot. The weather is becoming more like autumn as it gets cooler with showers a little more regular but nothing to stop our adventures.

Observations of Southern England

Town Planning

Port Isaacs

What has been most striking is the revelation that the town planners who designed Dubrovnik, and Split on the Dalmatian coast and the people who designed St Ives and Port Isaacs in Cornwall all went to the same town planning college.  The planning college I am referring to is the ‘narrow, steep streets, unsuitable for cars’ school of civil engineers.

Padstow

The old fishing villages of Corwall are wonderful for wandering about and discovering the back streets and quirky architecture of the small terrace houses that make up these villages, just don’t drive into town or expect to find parking.

TV Shows and Movies

Doc Martin’s Surgery

After visiting the locations for Game of Thrones, Star Wars and some of the Bond movies in Dubrovnik and Split we are now in BBC country for Doc Martin and Poldark.

In both instances you can understand the choices of these locations as the scenery is stunning.

Tourist Impact

Port Isaacs

I had a wonderful chat with a local in Port Isaacs.  She had lived in the village for 20 years and regretted the day the BBC arrived and made the Doc Martin series in her town.  Since that time Port Isaacs has become so popular the locals have started to move out and local homes are being converted to holiday rentals.  In her cul de sac she is the only local living year round, all the other homes in her street are holiday rentals.  It is sad to see these villages lose their local feel and their heritage as fishing villages.

Food

In Corwall it’s all about cornish pasties and clotted cream, not together of course; the clotted cream is for the scones.  Every bakery in Cornwall sells ‘world famous’  or ‘prize winning’ pasties.  This sort of food can only be good for you.

Preservation of History

HMS Victory

The Brits do preservation so well including the 500 year old Mary Rose and HMS Victory along with the villages and stone buildings you find throughout Cornwall and New Hampshire.   In many instances on quiet country lanes you will come around a corner and be confronted by a stone house, barns and other farm buildings that must be many hundreds of years old, still operating as a functioning farm.

Leaps in Technology

The view of the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth from Nelson’s window in HMS Victory

It is conceivable that a sailor from the Mary Rose from 1545, could 250 years later step onto HMS Victory and be able to function as a member of the crew.  Both ships were square rigged with muzzle loading guns.  However, for a crew member from the Victory to step on board the Queen Elizabeth in 2017 it would all appear to be black magic and way beyond comprehension.  Where to in the next 200 hundred years?

A Curious Anomoly

In our travels through Eastern Europe and Germany we enjoyed so many fine Czech, Croatian and German beers.  We assumed when we arrived in the UK these products would be available for purchase.  Munich is after all only 1.5 hours away in a plane and at this time everyone is part of the EU.

Alas we were shocked to find great quantities of Budweiser, Coors and other US beer with very little or no German or Czeck beverages on the shelves.  What is the UK consumer thinking or maybe they don’t have a choice; I despair.

 

The final log for this adventure will probably be written from an airport lounge as we face the long flight home.