Cornwall

We just got back from a wonderful week in Cornwall. We all loved it even though S. had her moments when she wanted to return to ENGLAND (no typo!) to be with her friends.

Our hotel was fab, with nice rooms, a pool and a million things to do for kids. In addition it was centrally located so that we could do several day trips covering large parts of Cornwall without to much hassle. Our favorite spot was Tintagel, the ruins of an old castle on the rugged cliffs on the northern coast of Cornwall. We spend nearly the whole day walking around and admiring the fantastic scenery, having a cup a tea and scones at the little cafe and playing at the beach. We also had long conversations with S. about the the person that falls of a cliff on the sign "dangerous cliffs". She just couldn´t stop worrying about his fate and wanted to know who he was and what happened to him.

Tintagel:

On our first day we took a trip down to the southern part of Cornwall to visit St. Yves, a nice fishing village well worth a little stroll. Beware of the Tate Museum though, it has an awesome cafe but M. and I agreed upon that the museum was one of the worst we´ve been to.

We also went to the beach at one of the National trust sites to have S. test her new kite. She liked it for about 2 min but then water, sand, bucket and shovel were much more appealing and daddy got to play with it instead (he didn´t mind though). Unfortunately I didn´t juggle beach + 2 kids running off in different directions + a daddy who swapped focus from kids to kite very professionally and after about 20 min both girls were wet and dirty and we had to return to the car. I usually bring an extra set of clothing for the kids but of course not this time. We suddenly stood without pants for S. and she ended up wearing I. instead. They were rather short and looked a bit funny but she wore them with style and everything was fine in the end. ;)

The kids at the beach:

In the evening we had a really delicious dinner at a restaurant in Truro called "Kathmandu". They have Nepalese and Indian cuisine and are very child friendly. The only thing that I reacted upon was the owner, with whom I just couldn´t warm up. He first astonished me by looking at our two girls and telling us at the same time that he was BLESSED with three boys. "Yes, 3 boys, I am so fortunate". Even though I don´t really care I thought that was a strange thing to say to people who come to your restaurant. Our conversations didn´t really improve and I finally totally spoiled our chances to remove those little invisible but noticeable spikes from the atmosphere by asking if the man in one of the pictures on the wall was him (a 70´s pic). Well, as you might already have guessed it wasn´t. Instead we were looking at the former king of Nepal. After this lecture, the owner turned around, started to walk away and hissed "he was shot". It almost felt like he wished the same fate upon me for not knowing. ;)

The kathedral in Truro

The kids fell asleep in the car on the way home and the quiet evening that M. and I had been looking forward to did not become reality since they were up and running once we returned to the hotel. The champagne that we had with us remained thus untouched in the fridge (where it stayed for the whole week) and we had chips and apple juice instead, while watching Robin Hood.
Next day we visited Tintagel, which I already mentioned. For the 3rd day we had scheduled Eden Project, a really cool garden.

Different from most other "traditional" gardens, Eden is composed of two main biomes; one tropic one mediterranean, which reminded me of alien housing, as they look like they are from outer space. The largest biome is really fascinating with huge tropical trees, magnificent waterfalls, tropical huts (S. favorite) and informative plaques giving details on the different plants, their life-styles, threats, uses etc. Very nicely done. The other biome is similar though a lot less humid. S. decided that it was interesting but too quiet and started (to peoples amusement) singing made-up opera pieces while standing on a big rock. It was hilarious.

In the evening we decided to have a take-away dinner at the hotel. M. had spotted a Dominos Pizza place in Newquay and went to get us two nice pizzas, which reminded us of our time in the US.

Still alive

and up and running. We have grandpa over at the moment and as he is a very active person we are always on the move hence this low activity on the blog. Together with Grandpa came also the good weather and we had sunshine for 1 (yes ONE!) whole week. Fantastic. I wasn´t aware those long sunny periods exist in this area but we have used them wisely and did things like biking, running, walking and taking a trip to a Park called Conkers, which is an hour away from here.

Conkers is prevalently designed for kids and as many people had told me about it I was very keen on taking the kids. It is a really nice set-up, they have a great museum and a big outside area with different activities for kids of all ages. Unfortunately though, especially the outside area was quite shabby. The playground seemed really old and, well lets say, well-used, with isolation material sticking out, coloring that has come off and plastic handles and such that have definitely seen better days. Likewise, the labyrinth was not at all a labyrinth (we hardly understood what we were looking at) and other activities were broken. The train that connects the different areas was not working either, which was a bit disappointing especially for S. My last complaint is the restaurant, which really sucked. They had no healthy options for the kids. The lunch box contained only chocolate, super-sweet juice, crisps and a choice of either sandwich, chicken or fish fingers or a hamburger. No fruits, no greens. I really regretted not bringing an own lunch. Also our food was more than poorly prepared. My father in law had a soup that tasted nothing but pepper and my jacked potato locked more like a sad and wrinkled piece of coal.

Anyhow, before sounding to much like a bitter old b... that is rambling on about everything negative I should probably give the place some credit as well. Fact is that we spend a nice day at Conkers and especially the inside area is great and very well taken care of. S. loved the play area which resembles a jungle that is co-inhabited by fairies and spiders. There are lots of nets, tunnels, obstacles to climb over or under and for the bravest among us there are pitch dark slides that take you back down to the lower level. All very exciting. Also the museum was very informative, thought through and nicely done and I learned the one or the other. They also had some information on nuclear power, which was interesting with regard to what is going on in Japan. So taken together, it was a successful excursion and we all had a good time. AND the fun doesn´t stop here. Today we are going to go swimming again. Yiha! I will tell you more later, now it is time to get our things packed! Packed die Badehosen ein!!!

Also, I will write a bit about last weeks Shrovetime later on. Just need to upload a couple pics because they say more than a 1000 words.

Busy bees

Pfff, the last couple weeks were quite intense, so sorry for not sharing any adventures with you. I will try and summarize all the fun things we did lately.

My favorite excursion was probably the one to Ironbridge gorge. We picked up my parents at Birmingham airport and went straight to Shropshire, the cradle of the industrial revolution. We started by visiting the world-famous first cast-iron bridge, which, despite a mass of around 800 tons elegantly spans across the river Severn. The bridge opened on New Year's Day in 1781 and was casted and built by a Mr. Darby III. He was commissioned by Architect Thomas Farnolls Pritchard who designed the construction which had no precedent at that time. Despite the brilliance of the construction there is a rather sad story behind it because the bridge ended up costing more than twice the amount estimated in the beginning and Mr.Darby, who had agreed to fund any overspend, was in debt for the rest of his life.

After we had admired the bridge we strolled around in the little town that is named after the bridge. Despite its size it definitely worth a visit due to its picturesque location and the cute little shops that are lined up on the main street. Also, there is a really nice place to have lunch or just take a break and lean back with a cup of coffee or tea and a bite of belgian chocolate. The place is called the Truffles cafe. We had a delicious lunch in a kids friendly and cosy surrounding. A recommendation is the hot mint chocolate, which my dad ordered. It was heavenly.

Ironbridge

And Ironbridge again


After Ironbridge Gorge we went on to Blist Hill, the Victorian town and that is a great place to visit for young and old. I totally loved it and so did everybody else. I wasn´t sure what to expect since M. had picked it and I admittedly didn´t pay much attention when he told me about it. So when we arrived I thought it was just a "regular" museum but it was not. First you enter a room with 5 or 6 big screens where they show movies/pictures of the time when when Blists Hill was still an active little community. Once you watched the movies you continue to the open-air part of the museum. The whole place attempts to recreate the sights, sounds and smells of a Victorian Shropshire town in the late 19th century and early 20th century. It really felt like traveling back in time. The shops are really authentic and the people who work there are dressed in olden day costumes and tell you about life "back then". If you wish, you can also exchange your money against old money at the bank and go shopping with it (we didn´t do it).
We spend 3 hours at the museum and loved every minute of it. It was nice to combine a bit of education with being outside. Also, they had some childrens activities such as dressing up in olden clothes (S. favorite), walking on stilts and making your own candles.
All in all we had a really lovely day.

Main street

Just looking at all this equipment already hurts

Meet a girl from the 19oo´s


So, now S. is getting quite annoyed by me sitting at the computer. Time to finish this post.

PS: Since I got comments that I haven´t been talking about the weather for quite a while, let me tell you once and for all: there is nothing to say about it. ;) Derbyshire weather is pretty much the same day in and day out. Grey sky (aka English-blue) with short, short, short sunny intervals. It most often looks like it is going to rain but it rarely really does. And when it does, it doesn´t stop for quite a while. I got to experience it on my own skin last Sunday when I decided to take a loooong walk. I had just made it half-way when it started raining cats and dogs. In the beginning I decided that I can cope with a bit of rain and tried to convince myself that it soon would stop. Good I am not working in weather forecast because it was a totally wrong call and after being soaked from top to toe after a couple minutes I placed an SOS call to M., who came to pick me up by car. And yes, I got teased for it for the rest of the day.