London and Cornwall, Devon, the Cotswolds September 2018

A short trip for us in mid-September. First, a few days in London visiting the Tate (not the Tate Modern but Tate Britain, first time there in many years), and traveling past Regents Park via canal boat from Little Venice to Camden Lock.

Then we joined a group (14 people) with Go Tours, led by a young man named Glenn who, we think, IS Go Tours! Incredible driver, which we were grateful for in the fog in the wilds of Dartmoor. Oncoming traffic meeting us, on one-lane roads with hedges either side, was a thrilling experience. The itinerary listed a lot of places, but it was really quite leisurely most of the time. The first day we stopped at Stonehenge, which, because you can't really view it by yourself, on a dawn morning, you just have to imagine it that way. (I probably spent more time there on my visit in 1981). We then spent several hours in

Salisbury cloister

Salisbury, another place I had been before, but a first time for Bill. Beautiful sun-shiny day, the gorgeous cathedral amazing inside and out, the Magna Carta, and really good food in the Refectory, surrounded by glass revealing the yellow stone of the cathedral's flank. Late afternoon we drifted around on the meadows above the Durdle Door on Devon's Jurassic Coast.

Dartmoor ponies

The second day we started out from Exeter, drove across Dartmoor, got out of the bus to pet some lovely wild ponies, some nice stops as well at Princetown (where The Hound of the Baskervilles was written) and Tavistock (a pleasant lunch in a market town). Afternoon stops at Polperro (a little too touristy) and Charlestown (a Poldark filming location) were adequate to give us some of the flavor of Cornwall fishing villages, and then we bedded down at our hotel in Falmouth.

The third day we drove a short distance to St. Ives, where we were dropped off right at the door to the Tate St. Ives, which is not only a lovely museum, but has fantastic views of the ocean and the town (in different directions). I also had time to walk down to the water's edge and get my feet wet and sandy. We stopped for a short visit to the Botallack Mines, another Poldark filming location on the green coast, but the highlight of the day was the Minack Theatre, hewn out of the rock by a crazy (!) and devoted woman. Plays are performed there at a breaktaking

Minack Theatre

location overlooking an azure bay. The last stop wasn't shabby either, Saint Michael's Mount, and we got there in time before the tide came in, so we could walk a good way on the causeway.

The fourth day started in the morning at Padstow, one of the nicest villages we saw in Cornwall. Reminded me of Honfleur, in Normandy, a bassin (harbor), peaceful, sparkling. Lovely also was the town of Port Isaac. Didn't matter there were jillions of folks walking up and down the paths to see Doc Martin's infirmary, it was a fantastic setting (as one knows seeing the program on TV). Had a leisurely lunch there at "Louise's school." Late afternoon we spent at Tintagel,

St. Materiana's Church, Tintagel

not enough time there, really, unless one has legs of a twenty-year-old, but I managed to walk up to the old church. Bill and I had dinner at a pleasant French restaurant across the plaza from Exeter's cathedral (where we heard even-song).

The fifth day began in Bath. We had time to tour the Roman Baths, stunning, and have a nice lunch in the Pump Room. Then Glenn drove us to two Cotswold villages, well-chosen, the first was Castle Combe (its church and churchyard very restful) and Bibury, which has very old weavers' cottages that are pictured on every English person's passport.

Our last two days in London we spent one long lunch at the London Review Bookstore, and the next day went to the National War Museum. Have a new favorite restaurant in London (although we also went back to the estimable Cantina Laredo)--it's Margaux on the Old Brompton Road, very friendly and relaxing and incredible food.