Trip to Cornwall and Brenda and Franks 50 th Wedding Anniversary 2013

  Brenda and Franks 50 th Wedding Anniversary  March 2013 a Caravan trip to Cornwall

 We had a very successful and interesting holiday. Without  Tal and Adam  we would never do this type of trip.   All the planning was done by Astrid who was also the Chef.
  One press article here said the problem is not global warming but the terrible cold. The weather pattern has gone wrong and even the coldest winter that we experienced in the past in England was not as cold as this spring weather that they are having at present. We even change our clocks to summer time at 0C.  We had the right clothes so were okay.

Got the BA flight from Ben Gurion  .  I was able to see 2 good movies "Hitchcock" and  "Trouble with the curve"  both recommended.
 Took the tube to Bayswater in London to Minne and Lionel Fry's home.  While Astrid went shopping with Minne I and the boys walked to Portobello Road and saw Nottingham Hill we then took a direct bus to the science Museum where Adam (engineer) looked at the steam engines and explained their development.  Steam was the beginning of engineering as we know it today and it was all invented in England
Friday night we had supper with Minne and Lionel and their daughter Tessa came to join us and it was very enjoyable. Lionel is still working as a dermatologist a few days a week and does research at the Imperial university. Because of us Lionel cleared out years of journals  to make space on the bed of his study, so our visit was a good incentive to him.

Saturday took a taxi to Cotton Springs farm in near Luton to get our Camper van.  It was snowing and even though the main road was clear one lane was covered with snow.   It took an hour and a half to register, sign all the documents and learn how to use the electricity gas , deal with the toilet blue water and empty the grey water.  We drove to Oxford with Adam navigating on "Waze" and Tal driving. Everything around us was beautiful covered with snow and flurries of snow falling.
This was the first time that Adam saw snow falling, I remember going to the Hermon in winter but the snow was just piled up and it was a sunny day.  Tal had a snow experience as a student at Jerusalem university.                        
 The Camper has 3 narrow double beds, one of the beds is above the driver. One of the beds converts to a table with seats for 4. There is a shower toilet, kitchen and all works on gas. There is a kitchen with a gas hob, and a microwave oven and fridge. There is also a TV.  When you are at a campsite you can plug into the  electricity main and then are able to use the heater and microwave. The fridge works on a battery otherwise.

In Oxford we celebrated Brenda and Franks, Golden wedding at the Bridge Club with a delicious lunch of salads, quiches and sushi. Afterwards the food over we took to the camper.  Evan, David and Frank spoke of 50 years history of the Harris clan.  We met Evan's girlfriend Gabbie and some very interesting bridge players including a little old lady who had taught bridge for 25 years on cruise ships and had seen the world. Some of the people invited from the north were unable to come as the roads there were iced up.
That night we spent at Lincoln Farm campsite just outside Oxford..
Sunday we met David at the Black Horse where we had a typical Sunday English Carvery. This is roast beef with potato cabbage, broccoli , parsnips, curly kale.  The pub is an old building with low ceiling and very warm while outside it was -1C. We we lucky that the roads had been cleared of snow and were heading south away from the snow.
We drove to Stonehenge which is on a freezing cold hill, where we learned about this structure that was build at the same time as the pyramids 3000BC it is set so that the sun shines directly through  2pillars at the summer and winter solstices.
We camped at the Stonehenge campsite where we had hot showers in a cold room.

Monday we drove past Exeter and into Cornwall and  we visited the St Austell brewery and learned about the history of  making of beer in Cornwall and the high quality of their well water.  Visiting a brewery is usually good value as you get not only tasters of 8 different beers and coupons for  2 pints of beer at the pub. The brewery wants the public to get to know their products.  Just a small taste of beer makes me drunk so I sobered up on tea and scones instead.

Tuesday.  Went to see the Eden Project.  This is a place that had a porcelain or China clay quarry once and left a massive hole in the ground that was an eye-sore.  This man-made valley is sheltered from the wind and they built 2 enormous hot house domes into it, one of equatorial climate heated to over 30C where you see tropical forest and plants, and the other  dome of Mediterranean climate representing the SA Cape , California, Israel and parts of Europe and north African coast that have warm summers and mild rainy winter.
This is an education centre and people in cold climates have never seen these plants, it also shows the history of spices, olives chocolate and coffee etc.while outside it was 0C
From there we drove north across the Cornish peninsula to Newquay  This gave us a typical view of the Cornish coast where you see dozens of stairways down to the beach or specially cut ramps so that boats can be taken down the granite cliffs. This is the type of coast that Daphne du Mariers books were written about.

Wednesday  Visited Charlestown, this is a harbour that boats come in at high tide and then the lock is closed, so when we visited the tide was, the harbour is a dam of water about 4 meters above the sea.  This is the coast with a history of ship wrecks and that became a whole industry of salvaging. Stories like "Jamaica Inn" or "French Creek" could have come from material in this museum.  In the harbour were 2 tall ships that are used in the movie industry. So if I see pirates of the Caribbean I might recognize the ship. We visited the Heritage and Wreck museum  of Charlestown which is one of the most fascinating small museums that I have visited anywhere.
The small harbour was used for  unloaded coal and then loaded up clay from the quarry we had been at the day before.  The clay was brought down the mountain in a water-pipe then drained off and dried and loaded onto the ships.
Bits of old material recovered from wrecks are shown as well from the Titanic.  In 1707, 4 naval ships of the line were lost off the Isle of Scilly in one night as was a the Admiral of the fleet. This was considered one of the worst naval tragedies ever.

From there we drove to Glastonbury where we walked around the town which was a big center  and has one of the oldest Abbeys from the middle ages. Some of the earliest Christianity  development in the UK. There were tour buses from Germany and France that came to see this Abbey.
While Astrid was in a shop Adam and I examined the Cenotaph, in this small town about 80 men had died in The Great War only 16 in WW2
 While I was watching a soup kitchen was set up on a table next to us. Adam said to me don't stand there, there is a line  of hobos queuing up behind you.

Our campsite near Glastonbury was called Old Oaks(for old folks) where only adults with their dogs can camp no children allowed.  Meeting the people there to me seemed like a retirement campers place and it certainly had 5 star facilities. Hot showers in a warm bathroom and toilet as well as a warm place to wash your dishes. A laundromat and tumble-dryers.
Thursday we drove to Bath and saw the city.  The baths were originally Roman Baths and the rest was developed in the Victorian age where there is the famous Pump House mentioned by Jane Austen.  The city shows a period of wealth and Victorian architecture. Even the newer section with modern big stores is only 3 stories high and blends in with the old buildings.

Friday drove to Cheddar and learned about making cheddar cheese.  The unique thing about this area is the gorge and limestone caves where cheese was stored and kept cold.  Once refrigeration came about cheese could be made anywhere.
This is also the area of apple cider that was the Englishman's wine, and is mentioned in Thomas Hardy's novels. This is an interesting town to see.
We drove from there to our last campsite at Town Farm near Luton and walked from there to the local pub in the dark through a sheep field. We had been given torches by the manager and somehow found the way along a bridal path in the dark, while Astrid got the supper ready in the Camper van.  There was piles of snow on the hills still and only a brisk walk kept us warm.

The taxi driver that took us from Luton where we returned the camper van, introduced himself and after chatting recognized that we had South African accents. He told us that he was from north Africa. Well after that Astrid did most of the talking as he asked about Cape Town and our flights home, neither Tal or Adam opened their mouths-  You never know he could have been a jihadist.
We went  to Brenda and Frank who took us for lunch of fish and chips at the Laughing Halibut. We spend the day with them and then took a the tube to the hotel near Heathrow so that we could be up early for our flight back home.
I saw an excellent French movie  "Intouchables"   and "Chasing Mavericks" .
and arrived home to a 30C heat wave in Israel on Sunday.