Category Archives: 2) Frequent Destinations

July 20, 2017 · 2:16 am

Bike riding in Richmond Park, late Sunday lunch with English and Aussie friends

( a few weeks ago….)

Flat out gorgeous weather today, for the first time during this trip. And we put it to good use. Francine and I hopped on bikes and rode a few miles to Richmond Park, which was full of Sunday strollers and riders and deer with antlers moving in great packs. Blue sky, sunshine, light breeze, gravelly dirt paths. We rode the circular path all around the park about 7 miles. It was largely flat except for one big hill. Just  beyond some of the entrance gates I could vaguely see posh brick homes in “The London Borough of Rich People on Thames” (a phrase coined by my friends here…)

This afternoon, Francine’s relatives came for a late lunch and we had a great meal including Pavlova prepared by someone who knows her pavs…Francine’s step mum who lives in Sydney and grew up in New Zealand. (Lesson learned: pile on a lot more fruit than I have done in the past to offset the sweet merengue. Try kiwi as well as berries.)

Leave a comment

Filed under England and U.K., London

Tagged as , , ,

July 19, 2017 · 2:27 am

The Dove/Hammersmith, Kew Gardens – lovely London

( a week or so ago)

 

1francinerusskew

Francine and Russ at Kew

It has been such a treat to ride bikes in London. When I lived here in my early 20s, I rode my bike all over the city but not along the Thames Path, that I can remember. Today, we rode toward Hammersmith from Mortlake (I think we were riding east on the south side of the river but the river is so curvy it’s hard to tell.) I never noticed how beautiful the Hammersmith Bridge was until I walked a bike across it. On the north side of the river, we lucked out with an outside table overlooking the river at The Dove, a great old pub with excellent food (fish and chips, chicken liver “parfait” — pate with sprinkles of pork skin crackle and a dab of homemade applesauce). We chatted with an interesting English couple who just moved back to London after 10 years in D.C

After lunch, we discovered that we’d parked our bikes in front of the William Morris Society — my second encounter with WM and the place offered some interesting sounding  classes or lectures. The bike/walking path was a little harder to follow on the north side but we rode past pretty old houses and boat or athletic clubs and a golf course before crossing Chiswick bridge and riding the path to the Brentford  Gate of Kew Gardens to meet Francine and Russ. We had a scary time trying to cross several lanes of traffic on the bridge so we could get back on the Thames Path (next time, we need to ride across the bridge’s east side.)

Kew was lovely. We had Pimms (a tad overpriced but location, location, location) on patio at The Orangery, overlooking gardens and huge gorgeous trees, visited the crazy clever “hive” – a sculptural depiction of a giant bee hive with lights and soft music somehow aligned with real bee activity in real hives nearby, and took in the veg gardens. Also enjoyed Sackler Bridge –  a pedestrian bridge across a narrow lake. Our only complaint was the signage, especially to out of the way spots like Queen Charlotte’s  cottage. I love London.

Leave a comment

Filed under biking, England and U.K., London

Tagged as , , ,

July 18, 2017 · 2:53 am

Walk from Port Quin to Port Isaac, drive thru Tintagel, Airbnb in Devon (virganstow), Coombeshead Farm — Devon and Cornwall

1cornwalloutlaws

Port Isaac dining!

(A few days ago)

We have moved to another beautifully restored barn in a secluded spot — this time in the hamlet of Virganstow near Launceton in Devon. This one is owned by a young woman who moved here from London two years ago with her partner and mother, got some sheep and rescue chickens, does some gardening and DIY stuff and somehow mananges to drive a Mercedes (at least two of them are parked out front.) It’s a peaceful lovely spot, pitch dark at night but somehow we managed to find it after a late night dining at Coombeshead Farm, another out of the way spot about a half hour south near the Cornwall town of Lewwanik.

The place is run by a young chef from London who bought an old stone country manor and cooks completely original food using primarily things foraged from the garden and woods. We sat at a table with about 7 other guests, several American, several staying over night at the restaurant/inn. I can’t begin to describe the food — many of the ingredients were unfamiliar, not to mention the combinations that made up the food but it was all interesting and delicious.

1dirckcornwallpath

Cornwall Coastal Path

We began the day with another glorious walk along the coastal path, this time walking east to Port Isaac from Port Quin.

We were surprised at how few people we encountered as we walked along the edge of the high jagged coastline. Loved it. We were sad to say goodbye to the lovely couple at our farm Airbnb but lucked out here, where we are staying in grander digs than expected becuz the room we were supposed to stay in had a hot water problem. So here we are with a whole,two,bedroom cottage for the night. Such a fun trip.

Leave a comment

Filed under England and U.K.

Tagged as , ,

July 14, 2017 · 11:20 pm

hiking the coastal path to Port Isaac, ferry from Rock to Padstow, Doom Bar beer in the village of Pityme — north Cornwall

1cornwalllandscapeThe rain blew away, the clouds drifted off, the sun shone and my God, north Cornwall! Glorious. After a superb breakfast prepared by our engaging hostess ( homemade muesli, eggs from the next door farm, bacon, sausage, homemade jam, fried tomatoes, sautéed mushrooms and, of course, baked beans). We walked through the gently rolling green pasture, seen out our window, toward the bright blue ocean and picked up the coastal path, walking a few strenuous often steep but spectacular miles into Port Isaac. We passed cows grazing in pastures above jagged cliffs with waves crashing onto the stones and slate, following a path lined with ancient stone walls covered with bramble and patches of shoulder-high grasses and purple flowered thistle. The path was muddy and treacherous at times, especially wending our way downhill but the scenery was well worth it!

1betsycornwallFRom the Port Isaac car park (where we left our car with help from our kind host Michael), we drove to the amusingly named village of Pityme to pick up some tshirts for the kids at the brewery that makes the popular local beer, Doom Bar (another great name…named after a treacherous sandbank in the local Camel estuary.) Then onto the town of Rock (where we were told the young royals vacation)  to take a sweet little ferry across the river, winding through several sandbars to the tourist town of Padstow. Quite a change — pretty place but far more touristy. We had excellent Fish and Chips from the town’s major food entrepreneur Rick Stein, plus ice cream at his deli.

1cornwallwater.JPGOur one misstep was trying to drive to the Lizard, way down in the south, which we realized was too far so we turned back and drove to tiny Port Quinn where we bumped into our host Michael drinking wine with two friends while sitting on a little rocky landing in front of the tiny undeveloped harbor where a few kayakers were finishing for the night. We ended up joining them for some wine and kibitzing. A perfect end to a perfect day.

Leave a comment

Filed under England and U.K.

Tagged as , ,

July 14, 2017 · 9:20 am

St. Ives, Sennon Cove, Lamora, Marizion – West Cornwall!

1cornwallst.ives

St Ives


St. Ives was packed with tourists, as feared, but we soon found the older, quieter, lovelier section of town near the Barbara Hepworth Museum, that was charming — narrow, largely car-free streets lined with slate and stone cottages, some with good craft and art galleries or other little enterprises. We bought some Leech Pottery (the inexpensive stuff, not the pricey collectors stuff by master potter Bernard Leech) at St. Ives Ceramics and shared a cream tea at a sweet place called Olive’s Cafe, which also had amazing cakes including a tall chocolate and yellow cake lined with Jaffa Cakes biscuits.

 

1cornwall2

View from Port Isaac airbnb

The drive south and west along the coast from St. Ives was breathtaking, again on impossibly narrow streets past stone cottage built right along the road that also goes along a cliff. Most drivers shared the road calmly, backing up or scrunching over when need be but we did have a showdown with an older couple who didn’t want to back up (when they could — and we couldn’t) so that was awkward and a few other Brits weren’t impressed with our halting style of driving, especially at round abouts. DIrck did a great job, considering all the challenges (including my constant backseat driving “you’re too close to the left…slow down, move to the right…you could go faster here…”)

HIghlights included fish and chips, sitting at a picnic tables with British holiday makers in Sennon Cove, dipping into the woods to visit another hidden cove (this one tiny and secluded) in Lamorna, and standing along the sea at Marazion, gazing out at St. Michael by the Sea — and thinking our son will soon be visiting the French version, Mont. St. Michelle. Sad to leave this beautiful house by the sea but feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to come here.

Leave a comment

Filed under England and U.K.

Tagged as ,

July 13, 2017 · 10:09 pm

Boscastle, Port Isaac, Port Gaverne — Cornwall,at long last!

 

1cornwall

Boscastle

Even steady, at times, heavy rain did not dampen our enthusiasm once we arrived in Cornwall after a quicker than expected drive (about 2 hours from Lyme on bigger roads than expected). Amazing how quickly the landscape and architecture changed from Dorset.  Suddenly we were driving on incredibly narrow winding road that seemed almost sunken, with high stone and shrubbery walls. Occasionally, the road would be high enough to see a startling valley with a patchwork of crops lining a hill and then the sea beyond.

 WE drove to the classic seaside village of Boscastle and walked along the one narrow street that led to a small harbor with few boats — an estuary that was more like  a narrow river between two jagged grass-lined land masses jutting out into the ocean. We climbed some slate outcroppings to get a better view but they were slick with rain so we backed down. We stayed long enough to have a cream tea and try a steak and potato pastie to admire the youth hostel in a stone building (which is where I would have gladly stayed 37 years ago) and shop in the national trust store.

1st.isaccairbnb

Port Isaac Airbnb

Our Airbnb is spectacular — a very old stone farmhouse atop a broad green field with grazing cattle overlooking the see. Virginia, the owner, greeted us with a hug when we arrived after driving along a rutted muddy dirt road leading from the turn off to Port Gaverne. Our room is huge and gorgeous with a bed that could fit a family of four, timber beams, tea and shortbread laid out on the windowsill, and windows with glorious views  that will be even better tomorrow when the rain passes. Can’t imagine what this place looks like under blue skies. We hung out for awhile with Virginia and her husband Michael, watching Wimbledon and chatting.

Tonight we had a superb dinner at Nathan Outlaw’s Fish House in lovely Port Isaac, which has narrow winding streets lined with grey stone houses, some painted white. The dinner was tapas — all fish prepared a variety of  ingenious ways and served in very old house overlooking the small harbor. I love this place.

Leave a comment

Filed under England and U.K.

July 12, 2017 · 5:14 am

Shaftesbury, Lyme Regis– Dorset!

IMG_0670

Shaftesbury



 It took awhile for dirck to adjust to driving on the “wrong” side of the road, with a left hand stick shift (or gear shift as the Brits say) not to mention very narrow roads but we made it here to lovely Lyme Regis, on the Jurassic coast in Dorset where we are staying at a sweet little studio apartment Airbnb way up on a hill overlooking the bay.

We walked down the hill after arriving around 5:30 p.m. to the sound of seagulls and took the coastal path which has glorious views of the high grassy dunes lining the shore on the distance. The colors of the sky, shore and sea are stunning, all pale blues and tans plus vivid green and huge pink hydrangeas popping out everywhere.

1LymeRegis

Lyme Regis

The coastal path leads along the shoreline past a rocky beach and a sandy beach where people were swimming to the town center with narrow streets rising up from the water, lined with old storefronts. We walked through a gorgeous terraced garden above “the Cobb” — the high sea wall that juts out into the water, made famous by the novel The French lieutenant’s Woman.” I was here 30 some years ago but hardly remember the place. And I think it’s changed a lot.

We splurged on dinner at Hix Oyster and Fish, said to be one of the best Dorset restaurants. It’s in a glass walled modern room (almost Scandinavian feeling) of a house next to the terraced gardens and overlooking the bay and Cobb. We had lightly battered oysters, baked creamy crab and shared Lyme Turbot, beautifully served on a rough dark wood board, with a delicious seaweedy type green, and finished with a small scoop of house-made raspberry sorbet. We walked through the quiet town and way up the hill to our Airbnb (6 charmouth close) feeling happy to be here.

Earlier we,stopped briefly in the pretty market town of shaftsbury, where we had a basic ploughmans with local country ham at King Alfred’s, in a low ceilinged timbered room and admired the valley view from the pretty gardens near the town’s elegant abbey.

Leave a comment

Filed under b&b, England and U.K.

Tagged as ,

July 10, 2017 · 6:43 am

Pickle & Rye (Mortlake), Barnes Fair — London

We met a fellow Iowan, Val, who co-owns the popular Pickle & Rye “American sandwich shop” near Mortlake station. Great to see the business she runs with her husband Alex (from Philly) doing so well. Since my last visit four years ago, they have moved to a bigger space and it was full of people eating Saturday morning breakfast (English and American varieties). Val had just returned from a visit home to Grinnell and Des Moines. She kindly gave us a complementary order of light, fluffy pancakes, which were new to our English pals who eat at the restaurant regularly.

Then on to neighboring Barnes for the annual fair, which we last went to about 13 years ago. It seems to have mushroomed in size. Francine and Una were busy at the “I love Mortlake” tent (a community action group keeping an eye on a new controversial local land development) so D and I happily sat in the garden at the busy pub, The Sun Inn, drinking beer and Pimms and soaking in the sun. We shopped  at the Barnes farmers market and later at Waitrose for dinner that I made for the gang. 

Leave a comment

Filed under England and U.K., London

Tagged as ,

July 9, 2017 · 10:37 am

Biking the Thames Path from Mortlake to Kingston, London zoo nite, Namaaste kitchen/Camden – London

Beautiful weather (sunny but not as hot as yesterday) so once we got on bikes in Mortlake along the Thames Path, we didn’t want to get off. On a Friday, the trail along the river was largely empty until we got to major tourist areas like Richmond and towns like Kingston and it felt like we were very far from big city London. At times, we could have been in a small country village, with weeping willows draped over the quiet narrow winding river, dirt and stone trails under shady trees, little lanes leading to town. We passed     houseboats, kids learning to kayak in a river inlet, small tour boats heading to Hampton Court, riverside pubs and restaurants, tourists hanging out in Richmond.

We stopped at the Petersham Nurseries for lunch at the tearoom. Pricy but good food (sandwiches, salads including a chicken salad with lentils I must try to replicate) and we ate in the garden, watching staff in the neighboring greenhouse cutting flowers to make beautiful bouquets. We didn’t quite make it to Hampton Court (next time, we need to cross the Kingston bridge and ride inland on the other side of the river) but we stumbled upon the bustling square at Kingston which was very lively, with a big outdoor farmers market, a cool old town hall with a gold statue, a pretty old church and yard. S0uth of Kingston was not as nice. The bike trail and terrain became urban/suburban. NO thanks so we turned back and st teddimgton Lock, road to the Ham Gate of Richmond Park. With the exception of one challenging  uphill, we had a flat and pretty park ride. We did stop at a cafe because we were desperate for water and got gouged — 7 pounds for a water, small ice tea and flapjack. Next time we go on what turned out to be a 25 mike ride in London we need to remember our water bottle and day pack.

At night, we trekked to Richmond Park for an evening opening of the London Zoo, where we found better people watching than animal watching although there were cool monkeys and penguins.The zoo was packed with young people in particular. Dinner was Indian/Bangladeshi and excellent at Namaaste Kitchen (64 Parkway) in Camden, which was full of kids going to pubs and clubs. I fell asleep on the #24 bus ride back to Hammersmith station where we got a cab to Mortlake, arriving “home” at 1 a.m.

1 Comment

Filed under bike trails, biking, England and U.K., London

Tagged as , , ,

July 8, 2017 · 7:43 am

Hot train ride, dinner at Pall Mall club – cotswolds to London 


Marion and I had a longer and hotter than expected train ride back to London. Our train was cancelled so we waited over an hour for the next one, chatting with some nice women and kids from Stratford as we sat on the platform in surprisingly hot weather that got even hotter in London (87 degrees. Dripping). The train that finally arrived had only three cars and little ventilation. I put my purse on the floor in front of my seat only to discover later that it had landed in a cup of what appeared to be hot chocolate, discarded by a previous passenger. Ick. Our friends tell us this decline in rail service is a result of the Tory government’s austerity measures that are causing the decline of public services.

We met Dirck at Paddington, who came from Heathrow after a flight from Warsaw (that fortunately was not too messed up by our awful president’s quick trip to Poland.  Can’t escape the guy) and had a quick lunch with Marion at a fast food Mexican place overlooking the arrivals at Paddington. No AC. Lukewarm soda. No ice cubes. London just isn’t prepared for increasingly weird hot temps. (but climate change is a hoax, right?)

Tonight we had a very English experience– dinner with Francine and Russ at Russ’s club in Pall Mall. I used to ride by the stately cream colored private clubs on my bike as a 20-something.  We had drinks on the balcony, with great views of the St. James area  (although not views of my favorite park) and delicious English food (asparagus with hollandaise sauce, Dover sole, salmon, gooseberry pie, strawberries and cream) with impeccable service on the terrace and coffee in an elegant high-ceilinged room where many an English club scene has been filled (including for the BBC show “the crown”) and where Dickens’ chair is in a corner (yes he was a member, as was another illustrious Charles…Darwin.)

Mixed feelings about these exclusive clubs but at least this one (the Atheneam) bases admittance on merit and achievement vs money and bloodlines.

Leave a comment

Filed under England and U.K., public transportation, train

Tagged as , ,