We left the cottage at about 9am for the long trip back to London. However Suzy was keen to make a couple of detours along the way rather than going straight back to London.
The first stop was a quaint little town called Port Isaac where the TV show Doc Martin is based. It is easy to understand why they film the show here because the town has great character - the beach, coastline, pretty houses and narrow cobblestone streets.
As you enter the town there is a sign saying "Town Centre - narrow streets". They weren't kidding. Here the streets are so narrow that it is hard for a car to fit between the buildings. To make it more interesting, the streets are the only place for pedestrians to walk. As you drive past, the pedestrians have to pin themselves back against the buildings or step into a doorway to give you enough room to get past them.
We found a car park which is literally on the beach. In this case, it is lucky that the beach is made of pebbles so can park there without getting stuck. We took a few photos and drove back through the narrow streets.
The adjacent town is called Port Gaverne. As we drove into this town, Suzy noticed the house that use as Doc Martin's house in the TV show. We stopped at the top of the hill to admire the spectacular coastline again.
The next stop was to visit Tintagel Castle which legend says was the home of King Arthur. We parked in the town of Tintagel for the 10 minute walk to the castle area. The castle is on an island next to coast and is accessible by a timber bridge and long stairways up the side of the hill.
The three girls decided to stay at the visitors centre at the bottom of the hill to have some coffee while I climbed up to visit the castle. The climb was worth every step. There is not much left of the castle but the views are amazing.
We navigated our way back to the A30, then the M5 and then the M4 back to London stopping a couple of times at roadside service centres.
The first stop was dictated by the petrol tank. The gauge had dropped into the bottom quarter and the warning light appeared on the dashboard. After a while, a message appeared on the screen on the dashboard telling us how many more miles we could drive before running out of fuel. Just before pulling into the service centre, the message had changed to simply say "Refuel!".
We reached our B&B (Dawson House Hotel) at about 5:15pm. This B&B is only about 200m down the street from Nicky and John's apartment. So Nicky was able to walk back to her apartment while Suzy, Steph and I got our bags into the B&B.
Next we had to get the hire car back to Avis at Mayfair. After a frustrating search to find a petrol station along the way, we reached the Avis depot at about 6:30pm - half an hour before they were due to close.
We were worried about the scratch near the headlight but the Avis man wasn't worried. He said "forget it" and didn't charge us any extra.
We caught the underground back to our B&B and then went out to dinner with Nicky and John at a Thai restaurant near West Hampstead station.
It was still warm when we were walking back to the B&B. It had been a beautiful summer day with blue skies and bright sunshine for most of the day.
Click here to see my photos for this day.
The first stop was a quaint little town called Port Isaac where the TV show Doc Martin is based. It is easy to understand why they film the show here because the town has great character - the beach, coastline, pretty houses and narrow cobblestone streets.
As you enter the town there is a sign saying "Town Centre - narrow streets". They weren't kidding. Here the streets are so narrow that it is hard for a car to fit between the buildings. To make it more interesting, the streets are the only place for pedestrians to walk. As you drive past, the pedestrians have to pin themselves back against the buildings or step into a doorway to give you enough room to get past them.
We found a car park which is literally on the beach. In this case, it is lucky that the beach is made of pebbles so can park there without getting stuck. We took a few photos and drove back through the narrow streets.
The adjacent town is called Port Gaverne. As we drove into this town, Suzy noticed the house that use as Doc Martin's house in the TV show. We stopped at the top of the hill to admire the spectacular coastline again.
The next stop was to visit Tintagel Castle which legend says was the home of King Arthur. We parked in the town of Tintagel for the 10 minute walk to the castle area. The castle is on an island next to coast and is accessible by a timber bridge and long stairways up the side of the hill.
The three girls decided to stay at the visitors centre at the bottom of the hill to have some coffee while I climbed up to visit the castle. The climb was worth every step. There is not much left of the castle but the views are amazing.
We navigated our way back to the A30, then the M5 and then the M4 back to London stopping a couple of times at roadside service centres.
The first stop was dictated by the petrol tank. The gauge had dropped into the bottom quarter and the warning light appeared on the dashboard. After a while, a message appeared on the screen on the dashboard telling us how many more miles we could drive before running out of fuel. Just before pulling into the service centre, the message had changed to simply say "Refuel!".
We reached our B&B (Dawson House Hotel) at about 5:15pm. This B&B is only about 200m down the street from Nicky and John's apartment. So Nicky was able to walk back to her apartment while Suzy, Steph and I got our bags into the B&B.
Next we had to get the hire car back to Avis at Mayfair. After a frustrating search to find a petrol station along the way, we reached the Avis depot at about 6:30pm - half an hour before they were due to close.
We were worried about the scratch near the headlight but the Avis man wasn't worried. He said "forget it" and didn't charge us any extra.
We caught the underground back to our B&B and then went out to dinner with Nicky and John at a Thai restaurant near West Hampstead station.
It was still warm when we were walking back to the B&B. It had been a beautiful summer day with blue skies and bright sunshine for most of the day.
Click here to see my photos for this day.
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