Skiped one - sorry. Part III is at the end.

IV - To Tintagel and on to London!

DAY 1 - DAY 6 - 13 SEPTEMBER - 18 SEPTEMBER

We zipped along the A30, expecting to pick up the A39 heading westerly. As we approached the area, I noticed a sign warning of possible queue ahead. Sure enough, we were caught in what appeared to be a massive traffic jam. But since there were signs indicating a low bridge ahead, they must get this every day. Hmmmmm.

So, after I couldn't take it any more, I made a U-turn and slithered back to where I could find the road to A39, and we were off again. Finally, at Camelford, we ran into the "B" roads that would take us to Tintagel. I found Tintagel right enough, but I had no clue where our Cornishman Inn was. It was starting to get dark as I slowly cruised down the main drag. Glancing off to the left, there it was! (I recognized it from the picture). A quick park and I was in getting the key to the room. They have a very large car park in the rear, so that was no problem. Just getting the **** luggage up the stairs - these old buildings never have lifts.

With everything all squared away, it was time to get something to eat. We could have eaten in the Inn, but instead we wound up at King Arthur's Table (?) down the street, because they stayed open longer. I went for the plaice, and my wife had a cheesburger (!!) which was actually quite delicious. So was the fish. The beer went down well, too.

At this point I noticed the scrumpy. "Legless but Smiling". What the ... Anyhow, we neglected to try it. I may regret that omission in later life ... or not.

But ... it's getting late. Back to the room for a refreshing shower to clean off the dirt of the day, and to bed. Big day tomorrow.

Up in the mornin' and down for the traditional English breakfast. Yum yum. Love that stuff, although my cardiologist isn't pleased. , It was still early, so we went wandering through the town. As Rick Steves said, the town itself is a little touristy (but not too bad), but the real attraction is down the hill at the castle. We walked down the path (there is a Land Rover that will take you down and bring you up, a pound each way). At the bottom, there's a little restaurant, and you can go either up or down: up is to the ruined castle, down is to the caves. We went up.

Very impressive. Extensive ruins, gorgeous scenery, dangerous cliffs - reminded me a lot of the northern California coast around Monterey and Big Sur.

After we had out fill of that, we went down to the caves. These are very large caves, and there's a nice sandy beach in the cove. The tide goes in and out here, too, in dramatic fashion.

As I was clambering over the rocks at the shore, I was headed for another cave where a couple was sitting. As I got nearer, she got up and began getting dressed. Ahem. Then they went into a cave. Hmmm. Oh well .... Sorry to be a wet blanket - at least I didn't take their pictures!

Then I slipped on a rock and went into the drink. I couldn't have been more than three feet from the shore but the water was up to my hips. Rather a steep drop off here, wot? Kinda ruined my day a little, what with me squishing and all. That salt water dries a bit hard, too. Ah, the joys of travel.

We took the Land Rover to the top, and I went to the car and changed. It was starting to get late, so we decided to get going. The only question was, where to?

When I originally planned the trip, I set it up for a couple of days in Cornwall, and the return to London sometime on Wednesday so we could catch the train Thursday. Monday and Tuesday were left open because I had no idea whether we would want to stay in Cornwall or head back. Now we had to decide.

The last time we were over there, we stumbled on a small hotel chain run by Thistle, I believe. These hotels were not all that "charming", but they were very functional and inexpensive, and were located on the motorways. So, we decided that we'd head toward London and, when it was late enough, stop in and check into one of the hotels. Seemed like a plan.

Well, we did that, but the first place we found was booked full, However, they offered to book ahead for us, so that took care of that. Having nailed down a place to spend the night, the pressure was off, so we could just cruise along.

We found the right rest stop, but unfortunately the hotel was on the other side of the motorway. By breaking all the traffic laws, we were able to sneak on a service road and wound up at the hotel. One drawback - you couldn't drive up to the front door - no road. Well, when there's no road, you make your own. It was late, and I just drove up and we unloaded the luggage. Just to be polite, I drove the car back to the parking area.

It turns out these hotels are run by Day's Inn now. No English charm, just American functionality. I was glad of that. All the plumbing worked, TV worked, coffee maker worked, what the heck - it's only £49 a night! Out to the rest stop for a quick bite (not exactly gourmet food, but it wasn't haggis, either) and then off to bed.

In the morning, we got our English breakfast at the food court. Not romantic, but we needed some space to look at the map and figure out where we were. It turns out, where we were (East Swindon) was just up the road from Avebury. Never heard of Avebury?

I'm sure you've heard of Stonehenge. Well, Avebury is a few miles away, but where Stonehenge is compact (and fenced off so you can't get to it), Avebury is spread out. The stones (many more stones than Stonehenge) are spread out over an area several miles in diameter, In fact, the village of Avebury is located at the center of the stone rings!

That's it, then: off we go to Avebury. The last time we were in the area, it was one of those dreary, rainy days reminiscent of the old J. Arthur Rank pictures. This time, we had a bright sunny day without a cloud in the sky. We'd had that weather, in fact, since we arrived. Our luck was still holding.

An hour or so later, we pulled into the car park for Avebury. The car park was pay-and-display, but the site itself is operated by British Heritage so there's no admission. We spent several hours there. There's the stones themselves, and the little village has a tiny gift shop, museum, and a cozy pub. Also in the town is a church that's been there since ... 12th century? Pretty old, anyhow. Also another museum, snack bar, sheep barns, etc. Plus the British Heritage store, which had some very nice made-in-Britain articles. I particularly liked the wollen goods - hats, blankets, etc. Really good quality in my opinion.

We spent a lot of time gazing at the stones and contemplating. They've been there for, what, 4000 years give or take? Who? Why? Who knows? We can only speculate. So we did.

Later on, it was time to study the map again and see how we were going to get to London. Since it was only Tuesday, we had to find a place to spend the night, hopefully not too far from the city so we could drop the car off and spend some time in town. Hmmmm. There was another of these Day's Inns listed as being at City Centre which sure looked like it was in London. We decided to go back to the place where we had spent the night and see if they could book us in. We did and they could.

So - off on M5 and then up M25 and then in on M1 and finally, just as it was getting really dark, we pulled in. Now this Days Inn is actually called a Days Hotel, because it's a multi-storey, purpose built structure, and sure looks like my idea of a hotel! Up to the front desk and get registered. They even have those luggage carts, so moving in was a snap.

We got in the room, and nothing worked - no lights, no a/c, no TV, nothing. A quick call do the front desk elicited the explanation - "You put your card in the slot on the wall (stupid)." Well, she didn't say "stupid", but that's what I felt like. Slide the card in and bingo! Lights! Camera! Action! Air Conditioning! Once we got that straightened out, the romm was really pretty nice. I especially liked the bathroom with it's modern fixtures, although I continued to notice that tubs in Europe are narrower than in the US. Wonder why that is? Also, they were using the soap in a bottle, which is hard to use in the shower - so, I skipped off to the petrol station part of the rest stop and picked up a real bar of soap.

Going downstairs, we were deciding where to go to eat, when we noticed the funky restaurant associated with the hotel. Seemed OK, so we sat down. Turns out, their specialty is Italian food (of a sort). Well, we're Americans, and one thing Americans love is pizza, right? So we ordered a pepperoni pizza and a couple of beers to wash it down with. Now the serving staff was all Asian, except for one waiter who was Russian. I began to wonder how this would all play out, but eventually the chef came out (he seemed Italian!) with our pizza. Well, it was yummy. It just felt relaxing to be eating a good pizza (comfort food?) with a couple of cold beers, and knowing that a hot shower and an air conditioned bedroom was just a short walk away. It felt so "right" that I went up to the desk and asked about breakfast. I think it was £6.50 or so apiece, so I paid it up and got the coupons.

We slept very well that night, and in the morning the breakfast was just super. Buffet style, with trays full of scrambled eggs, English bacon, sausages (pass!), juice, cereal, milk, coffee, etc. A really nice spread for the price. After a nice relaxing, civilized breakfast, we checked out and started in towards London. I had booked us into a B&B in Ebury Street, just a block from Victoria Station. We had stayed in a B&B in the same area a couple of years ago, and this one was run by the same people. Our only problem was getting there.

I had been driving for a few days, so the left side of the road was not a problem. The difficulty was navigating the streets of London. At one point I was parked (in a bus stop!) and I knew I was only a block or two away from the place, but I couldn't find it on the map and, in fact, I even had no clue as to which direction I was facing at the moment. Talk about disoriented! Anyhow, I finally got it sorted out and we located the place. We unloaded the luggage while I returned the car (fortunately, just a block away) and we moved in.

I'm not going to say too much about the B&B because, even though it was OK, it was in London and it was a bit cramped, and the loo was down the hall, and, well, we had gotten used to more upscale stuff. Still, the location was pretty good. But, since I had turned in the car, we had all that **** luggage to stuff in the room, so it did get a bit crowded.

It was getting on to afternoon, and I figured we would walk around that area of London and enjoy the sights until dinner time. However, my wife came down with something, so she went back to the room for a lie down. Left to my own devices, I ambled through Victoria Station (they seem to have cleaned it up a lot since the last time we were there) and up and down the little streets in the neighborhood. Eventually settled at a Starbucks for a decent cup of coffee and a place to sit and watch the local scene. Then I went back to the room, where my wife had just woken up and was feeling a lot better. We wandered around for a bit, and had no trouble locating a nice pub with a friendly staff, good food, and cold beer. The rest of the night was spent in quite pleasant surroundings.

Up early for the English breakfast, and a word with the serving lad resulted in a promise of a cab to take us to Waterloo Station. Again, I had purposely scheduled things so that we would not be pressed for time at any point if I could help it. So, we loaded all the luggage downstairs and, sure enough, the cabbie arrives right on time and we're off to Waterloo. The Eurostar awaits!

[This message has been edited by BigLar (edited Nov 28, 2003).]

[This message has been edited by BigLar (edited Nov 28, 2003).]

[This message has been edited by BigLar (edited Nov 29, 2003).]

[This message has been edited by BigLar (edited Dec 11, 2003).]