Long Weekend in Cornwall

  2020 was the year the world stopped in its tracks but we were still able to fit in some fun within the UK during the warmer months.  We escaped for a few days in July to Cornwall and I'm so glad we did! This itinerary could easily be spread out over a few more days, especially when the weather is warm and sunny like it was for us. We ended up at a different beach each day and they were all amazing.

Day One:

It was a bit of a drive for us so we got to our first stop at Pendennis Castle after lunch time.  This is a classic (small) defensive castle with amazing views over the water.  When we arrived, we selected our time slot for our castle keep entry- they were taking small groups inside with a guide.  We had some time before our entry so we walked around the grounds for a while.  Great views, cannons, lots of open space... and then the guide in the keep did a great job of telling us about the history of the castle and how the spaces were used back when it was an active castle.

Next we popped over to a little castle that is now a restaurant but was closed at the time- Carn Brea Castle. This castle is tiny and cute and is built on a stack of boulders as a foundation. It's at the end of a narrow single track gravel road, and was originally built in the 14th century as a chapel to St Michael.  This was a fairly quick stop for us, but you could easily make this into a stop in a larger hike around the area (to include the nearby Carn Brea monument).

We finished our day at Summerleaze Beach, near our AirBnB in Bude. This was such a great place to spend our evening and watch the sunset.  It has these adorable colorful beach huts and sand that's perfect for playing.  We didn't swim but we waded in the water and saw surfers enjoying the waves.

Day Two:

We started the day at Tintagel Castle, which was one of the places I was most excited to see.  Its literary history was just too alluring to me! Tintagel Castle is famous as the site of King Arthur's conception- Geoffrey of Monmouth first wrote in the 12th century of Arthur's origins here, and since then the legend has expanded to include Tintagel as Arthur's birthplace and his stronghold once he became king.  Tintagel castle is also the setting for the story of Tristan and Isolde, and there is a walled garden with paving stones that tell their story.  Only some walls of the castle remain, but there's a brand new bridge linking the two sections of the castle (the bridge has been open since August 2019 but it was officially opened by Prince Charles a few days after we were there!) and there is a larger than life bronze statue entitled "Gallos" (derived from the Cornish word for Power) which is super impressive to see.

Below the castle is Merlin's Cave, which you can explore when the tide is low enough.  From here it's a bit of a climb back up the hill to the town and the car parks, but it's so worth it!

After lunch at Tintagel we made our way to Port Isaac. You'll recognize it if you're a fan of Doc Martin, but it's also just a great fishing village with meandering narrow roads and footpaths.  We got some ice cream and mostly just wandered around the town, stopping in a few shops along the way.

Our next stop was the Bedruthan Steps.  We had a little snack picnic at a great spot overlooking the beach, but unfortunately the actual steps were closed due to rock fall so we couldn't go down to the beach to explore.  We figured there must have been another way down, since we saw a few people walking down there, but we decided to just enjoy our food and the view and head back to the car, with more time to spend at our last stop of the day.

Holywell Bay- another TV location! This is one of several Poldark filming sites we saw during our trip.  This beach appears several times in the series.  We had a great time playing here, even though it was a bit of a walk from the car to the water. We spent the rest of our afternoon/evening here.  Andrew and Brandon especially enjoyed climbing on the huge rock near where we had laid out our towels.

Day Three:

Another one you'll recognize if you've watched Poldark- the Botallack Mine.   These engine houses are part of the Crown Mines at Botallack, and play the role of Wheal Leisure in the show.   Unfortunately the path to the lower engine house was closed (again, due to rock falls- I guess this is a common hazard with all these oceanside cliffs) but we were still able to go right up to the higher engine house.  There are a few other ruins left over from the old mining days here as well.

Then we went to the end of the world at Land's End.  Not going to lie, this is a bit of a tourist trap.  Rick Steves warned us about this but we decided to go anyway. We found a table to eat the picnic lunch we had packed and then took in the views.  We weren't willing to pay a photographer to snap a shot of us with the famous sign, so we just took a selfie from outside the photo area.  If they're open, there are all kinds of other "experiences" to be had here, as well as food and ice cream, and a few gift shops.

We enjoyed the rest of the day at Porthcurno Beach.  The car park was pretty packed when we got there, but it's only a short walk from there to the sand.  Until the end of the day when part of the beach was in the shade of the cliffs, we had plenty of space between us and other families and we had a fantastic time playing in the sand and water.  It was warmer at this beach then the ones on day 1 and 2, which meant that we were more comfortable getting in the water, and this one ended up being our favorite of the beaches we went to on this trip.

Day Four:

Only one stop on our last day, since we also had to drive back home, and of course it was another beach!  This one also involved a bit of a hike.  Kynance Cove is a tidal beach, which means that during some parts of the day there is no beach at all, as it's covered in water.  The parking attendant told us that it would be a few hours before the beach would be uncovered, but by the time we hiked down there was enough space on the beach for us (and everyone else) to enjoy!  This beach was wonderful for playing in the sand and in the shallows. But when you hike down you have to hike back up! Fortunately there is a toilet building which also has an outdoor rinsing station so we could get the sand off our feet to get our sturdy shoes back on.  It's not a strenuous hike, but I'm glad I wasn't trying to do it with wet flip flops on!

We changed clothes in the car and then made the trek home!  It was a pretty quick trip but we loved it and it was so nice to get away after the lockdown of the spring!

Normandy

When we've talked about travel to people in our living-and-working-in-the-UK-temporarily community, we've heard from several of them that Normandy was their favorite trip.  So naturally, we had to make sure to add that to our destinations while we're living here in Europe! While I wouldn't call it our favorite trip (it's topped by Scotland and Greece) it was amazing and beautiful, and gave us an insight into D-Day (and more history, too) that we didn't really have before.

Day one

We had been planning to take the ferry across the channel to France, but a few days before we left the ferry was cancelled due to a big storm that was coming in.  So we quickly had to change plans and book a ticket to travel instead through the chunnel.  In some ways we actually prefer the chunnel, and in this case the total travel time ended up being basically the same, but it meant more time in the car.  Because of the new timing, we weren't able to do much when we arrived except check in to our Airbnb near Rouen and pick up a late dinner.

Day two

We spent the bulk of our day wandering around Rouen.  What interested me most about Rouen was its connections to Joan of Arc.  Joan was not from Rouen, but it is where she was taken after being captured by the English, imprisoned, tried, and burned at the stake.  There is one tower remaining of the fortress in Rouen, and it has now become known as the Joan of Arc Tower, since this is where she was imprisoned.  We also saw the place where she was burned- there is now a church named after her, and in its courtyard there is a simple sign to mark the spot and a statue of her near the church wall.  Unfortunately the day were in Rouen, the Joan of Arc museum was closed so we didn't get to visit.

Next up in Rouen we headed for the Gros-Horlage Clock.  It is a fourteenth century astronomical clock installed in an arch in town.  We were lucky with our timing and were there to see the pictures change.

We also saw the beautiful cathedral and several other beautiful churches.  We visited Aitre St Maclou, which has an interesting history but isn't much to look at.

We headed back to the car and went next to the ruins of Jumieges Abbey, which is outside of town by about 30 minutes.  We've seen many ruined abbeys and castles in the UK, but we wanted to see this one because it has been described as the most beautiful ruins in France.  I don't have much to compare it to in France but it was stunning and we were able to get some great shots of our kids there.  While we were there it started raining hard, but only for about 15 minutes and then it cleared up beautifully.

Day three

This was one of my favorite days of the trip (along with day six).  Even though it was definitely not warm, I love the beach and I love the amazing cliffs in this part of the world.  We started at Fecamp, where we found some trails that gave us great views of the town, beach, and cliffs.  We continued on and discovered some old German bunkers, left over from the war.  We were able to go inside one of them and climb on top as well.  We ate a packed lunch in the car and then took a nice walk on the beach.

The views only got better when we got to Etretat.  You know the views must be great when you think that Monet (and other artists!) spent time here painting the cliffs and arches.  It was definitely more crowded here though.  When you park in the main lot at the beach, you have the option of hiking up to the left or the right.  We chose the left, and were rewarded with a view of the largest of the three arches, which isn't visible from town.  The kids actually really enjoyed this little hike- it's uphill but not terribly hard and they loved being able to see where we started from the top.

Day four

This was our D-Day day.  Our first stop was the Arromanches 360 cinema.  I think this was a great place to start because our kids didn't really know anything about D-Day, WWII in general, so this gave them some great context for everything else we saw that day.  Honestly, it was also helpful for me since it's been a long time since I took a history class.  Near the cinema they also have a memorial that they put in on the 75th anniversary of D-Day and it's pretty neat- viewing the beaches from the perspective of a veteran who was there.

 We didn't have time to visit all the beaches, but we were able to get to Omaha and Utah beaches, as well as the American cemetery and the Longues-sur-mer battery.  It was all very sobering to think about everything that happened at these places, all the people who fought and died, for freedom.

Day five

We went back to the towns for this day- Caen and Bayeux.  In Caen we saw a lot of churches.  We saw the grave (tomb?  What do you call it when they're under the floor of a church?) of William the Conqueror in the Abbaye aux Hommes and his wife Matilda in the Abbaye aux Dames and got some fresh French pastries from a cute bakery, which we ate as we walked around town.

For the rest of the afternoon we went to Bayeux, where we ate a nice late lunch, visited the cathedral, and saw the famous 1000 year old "tapestry" (it's actually an embroidery), which depicts the story of William the Conqueror and the Norman conquest of England.  Unfortunately photos were not allowed so I don't have any to share!

Day six

Mont Saint-Michel!  We loved this day.  Apparently we had talked about Mont Saint-Michel enough that the kids were really excited to go there.  We actually ended up picking the perfect Airbnb and could actually see the mount from one of the upstairs windows!  This meant we were close enough to walk (about 10-15 minutes) to the visitors' center, where we could take the free shuttle to the mount without having to deal with parking.  The walk was lovely too, along a small farm road next to a sheep field where the little lambs were adorably running and jumping around.

 It's definitely a walk to get to the abbey at the top of Mont Saint-Michele but it's so worth it.  By the time we got up, walked to the visitors' center, waited for a shuttle, rode to the mount, and started climbing (and shopping), it was just about lunch time!  So we stopped halfway up and ate our packed lunch before heading into the abbey.

We just got one audioguide for me, and I shared interesting details as we went along.  It's a really interesting place- it was originally an abbey, but was later used as a prison, before becoming the tourist attraction that it is today.

We got some fresh crepes and checked out some of the shops on the mount before catching the shuttle again to leave the mount for dinner. Later Aaron dropped me off to go back and take some pictures of the mount lit up after dark and it was cold, but beautiful.

Day seven

Since we had time before our evening ferry back to England, we decided to check out St Malo after checking out of our Airbnb in the morning.  We discovered a "pirate" ship and we all had a blast exploring it.  Then we went within the city walls and found a place to get some warm baguette sandwiches for lunch and a few macarons for dessert.  Yum.  Just all of it, yum.

We walked around town a bit more, found some more macarons, popped into a few shops, walked along the beach, and then the tired toddler convinced us it was time to get back on the road.

When we were about to pass Sainte-Mere-Eglise, we realized we still had about 2 hours to spare, so we took the exit.  This was the first town to be liberated by Americans after the D-Day landings.  One of the paratroopers got his parachute caught on the spire of the church and had to hang there for hours, pretending to be dead, while the battle between Americans and Nazis raged on below him.  He survived the war and became an honorary citizen of the town.  A dummy with a parachute still hangs from the church spire now.

Across from the church there is a D-Day museum.  We spent the rest of our spare time there, and it was actually a really great museum.  They have tablet guides which really helped/distracted the kids as we walked around.  We had to skip the video at the end since we ran out of time, but it was a good stop!

We got to Cherbourg in good time for our ferry and off we sailed for home.

**Also appears on our travel blog, Kimblers Abroad**