Headlines
Airing our Dirty Linen: a load of washing before we go
Shopping for Souvenirs: not quite the usual tea towels
Lunch at Blue Peter
Final Attractions of the Village: model village and museum
End of Self Catering: we run down our supplies of food
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Stream of Consciousness
Airing our Dirty Linen: a load of washing before we go
Four days in a row, we've walked. Today, we taper... That is, we rest, preparing for a couple of days driving followed by a solid week of walking.
There's a washing machine in our cottage so I do a load of washing. (I'm the washing expert.) It's a small washing machine. We fill it with, mostly, hiking clothes. Not much chance that they will be washed again before we get home!
We sit round, relaxing and reading. I spread the washed washing over an indoor clothes line. Too much detergent, it hasn't rinsed very well.
Shopping for Souvenirs: not quite the usual tea towels
Almost lunch time. We wander down to the village. Looking in every souvenir shop on the way. Luckily there are several souvenir shops... about every second shop, in fact. This is very much a village for tourists :-)
I'm looking for tea towels... location specific, easy to carry, always useful. Deb has some other ideas. We buy a tea towel -- and some other things. No sign of a children's book that Deb saw on the internet, that she wants to buy for William... It's specific to Cornwall, so a good souvenir. It looks very cute. We agree that if we can't find it -- we can order it online and have it posted home... "Your carefully chosen souvenir of our holiday... is in the post!"
Lunch at Blue Peter
Deb has read up on eating in Polperro. Today it's time to eat at the Blue Peter Inn.
It will be our main meal of the day -- but we do need to leave room for a later coffee and cake. So we share a seafood platter. It's delicious -- and enough for a good meal for two. I expect various unidentifiable seafood things dipped in batter and deep fried. It turns out to be identifiable seafood -- fish, prawns, scallops, crab and squid rings. Only the squid is battered and that only lightly, tempura. Better yet: the prawn shell, including tail, has been removed! Thank goodness, someone who knows how to prepare food :-)
We discuss the merits of this visit to Polperro. We agree that it was to refresh our positive memories of the village. Successful ! Should we have stayed a second week, as we did first time? No... we've seen and done what we wanted. If we stayed another week we would -- I believe -- have wanted to spend every third or fourth day just sitting, reading, relaxing, recovering. Easier said than done, our holidays seem to have sped up as we get older!
I tried to get a cottage as physically close to where I seem to remember we stayed the first time... Deb can't even remember being on Talland Hill. Garden Cottage lacks the absolute vista of a view. We agree, however, that it is an absolutely brilliant place to stay. We agree that we are glad to be here before the busy tourist season has really kicked in.
Outside, on the wharf, we try to spot our cottage. We know it's across the harbour. But which one is it ?! Eventually we identify Garden Cottage... It's tucked in behind another. Mostlly, we identify what we can see of our cottage, from the chimneys of the cottage in front. Two chimneys, each with seagulls nesting on top.
Final Attractions of the Village: model village and museum
We walk further up the village. To the Model Village. I think it's been there since before our last visit... It's nothing exciting but fun to look at. There's a final multi-media display, aspects of Polperro and Cornwall in half a dozen dioramas, with lights, simple animatronics and commentary. It's quite interesting, quite well done. Overall, the display was worth our entry fee... Well, our discounted seniors entry fee, anyway.
We pick up an icecream, a soft serve. Mostly for Deb but I do help. It tastes excellent, almost as good as real icecream! That's my view. Deb prefers soft serve.
We buy our souvenir gifts.
On to the Polperro Heritage Museum.
There's an enormous amount of very local information: on people, fishing, pilchard processing, smuggling, schools... Everything described in neat copperplate printing. Is it really done by hand ?! We spent quite a while in the two level museum, still only reading a fraction of the information.
Then we have coffee and cake (Victoria sponge, we debate the possibility that a "sponge cake" may be different in different parts of the world) at the cafe by the museum. The woman serving is flat out, hassled, still polite. She says to someone, I'll have your tea in a minute. A minute later she puts his cup of tea on our tray... Flat out :-)
End of Self Catering: we run down our supplies of food
We buy a litre of milk and a paper (Deb does the puzzles) at the shop at the foot of the hill. Then up the hill, home again. Relax.
Some of the washing has dried, some not. I hang the damp bits over the heated towel rail in the bathroom. It stinks! Of laundry detergent, that is... I can't stand "unnatural" smells, it'll take a bit of shaking and airing and wearing to get comfortable with the awful smell on my clothes.
On a related topic: I don't like liquid soap, for the same reason. It's designed to leave a smell on the hands -- and I can't stand the various smells. But... the liquid soap that comes with our bathroom is very pleasant! Or, more importantly: quite pleasant -- and the smell rinses off. Very easily. Bailey's Rosemary Handwash. That's so I remember...
It's baked beans and poached eggs on toast for dinner, a favourite meal. Cereal and most of the milk will be eaten for breakfast. There will be scraps and leftovers, nothing that we would want to take with us. Just as well... Tomorrow is the end of our self-catering.
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