A Trip Across the Pond : Southwest England Road Trip

Gabel and I had lovely two weeks off for Easter Break. Our last day of teaching was Friday April 4th and we weren't expected back until Tuesday the 22nd of April. Gabel promptly went to Switzerland as soon as school let out on the Friday and Matt went to Copenhagen for work on the Sunday. That left me alone until Thursday the 10th when my favourite little sissy Steph arrived. For those of you wondering, there were no problems with customs this time!! She was let into the country haha.

Steph and I had some fun hangouts until our crew started arriving back at Wyndham. Matt came back from Copenhagen and Gabel came back with Alex and on Thursday the 17th we rented a car and set off for the famed Cornwall which is England's most southern and western part of the country. Here's the breakdown of our amazing trip:

Day 1 Thursday:

We drove an hour and a half to get into the county of Dorset which is where a very interesting place called Durdle Door is located. Considering it was April we were blessed with a bright sunny day, no clouds in the sky, and very nice mild weather (around 19 degrees). Durdle Door is essentially a very famous large rock archway formation in the most beautiful beach you can imagine. We were stunned. The water is turquoise and green and a beautiful blue. You can climb up to the top of Durdle Door or you can explore the beach and all its little caves. Of course we did both. We spent the better part of an afternoon there taking some stunning pictures (see below). When it came time to leave, we saw signs on the road advertising a Lulworth Castle and Steph had mentioned it might be worth taking a look at. So we veered off course and explored the castle for a bit as well. Then we had a 3 hour drive ahead of us that took us through Devon and just into Cornwall. Gabel made us go on a crazy goose chase through the city of Exeter to find a Thai restaurant for our dinner stop but lets face it, it was the best dinner ever! Our final destination was the town of St. Austell where the five of us crammed into a family room at the Travelodge hotel. The drive was made all the more fun by mine and Steph's travel packs that we made for everyone. They each contained some car travel games and lots of snacks meant to last the whole trip (although SOME people finished them early haha).

Day 2 Friday:

St. Austell is just a short trek away from The Eden Project so that was how we spent our Friday. The Eden Project is a world famous plant sanctuary formed out of incredibly large and impressive biomes. I had prepared a scavenger hunt for the day and gave it to everyone and whoever took all the pics of the things first would win a prize. The Eden Project is not really comparable to anything so it's hard to describe. Its surrounded by incredible grounds and flowers and informative pieces like the WEEE Man which is made up of all the electronic items that humans throw away in a lifetime and the giant thing is supposed to be representative of just one human (pretty sad)! We went into the Mediterranean Biome first and after exploring that stopped for a mediterranean lunch (exquisite). We had the best weather again which meant we obviously had a midday ice cream break as well (but we would have had one even if it had been raining, to be honest). After that it was time for the Rainforest Biome and that was sooooo hot they have like cool down shacks and water fountains spread throughout.

After all was done, we drove to the town of Newquay where we were renting an apartment for 3 nights. The place was awesome with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a big living room and kitchen. It was on the fourth floor and the building itself was kind of on a hill so the balcony gave us views of the ocean and beaches around Newquay. Talk about amazing sunsets. We went to our local grocery store, stocked up and came home and made a feast of tacos and sangria! Throw in a little Cards Against Humanity game action and we had ourselves the best night!

Day 3 Saturday:

We decided to have a chill out day in Newquay just relaxing for a bit which is a change from our usual go go go, see everything mentality. We slept in, had breakfast on the balcony overlooking the ocean and then set off to the beach. Gabel and Alex decided to try their hand at surfing and Matthew, Steph and I lounged on the beach and then explored the really cool rock formations by the beach. Matthew and I also did a bit of shopping in the town searching for souvenirs and record stores to commemorate record store day. We did have luck with postcards but not so much with the record stores unfortunately.

Day 4 Sunday:

Easter!! It was my first Easter away from home but there's certain traditions I wanted to maintain. For instance, every year Steph and I have an egg hunt and I don't mean to brag but I've won the past 18 years by finding the most hidden eggs. I got up bright and early and hid egg trails leading from everyone's bed to a secret pile of chocolate and sweets for them. Once everyone completed their trail, us girls got Matthew and Alex to hide three packs of mini eggs for us in the kitchen and living room. Then we were unleashed. Steph, Gabel and I scoured every square inch of that place until we found all the eggs (with a few hints from the boys). Lets be honest, it's no surprise that I was the clear winner of the egg hunt. REIGNING CHAMP. Hahaha. We then cooked an amazing breakfast feast and then set off for that days adventure. However the weather was really not cooperating that day. Our good luck had run out and it pretty much poured the whole day with intermittent bouts of extreme wind and coolness. Not like we're going to be deterred by that though! We drove through the little town of Penzance and pulled up to the beach parking lot that brings you to St. Michael's Mount. There's a really pretty island just of the shores of Penzance that has a large estate/castle on it called St. Michael's Mount. It's located high up a hill and surrounded by lovely grounds. There's two ways to actually get on the island. When the tide is out you can actually walk along the path that leads there. When the tide is in, you have to take the shuttle boats over. On our way there, the tide was mostly in so we took the shuttle boats. Two guys decided to walk along the path even though the water was up to their mid thighs in places. I don't even want to guess how cold that water was. We watched them for awhile but sadly when they got about three quarters of the way to the island, the water was just too high and they had to turn back!! Poor things. We did the tour through the whole castle and chapel and by the time we were finished, the tide had gone out so we could walk along the path back to the beach.

After the thoroughly cold, wet, and windy experience on the island, we took to the town of Penzance to find a pub to warm up. We picked the one with the most character and had an amazing meal there. Afterwards we drove to The Minack Theatre. This place is exceptionally remote and difficult to get to. Most of the roads can only fit cars going in one direction so you really just have to hope for the best. If it had been sunny, the view of Porthcurno Beach from this hilltop would have been breathaking. As it was, it was still beautiful. The theatre itself is built right into the cliff and provides stunning views. I'd love to see a show there one day. It actually managed to stop raining while we were there so we did get lots of nice pictures.

Our very last stop for the day was at a place called Land's End but only Gabel, Alex and Steph felt like braving the weather (it was raining again at this point) to go and take a look at it. We then returned to our lovely apartment for our last meal there and some drinks.

Day 5 Monday:

Our last day of an amazing road trip. The weather wasn't as bad as Sunday but the sun had officially mostly disappeared. We ventured to the southernmost part of the UK by driving all the way down the Lizard Peninsula. We first went to the beach that's actually called "The Lizard". It's really rough landscape and the rocks jutting out of the water kind of look like a lizard. Our next stop was the famed Kynance Cove that has crazy turquoise water and waterfalls through jagged rocks and a beach with massive rocks to weave in and out of. At about 3pm we called it a day and commenced our long journey back home. Five and a half hours later we were back at Wyndham Court getting ready for teaching the next day wishing we were back on those turquoise beaches.

It should be noted that Matthew did ALL of the driving on this trip. It was his first time driving a car since he moved here and of course it's all on the left side of the road. He did brilliantly though so we owe him a major thank you for handling that all for us.

Obviously you can tell that the Cornwall road trip was a huge success and that I'm in love with the area. If I was going to live in England for the rest of my life I would definitely live there. The towns and villages are so cute, the houses adorable, the roads are so windy and covered by tree canopies. There's TONS of pasty shops and access to crazy beautiful beaches. Everyone is so friendly and there's a pub about every two feet! Visit Cornwall, people!!

Here's some of our pics :)
(for some reason they posted in reverse order)

The trek down to Kynance Cove