Day 1 – Monday 27th May 2024- Cruising the Greek Islands and a few more places!!

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Well!!! We are off again. The alarm shot me bolt upright, to a rude awakening at 7.30 am… We showered, breakfasted, John did all the horrible jobs like washing up and bins… while I crammed the last few things into the cases. I’d like to say we took a leisurely walk down the road to the station…. But that would be a lie!!!! I huffed and puffed with my case and hand luggage sat on top … John eventually had enough and took them both…. He has much strength and while yanking it up the kerb the front wheel caved in, looking dangerously like coming off it now has to be a following wheel and no longer a lead wheel!!! We nurtured it to the station. Those of you who know us will understand we only live a couple of 100 yards away.. takes 5 minutes to get there …. 20 minutes later!! John was buying single tickets to Gatwick and we boarded the earlier than expected train arriving at Gatwick at just before 11.00am

We got through baggage drop off, passport control and security in super quick time… Well done Gatwick!!!
Being the last of the big spenders we decided to splash the cash and have a stylish brunch at ….. yes you’ve guessed!!!!…… Wetherspoons….. they get everywhere… we haven’t had one since Scotland last year !!! I must admit it was great and set us up for the day. By 13.30 we were at the gate waiting to board and our next adventure was about to begin……

We are off to Athens for a MSC 7 day cruise on the Opera… taking us to Italy and around a few Greek islands .
…or was it about to begin!!! All aboard and we’re told we are delayed 1hr15 minutes due to the sky being busy over Croatia…. Well! That’s a first for us…. So we taxied to what they call a quiet part of the airfield to wait out our time…. The good news is the fat fella ( I know that’s a bit like the pot calling the kettle black !!!), sat next to me and the window, was already fed up of being sardined into his seat by John and me and moved back two rows to an empty rack of seats… so we were far more comfortable even if we were no further forward with our adventure! I had also purchased a seatbelt extension because those on EasyJet are meant for sizes much smaller than mine!!! So I haven’t had the harsh embarrassment of having to ask for an extension … yeah… well worth the £19 on Amazon !! I know Johns jealous but he would prefer to sit breathing in for hours than admit he’d be more comfortable with an extension!!!

We did take off at 15.50 but much to my annoyance, embarrassment, humiliation the hostess came along with an EasyJet seatbelt extension and said I couldn’t wear my own even though it was as kite marked…. I suppose my only saving Grace was this time she was asking me rather than me asking her.
it was a good flight, even though no entertainment and no usb ports etc… but what do you expect with a cheap airline. Just after takeoff the air hostess came and asked me to move into the window seat because according to the passenger behind us, who just happened to be an airplane technician, half my seat was missing, in particular the bit that holds it upright and I was in danger of being catapulted into a vertical position… I think the poor chap feared for his life !!! So I obliged and moved. The flight was 3 hours 15 minutes and we proceeded to disembark without any problems. We then walked half a marathon to the immigration and baggage claim. We were about 1.5hours late but our driver met us with a cheery smile. He quickly transferred us the 45 minutes to our hotel… We are staying at The Gallery Suites in Piraeus about 5 minutes from the port.

We were greeted by two lovely ladies and after the formalities were completed we squeezed into a minuscule lift ( if you thought ours at home was small you are mistaken by comparison ours is a ballroom!!!). We are on the 7th floor… definitely a very compact room… for those of you who remember my description of our Hilton Hotel in Singapore, or our room in Amsterdam ….well!!! this is even smaller …. Now I come to think about it we have stayed in some pretty tiny rooms around the world… anyway I digress…. The room had all we wanted and with a little furniture moving ( we moved the bed away from the wall so John didn’t have to crawl in, whilst leaving enough room to get to the bathroom) we were soon comfortably in bed… after all it was 11.44pm…. So on that note I’ll say goodnight…sweet dreams …

Day 9 & 10 – Saturday & Sunday 18th & 19th May 2024 – Going home from our Cornish Staycation.

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We set off from Par at 9.00 am Saturday morning. We headed to Liskard and then through some wonderfully scenic villages and countryside onto the A38 passing over the Tamar Bridge at a cost of £2.60, towards Exeter and the M5.

We stopped in Kingsteignton, at my sisters, for coffee and cake. A very welcomed break. We were expecting the next section of our trip to be very busy, because the annual Devon County Show was on…..however we had a good run through, stopping at Westbury Station for our picnic lunch. John took a couple of train related photos.
We continued our trip to our overnight accommodation. We had decided to stay at The Schoolhouse Restaurant and Hotel. This quaint hotel is set in a Victorian building which is 2.8 miles from junction 16 of the M4, and 3 miles from Lydiard Park. It is an ideal stop off for dinner and accommodation enroute from Cornwall back to Bedford. The hotel is situated in Hook, a quiet hamlet surrounded by peaceful countryside between Swindon and Royal Wootton Bassett.

The former schoolhouse was built in 1859 and was the village school up-until 1965. In 1989 the School House Restaurant was expanded to include hotel accommodation. The restaurant seves it’s meals in the old school dining hall. A lot of the historical features were retained and these make it the quaint and quirky place it is today.

The Schoolhouse Hotel and restaurant are a small family run establishment . The first time we visited was in 2017, we were greeted by Fred, the dog, and Karen , while Tonny was in the kitchen preparing his delicious food. This time we visited and we were greeted warmly by Karen. Unfortunately Fred had passed away the week before, he will definitely be missed not just by Karen and Tonny, but also by returning visitors. Karen showed us to our rooms. Dad was in The Bedfordshire, whilst John and I were once again in The Eton. The rooms are a throw back to olden times in terms of furniture and decoration with all modern comforts such as tv, iron & board, kettle, USB ports etc.
Our evening meal was served in the old school dinning room.

The food which has a European influence, is cooked to perfection with your plate looking non fussy but very artistic. We each had a a main course and a desert.
My main course was Breast of duck served in a bacon and strawberry jus.

John had a beef bourguignon with rice.

Dad had Fillet of Pork with backed apple in an apple jus.

All were each served with a delightful side plate of perfectly cooked vegetables.

For dessert John and I both choose a sort of large spring roll stuffed with apple at each end and goats cheese in the middle….it was so yummy. Dad had a very tasty Bread and Butter pudding with custard……

Wow!!! it was a really lovely meal…if we lived nearer we would use this restaurant more regularly …a great place to enjoy really good food. We have eaten in Mitchelin Star restaurants on lots of occasions and the food at The Schoolhouse restaurant ranks as some of the best we’ve ever had……..if you’ve not been you need to go.

We retired to our rooms with the warm glow which comes when you know you’ve had a great meal. We all had a good nights sleep. Breakfast is served in the hotel entrance hall….the choice is varied to meet all tastes. We all went for The School House full breakfast…..bacon, sausages, 2 beautifully poached eggs, beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, potatoes, black pudding and fried bread……I swapped my beans, black pudding and tomato for toast….wow ….we also had a 10/10 cup of coffee ( the first of the holiday !!) and some orange juice….

Shortly before 10am we waddled out to the car and headed for home. We had been going to stop for lunch but we were so stuffed from breakfast that we didn’t want to eat again.

What a great last night to our week in Cornwall……a lovely holiday …opps sorry I meant …staycation. Thank you John and Dad for yet another lovely week exploring our own country.

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Day 8- Friday 17th May 2024 – Par to Penzance- Cornwall Staycation.

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Lovely azure blue sky to welcome in our final day in Cornwall. We were planning to walk to the station, but like all good intentions……we decided we needed a trip to CO-OP on our way home to replenish my water supplies and pick up some sandwich filler for tomorrow…so it was easier to take the car so we could go straight off. A repeat of the last couple of days occurred…I dropped the men at the station and took the car up the street next to the pub. By the time I had walked back John had bought the group ticket which worked out as £9.20 each for a return to Penzance. We sat waiting for the train in the sun.

It is a lovely stretch of line, taking about an hour from Par…..the beautiful rhododendrons shining purple along the line. The first stop from Par is St Austell, the nearest big town to Par. Following this is Truro. Truro is a cathedral city, being the only city in Cornwall it is Cornwall’s county town and the centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766. The people of Truro are called Truronians. From the train there is a great view of the cathedral.

Three train stops further on is the picturesque village of Hayle. The estuary and the beach area look more than a little inviting from the train.

The next station is St Erth. It is also a park and ride. This is a quaint but very busy station. Many disembark to take the branch line to the famous village of St Ives. We’ve done this many times , as St Ives is a village on a beautiful beach, with many fish and chip, cafes etc on the beach. A walk through the tiny shop fronted lanes takes you to the harbour, where boat trips depart and ice-cream vendors are kept occupied. The quaint lanes are home to many art, craft, beach wear, slightly hippie/surfer style shops…..we decided to give it a miss today, John breathed a sigh of relief as did his wallet !!! We continued on toward Penzance. The train runs along the sea front and there is a good view of St Michaels Mount. St Michael’s Mount is one of 43 unbridged tidal islands accessible by foot from mainland Britain. You can enjoy the walk across the causeway to reach the island at low tide, or if the tide is in, you can  take a short boat trip across. This iconic rocky island has a medical church and castle perched right on its top. ….the oldest of these buildings date back to the 12th Century. The Mount is still home to the St Aubyn family as well as a small community …it is jointly managed by the family and the National trust.

We disembarked in Penzance. The station is on the sea front, next to the bus station, fishing dock and the Tourist Information.

I visited the later, tourist information, and a very helpful lady explained about the sightseeing bus. It goes around the peninsula to Lands End and up the northern coast of Cornwall to St Ives before going inland to St Erths and back to Penzance the same route as the train. It takes 4 hours, you can get off at any of the view points but it’s 2 hours before the next bus comes. The price for a full day ticket is £9 per adult…..it was due to leave at 13.15. We ummmed and arrred about it but decided by the time we’d done it and got back to Par it would be a very long day…..so plan ‘B’ the lady told be about Mermaid boat trips. They do several fish or wildlife trips…we fancied the 2 hour wildlife trip which informed us that you could see seals, cormorants, dolphins and if you’re lucky whales. The kind lady in the Tourist Information pointed out where we had to go and off we went. After a short stroll we found the shop and the lovely lady rang through to see what time the trip was going….unfortunately it was full….never mind. We decided to do plan ‘C’ which was actually our original plan….we had a bacon butty from the bus station cafe …great place, it’s been there for years, used to be called the ‘Greasy Sausage’!! We sat outside and enjoyed our fat bacon butty in the sun, before wandering back to the station. We didn’t need to wait long for our train and we returned to Par….

Supper tonight was delicious fresh dressed crabs, freshly boiled new potatoes, tomatoes, avocado, lettuce, beetroot and celery & nut salad…it was truly scrumptious.

Tomorrow will see us packing up and heading north back up towards home, we’ll take it steadily stopping over night on the way.

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Day 7 – Thursday 16th May 2024 – Par to Looe – Cornwall Staycation.

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We left the house, in a blaze of sunshine (Yeah!!!), at 10.15am in the car, I dropped John, Dad and Little Betty (dads little mobility scooter) at Par station, and went and parked up the side of The Royal pub. John got the tickets to Looe, he got a group ticket which worked out at £5.70 each…this was the cheapest way for us to travel in Cornwall….this was different than earlier in the week because then we were going across county bounties into Devon as well as Cornwall, so individual tickets were cheaper. John carried Little Betty over the bridge and we were soon on the train to Plymouth….3 stops later we were at Liskeard. We’d never really realised how many Rhododendrons there are lining the railway line as well as the little lanes in Cornwall. So the short trip was very colourful. We disembarked at Liskeard and walked across the road to platform 3 to catch the branch line to Looe. John managed to pull Little Betty very easily….it was her first time on a train so it was all a bit trail and error. We waited only a few minutes for the little two carriage train to arrive….

……it’s important to remember that if you prefer a forward facing seat start with your back facing down the line because after just 5 minutes it’s stops and the Train Manager puts a key in a junction box which instructs the signal department in Exeter to change the points. The driver walks from one end to the other and the train starts again going in the opposite direction so you are then facing forward. It is an entertaining trip, we saw a deer. A grass clearing, sheep, cows and calves. The train runs along the east side of the River Looe, which is tidal with lots of water bird life on the mudflats when the tides out.

Looe is a coastal town in south-east Cornwall, England, with a population of around 5,280. It is 20 miles (32 km) west of Plymouth and seven miles (11 km) south of Liskeard divided in two by the River Looe – East Looe and West Looe are connected by a bridge and the two town centre are separated by the harbour and quaysides of the river.

It is renown for its lovely Sandy beaches.
The train station is a short distance from the East Town Centre. Dad hoped on Little Betty and we were soon on our way.

We prefer the East Looe side and we weaved our way down the predominantly pedestrianised main high street. I stooped off at one of my favourite shops ‘Whistlefish’ to pick up a little something extra for my sisters birthday. It’s a lovely shop and I always call in to buy something, basically because it’s nice seeing shops like this survive in these hard times.
Looe remains a fishing town, and has retained a fish dealer operating from the East Looe quayside. It has a fleet of small fishing boats returning their catches to port daily, Looe has a reputation for procuring excellent fresh fish. The town is also a centre for shark fishing. When you walk along the quayside there are lots of adverts for fishing trips and boat trips, also lots of shops selling ‘crab lines’ and pople stood hanging their lines over the harbour edge. We crossed the road from Whistlefish to the dock side where the fish shop is. I purchased 3 dressed crabs for tomorrow nights supper…..I naively thought they would be cheaper than in our fish shop at home ….after all the ship offloads it’s catch here so there is no middle man or transport costs…but my husband says I don’t understand the basic rules of economic business so I was flabbergasted hat 3 crabs were £29.96…. Nearly £10 a crab…I hope they’ll be tasty !!!!!

We continued along the quay to the end where the Life boat house and shop is. Behind it is a lovely area with the Pier Cafe both an indoor and outdoor eatery. We chose to eat inside and all 3 of us had Fish Goujons chips, we had 2 Pepsi Max and an apple juice which cost is £52.00 …it was really fresh and had a lovely taste…a very nice meal.

After lunch we used the public toilets which were a very good standard and we sat enjoying 5he sun watching people swimming in the sea and playing on the sand.

We retraced our steps back to the station, stopping at one of the many cake shops to pick up a tasty morsel to go with our sandwich for supper.
We were quite impressed that Dad managed to get all around Looe on this little scooter, although the pavements are quite narrow he is a skilful driver and the pavements have drop down kerb’s in all the strategic crossing places. We were very pleased we had taken the scooter with us because by the time we got back to Par I had done nearly 7000 steps….far too many for these little legs!!!

A lovely day out in such a pretty, typically English seaside town.

Day 6- Wednesday 15th May 2024-Par to Newquay- Cornish Staycation.

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John went to the station at 7.30 this morning, although we can see the trains from the front room and bedroom of the house, he wanted to take some photo’s on the station platform. So Dad and I had a slow start, made the picnic and picked him up at 11.00am. We headed off and through St Austell then turning right across what we call the downs, stopping briefly at Quintrell Downs station for a photo….

……before carrying on to Newquay. Newquay is a town on the north coast of Cornwall. The town is known for Sandy beaches at both Fistral and Watergate Bay. The waves from the Atlantic Ocean create strong surf. The town is bordered by several miles of Sandy beaches which make it one of the UK’s favourite holiday destinations.


The Fistral Bay is perhaps the best known surfing beach in the UK. As a consequence of this, in the summer it’s probably the most crowded! In fact at the height of the holiday season you might have to share a wave with another 300 people, but it’s worth it because Fistral can provide some class waves and holds swells up to 8ft. We didn’t stop at Fistral Bay today because we couldn’t find a car park where we could sit in the car and enjoy watching the surfers. It was very windy again today and there were some quite heavy downpours.


We eventually found a nice car park overlooking Watergate Bay…we counted 25 surfers along the bay. A leisurely picnic lunch was taken in the warm car, whilst watching the surfers ride the peaks, drop off, snake and carve, twist and turn. I always love watching them, knowing the excitement and adrenaline rush they will be having….it’s a long time since I had that feeling during my windsurfing years, but it’s one you never forget and you feel it in your gut every-time you watch others succeeding….I could watch surfers all day.

After lunch we drove further up the coast in the direction of Padstow. We went through some lovely seaside villages/towns.

We stopped for a view of the Bedruthan Steps. It is a National Trust car park with a Cafe, shop and toilets. We had decided not to do the walk to see the steps as Dad had previously done it with my sister, but it is a nice view point and we did need to use the toilet. We were told we would still have to pay for parking…John headed off to get a ticket..£2.50 for 1 hour, £5 for 2 hours and £9 for the day…..Johns reaction was ‘How Much!!’. The Lady said “IT IS National Trust’ !!!! ….No wonder there was plenty of room in the car park. To appease John I bought him a tub of rum & raisin ice cream……When the lady told me the price I just managed to refrain from saying I only wanted a couple of scoops not the whole container….and they were certainly quite small scoops…..talk about rip-off Britain…75p for a wee!!!! End of Rant !!

We continued up the coast a little further before heading back across the Cornish peninsula. After zigzagging through the Cornish lanes, with John saying the mirror at his side was brushing the bank of wildflowers, then he looked and saw it was the same on my side!!!….

……we made it back to Par. A quick stop at the St Blazey CO-OP to replenish the milk and fresh fruit supplies was required before we shut the rainy grey sky out for the night….. would you credit it no sooner had we got back the sun came out…Sod’s law !!!
We are eating in tonight, Fish pie, asparagus, spinach and ginger cake with custard….

Tomorrow we hope for a better day weather wise so that we can go to Looe on the train…we love the quaint fishing village and the fish market will provide us with a nice supper…..but it’s all dependant on the weather because it’s quite a long walk from the station to the main town centre.