We’re packing up and leaving Cornwall today – the B&B has
been so nice! We’re trying to sample the
area, and the goodies in our rooms (nice hot chocolate and short bread
cookies). We’re up and ready for
breakfast a little earlier this morning – and most people just have the
scrambled eggs – something simple. But I
have the omelet that Patti had the day before – love that cheese. Nicholas is taking our orders again – just adorable.
We pack up the car and this time Patti is sitting way in the
back and Thomas is again taking the navigator position in the passenger
seat. We seem to have more stuff, and
Dana is the most perplexed by it because she hasn’t really purchased
anything. We have a three hour drive to
Cardiff, and we’re planning to stop off at Cheddar along the way. I wanted to sample some cheddar from Cheddar..
but we’ve done zero research on it. We
just saw it on a map and we wanted to go there – we don’t even know if they
actually make cheddar there, or if there is a shop where we can buy it. Its an adventure! I put in Cheddar into the gps and it wants a
point of interest there, so I pick “shopping” – hoping that will take us to
cheese.
Thomas and I are working well together, but we notice that
the signs that signal a turn aren’t where we expect them to be – in America a
sign points to turn here, and it’s where you should be turning… the signs here
happen about 100 feet before you turn, but they point to their left, as if it’s
“here”… one time we tried to turn at the sign, then at a little clearing and
finally at the turn… We’re having a good
time listening to British radio. Thomas
says that the morning talk on American radio doesn’t interest him, but if he
had British people, it might. We
chuckle at the weather forecast because there will be two showers in the
afternoon, but the forecast is declared to be “mostly dry”. There is apparently a local debate over how
to pronounce “Scones” (seems similar to the pop versus soda thing) – and some
say “scons” and some say “scones” (with a long O). We love a segment called guess the guest –
but not for the reason we’re supposed to- it’s just completely pointless and
American audiences wouldn’t have the patience for it. They play a line that someone has said, and
it’s someone famous that has been on their program – but they could be and
probably are disguising their voice, and could even be lying about what they’re
saying (we just get “I’m an actress”…played repeatedly). They sound female, but could be male and
could be a singer… people call in and
they guess by making the host guess. So
instead of saying, “It’s Robin Williams”, they have to say “He’s played on Mork
and Mindy, does stand up, is quite crazy, etc” and then the host guesses who
they are guessing and tells them that they’re wrong (by using a duck quacking
noise --- which is all the people in the back of the car can hear, and are
apparently annoyed by it). The part that
takes patience is that it’s apparent that this has not started today – this happens
weekly, and they have been busy guessing at this same person for weeks. No one guessed it this week either, so next
week they’ll be at it again, listening to “I’m at actress” and trying to guess
who it is.
Little things make us chuckle… Thomas says that they have a
small glove box… I say they must have small gloves. J We pass a pet boarding place that also
claims to be a “cattery”. It’s not the
first thing like that we’ve noticed – we’ve driven by an “Ottery” too. But a cattery seems a little more odd. It’s right across from Eastertown, and I
think that a bunnery would be more appropriate.
Get thee to a bunnery!!
We get to our Cheddar exit and start going through town to
the shops – but nothing is labeled Cheddar, and it seems to be a seaport
town. We check the map and it’s on the
other side of the motorway – it took us to shopping near Cheddar, but not in
Cheddar. It’s ok, a happy accident
because this place looks fun. It’s
actually Weston Bay – this is what we get for zero research.
We park and walk around – and it’s COLD – yes, I was cold –
and people are at the beach, people are even walking around in swim trunks with
nothing else on.. Thomas and Lauren are both wearing their jackets and taunting
me with them. I keep saying that I’m
determined to find a jacket on this trip, but it never happens.
Lauren finds batteries for her camera (the guy sees their
jackets and says “You’ve been to London and Lands End!” … very clever). Dana heads down to the beach to stick her
toes in the sand, and then we check out the dolphin shop (what looks like a
second hand or surplus store – still no jacket). We don’t see any cheddar, but every place we
pass is advertising the cream tea and I tell them that I have to try it before
we get out of Cornwall. They all
advertise homemade scones, so I figure this is a great place to get it. Thomas gets spaghetti and Lauren gets a
chicken salad because they weren’t sure if the cream tea would be enough to
fill them up. It’s meant to be an
afternoon snack and we’re trying it for a meal.
The clotted cream is like the consistency of butter – not like
the whipped “heavy” cream that I thought it would be. It works best to layer on the crème first and
then the strawberry “conserves” (not preserves). It comes with a proper pot of tea as well - It’s good – I’m glad we tried it. Checked that off my list.
It’s getting to be later – like 1:00 and we have timed
tickets for Doctor Who, latest entry at 3:30 (and about 90 minutes to
Cardiff). We call our host and let them
know our eta, and we head out (after we figure out the system to pay for
parking – they give us a little yellow chip, and then we pay and they give us a
different yellow chip – not sure how they know the difference).
We cross the bridge from England into Wales – it reminds us
of the Alton bridge – and we make our way through Cardiff. As cities go, it’s not a bad one to drive
through. Just was we pull up on the
place, our host is standing there on the curb and leads us into the right
parking area and up to show us the penthouse.
I knew it would be a nice place because we saw pictures, but I was a
little skeptical about the “penthouse” label.
But seriously, this place is beautiful.
There is a huge sun deck, massive windows that look out onto the city –
everything is modern and clean lines – there is even a rain shower in the
bathroom. Britt, me, and the kids head
off to the Doctor Who Experience – it’s right around the corner, we can see it
from our deck, and we have about 30 minutes before our last entry. Patti and Dana bring up all our bags
(thanks), do laundry, and sit and read on the deck while we’re away. We find that it’s hard for us to understand
the first thing that the locals say to us – it takes us about a sentence before
we can get it. Patti had an encounter
with someone as they were taking the elevator up – they took turns holding the
door for each other, and he said something that she thinks was “swapsies”…
The DW Experience is great – and cheesy – and smaller than we’d
hoped (we were spoiled with Harry Potter).
We get to drive a Tardis (cheesy), we get to see these amazing real
props and characters from the show like the Face of Boe, the Silence, Cybermen –
the set of the 10th Doctor’s Tardis (great!!) – and we shop in the
gift store (smaller and not as many choices as we’d hoped). But no regrets, glad we went !
 |
| All signs in English and Welsh |
We get back to the penthouse and we look for Mermaid Quay
(pronounced “key”) to get food. It’s
also my mission to find the plaza that they use for the entrance of Torchwood
(another BBC show) and the memorial to one of the characters on Torchwood who
was killed (the character, not the actor) – but the character was so loved that
it’s now 4 years later and the memorial still stands. Poor Ianto Jones.
As we walk down the hall to the elevator we look to our
right, out the window an across the way into another window…. And there is a
guy.. naked… lying there watching tv. We
have an “Ugly naked guy”! We all gawk –
and he WAVES! Now we’re laughing so hard
because he’s spotted us – and Dana is trying to take a picture of him. J
We find the plaza!! It’s
surreal – really, really, really cool!
We pass by it several more times while we’re in Cardiff and I take a pic
every time. Mermaid Quay is right next
to it, and we head over there while we’re looking for the memorial to
Ianto. We can’t find it, and just as we’re
about to give up and go eat – there it is!
It’s just a wall of notes to him – but I love that we found it.
We find food – nothing spectacular, your normal pub fare ..
fish and chips, burgers.. but they have a Bulmer’s Pear cider (my favorite) so
I get one… and then we decide to get some to take with us (if unopened we can
take it to go) – so we get two more Pear, and the bartender recommends the new
grape flavor and passion fruit (which they don’t carry) – we get a grape too
and head back to the apartment (back through the Torchwood plaza).
Back at the apartment we just relax, sit on the deck, catch
up on our screens, and watch the BBC. Thomas
is watching BBC in Cardiff – seeing Skins premiere – a show that the kids watch
with their dad. They skype David and he’s
totally jealous that Thomas gets to see the premiere of the new season before
him. I get a chance to see my Maeby So
(David is dog sitting), and she’s totally confused by my voice coming through
the skype.
Brittany and Patti room together again – Brittany is done
with me after I attacked her in my sleep.
She’s a teeth grinder and it was keeping me up the first night in
Cornwall, so I used a sleep machine app to cover it (the same one I used when
we roomed together at the Illinois conference) – but she didn’t like it this
time and somehow my app made her alarm on her phone not go off (you see how
that can happen, right? It’s not just that she didn’t hear it, it’s that it
didn’t go off and it must have been because of the sleep machine). So she asks that I not use it the second
night, but just wake her up if she grinds her teeth. She did, and in my sleepy state I woke her up
in a way that seemed expedient at the time, and I kicked her. She thought that I was just having bad dreams
and attacking her – so she’s kind of done with me for a while (Sorry Britt). That puts me and Dana together – and Thomas
and Lauren each get their own couch. There
is a pull out bed, but even the host said that the couches are more
comfortable.
I was up later blogging (I have weird sleep patterns, especially on
vacation), and I keep hearing laughter coming from Patti and Brittany’s room – so
I go in and they’re just being little quote machines, but we’re not keeping
quotes. I tell Patti that she’s in
charge of that from now on, we need vacation quotes. (For those that don’t know we write down
things that are funny, and maybe just to us, especially when taken out of
context). Don’t stick that in my butt…
smell my cookie… It’s like a thermos… I
feel like soup.. “Ok” is a sideways
person… mind blown
And only we know what that means.. J
Daily totals: 10,387 steps -- 15 stairs -- 4.31 miles
Tomorrow (Tuesday) – we have full day in Cardiff
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