Padstow Day 6
Thursday, May 15th
Robyn writes: We were both awake early for once (before 7 - ugh!) so were up and ready to go by 9. (It's amazing how at home you can be up and out of the door to work in an hour - we seem to be running on slow here. Also, Cait called on Skype for a chat so that was lovely. MInd you, nothing in this country seems to open before 10 so unless you're shopping or going on a walk, there's not much point in being out too early!)
We decided to head first to Pendennis Castle on the other side of the Cornwall peninsular, a trip which was cunningly planned to take us just an hour and arrive right at 10 when it opened....that was until there was an accident on the road ahead of us and we spent several miles crawling along! Oh well, it didn't take too long and we arrived in Falmouth and found the castle without too much trouble by about 10.30.
When we got there, we found that there was a tour starting at 11, so we had just enough time to enjoy a cuppa in the sun and enjoy the scenery (blue sky, blue ocean, castle, WWII guns). The weather over the last two days has been amazing - dazzlingly blue skies, hardly any wind and getting up towards 20 degrees! There are sunburnt people everywhere! (No-one seems to wear a hat or sunscreen...)

 

Absolutely picture-postcard perfect views! Falmouth Harbour.

In front of the Tudor castle. Note I do not need to wear my jacket or raincoat!

 

Pendennis Castle was really interesting. It was the last in a line of defences built by our old friend Henry VIII along the southern coast of England after he had really annoyed the Spanish and French kings by breaking with Rome. In the end, there was no trouble during his reign but the castle (actually more properly it should be called a fort) came into its own during the attack of the Armada (where the Spanish had had designs on capturing it because of its strategic position - it is actually built on the third deepest natural harbour in the world, after Sydney and Rio) and in the Civil War it was the very last Royalist castle to fall at the end of the war, and the future Charles II stayed there on his way into exile and safety in Europe. It's circular in shape to make it stronger and more defensible, surrounded by a star-shaped Elizabethan moat and defences. The castle continued to be used well into the 20th century and was a WWII base for the D Day landings. The armed forces moved out in 1956 but even today English Heritage knows that if the MOD need it, the castle can be requestitioned at 48 hours' notice! As it's run by English Heritage, once more we didn't need to pay any admission.

                                               Our tour of the magazine and gun turrets.

Lex with the windlass which draws up the drawbridge

We did two tours; one through the Tudor castle and another through the underground magazine and gun turrets which are still painted in WWII camouflage colours. We had a bright and bubbly young tour guide who reminded us of Perri Hayes! It was all very interesting - you might think, seen one castle you've seen them all, but they all seem to have characters and stories of their own. This one certainly performed right up until living memory - while we were down in the magazine they had the audio of a simulated air raid (Falmouth town and area were bombed quite a lot) with a 30 second blackout and the booming sound of gunfire. Don't think I would have enjoyed living in England in WWII....

After our tours, we went back to the cafe for lunch; a lovely soup - butternut squash and apple (that's pumpkin and apple to us). It was really nice. We often have the soup of the day for lunch, as they're warm, filling and not too expensive. Without exception, they've always been a vegetable soup here.
By now it was nearly 3 so we decided to drive to St Austell via Truro. This was made interesting by our English navigating system (nicknamed "Portia" due to her upper class, breathy English accent) decided to make herself unavailable. She does this at regular intervals and you're left navigating yourself frantically via the street signs and atlas! Anyway, after about 15 minutes she got over her fit of pique and rejoined us to tell us the way. St Austell is the home of the St Austell brewery, Cornwall's biggest. It was too late for a tour by the time we got there but we looked around the shop and bought a few things (including a lovely Chilean Sav Blanc - sooo much nicer than the French chardi I bought earlier in the week!) Then we headed for home via Wadebridge, which we'd bypassed but never actually gone into. The old bridge in the centre of town was built in the 1400s and is still in heavy daily use. Then it was onwards back to Padstow and we were home by 5.

                              Me in front of the 1901 barracks

                                  Lex at St Austell Brewery - so much beer, so little time....

                          Lex's photo of the headland at the mouth of the Camel River near Padstow

Lex decided he wanted to go for a nice long walk, so he set off back along the path we took yesterday and this time made it all the way to the headland. (I bailed yesterday!) I elected to stay at home and put my feet up instead. We've enjoyed Tesco's chicken Kievs, chips and salad for tea and are now settling in for the evening. Another good day - sadly, only one full day left in Padstow then off to Bath on Saturday.