Rob Little's Blog – the musings of an English / British Tour Guide !

…..the route home following the North Cornish coast into Devon past spectacular coastal scenery including Bideford (NOT Biddeford!!), Saunton, Woollacombe, Lee, Ilfracombe and Combe Martin before skirting Exmoor to join the M5 highway for the final leg of the drive back to Tetbury.

Rob Little
Driver / Guide
Lets Tour England

The Atlantic Highway

A better shot of Bideford Devon – NOT Biddeford Maine !

Bideford Devon – NOT Biddeford Maine !

Saunton Sands, North Devon

Woolacombe, North Devon

Lee, North Devon

Cycling up nearly 45 degs at Lee, North Devon

Ilfracombe, North Devon

Combe Martin, North Devon

The St Moritz Hotel is a trendy modern 4* “art deco” design with regular rooms and one or two bedroom suites with fully kitchens and dining facilities as well as pool, spa and gym.

The restaurant kitchen is fully open on view and its fascinating to see the Chefs working at 100mph as well as their huge attention to detail. More essentially the food is absolutely fantastic…..not cheap but then you get what you pay for. I started with the Fish Chowder which was a meal in itself. Every time I visit Boston I visit “Legal Seafoods” for their fantastic chowder but trust me, this is even better!

The entree I had the fillet of Lamb Naverine which was SO good – tender pink chunks of lamb! Drank water, not wine !

Saturday morning breakfast started with a table buffet of cereals and fruits followed by a continental or “English” breakfast with various combinations – nothing but the “fukk English” would satisfy me !

Nearby, the village of Rock has been referred to as ‘Britain’s Saint-Tropez’and the ‘Kensington of Cornwall’ due to its popularity with the very affluent and upper-class holiday-makers, including the third in the line of succession to the British Throne, Prince Harry and what the Daily Telegraph calls ‘Hooray Henrys’.

Popular names such as Hugh Grant and Jemima Khan, the Rothschilds, the Sainsburys, the Freuds, the Al Fayeds,and Harry Enfield have also holidayed here.

What I like about this place is that while everything seems to work like clockwork, the staff are warm and welcoming. I’m very glad I came back as the last time I was here was literally the first weekend they had re-opened after some major rebuilding and there were a few “issues”. This time it was perfect and we will definitely be back.

What is more, is I will definitely recommend the St Moritz Hotel to my discerning Customers in North America !

Rob Little
Driver / Guide
Lets Tour England

St Moritz Hotel, near Rock, North Cornwall

St Moritz Hotel, near Rock, North Cornwall

St Moritz Hotel, near Rock, North Cornwall

The Kitchen at St Moritz Hotel, near Rock, North Cornwall

…..and the Ketchup came in a bottle yesssss !

The St Moritz Hotel

St Moritz Hotel, near Rock, North Cornwall

St Moritz Hotel, near Rock, North Cornwall

St Moritz Hotel, near Rock, North Cornwall

St Moritz Hotel, near Rock, North Cornwall

Something healthy before the fry-up at the St Moritz Hotel, Cornwall

Could this be a posse of Buddhists ?

Reception at the St Moritz Hotel, Cornwall

Dining Room and Kitchen at the St Moritz Hotel, Cornwall

So….Sunday is a beautiful morning so off on the one hour drive to St Ives – an artists town that is said to have the have the best light in the country!

I enjoyed my (traditional English again!!) breakfast of course while my wife had scrambled eggs and salmon with toasted Pumpernickel bread – a black German type bread I think, which is definitely an “acquired” taste!

I have decided to spend the hour of quality time we shall have driving to St Ives by explaining the difference between FM, AM and DAB to an unwilling “pupil” who is not yet ready, or sufficiently interested, to understand the technicalities of programming the video…..! Perhaps we should forget VHS and take the leap to Blu Ray?

Arrived at an absolutely bitter St Ives just before noon…..sadly the totally blue skies had gone but it still looked beautiful ! St Ives is “done” very well….very tasteful with cobbled streets, little shops and galleries – definitely not “candy floss (cotton)” and “kiss me quick” !

Driving along the absolutely stunning coastline from St Ives to Zennor and on to Lands End, it is very much reminiscent of the west of Ireland. Had homemade tomato and basil soup with crusty wholemeal bread and butter for lunch in The Tinner’s Arms pub at Zennor – a “real” pub !

I refused to pay to go into the “theme park” that is “Lands End” – its outrageous that private enterprise can steal this piece of coastline and refuse access to us unless we pay. Its a disgrace ! So down to the delightful Sennen Cove and to the Lifeboat Station which was having an “open day”…..absolutely facinating….more of that later.

Finally we finished off at St Michael’s Mount – an island joined to the mainland by a causeway which makes it accessible at low tide. It has a namesake in Normany, France “Le Mont-Saint-Michel”

By this time it was late afternoon and the sun was going.

Rob Little
Driver / Guide
Lets Tour England

View of the Camel Estuary and you can just see St Enodoc’s Church

Padstow from Rock, Cornwall

St Ives, Cornwall

St Ives, Cornwall

St Ives, Cornwall

St Ives, Cornwall

St Ives, Cornwall

St Ives, Cornwall

St Ives, Cornwall

The Sloop pub at St Ives, Cornwall

St Ives, Cornwall

The stunning coastline towards Zennor, Cornwall

The Lifeboat Station at Sennen Cove

Sennen Cove, Cornwall

St Michael’s Mount, Marazion, Cornwall

St Michael’s Mount, Marazion, Cornwall

***

Artist in his workshop painting while sending text message, St Ives, Cornwall

Along the coast to Port Isaac and Trebarwith Strand – I remember one evening in June sitting in the Port William pub here and watching the sun sink over the ocean about 9.45pm. Today it will be about 4.30pm !

Rob Little
Driver / Guide
Lets Tour England

The beach at St Enodoc

Port Isaac

Cornish Clotted Cream Tea

mmmmmmmmmmmm !!

Port Isaac, Cornwall

Atlantic Breakers at Trebarwith Strand on the North Cornish coast

Atlantic Breakers rolling in at Trebarwith Strand, North Cornwall

We left the car next to the river estuary and walked to St Enodoc’s Church which, for several hundred years was actually covered in sand and the congregation were lowered in through the roof !

Walked along the beach of the River Camel estuary on sand to the ferry at the misnamed Rock (actually named after the quarry) and took the ferry across to the fishing town of Padstow. Padstow seems to be all about celebrity chef, Rick Stein, who owns a number of eateries here – even a fish and chip shop! Fellow celeb chef Jamie Oliver also owns a restaurant here!

And no trendy cafes for us – coffee and a slab of home made jam and lemon cake at the Lifeboat charity event !

Rob Little
Driver / Guide
Lets Tour England

The crooked spire of St Enodoc’s Church – the Church in the sand dunes !

Yes it is a bit on the chilly side !

The ferry from Rock to Padstow

The harbor at Padstow

The harbour at Padstow

Its cold !

Padstow – Rick Stein’s Patisserie

See what I mean ?

Is this guy on some ego trip or what ?

Supporting the Lifeboats – i may make the ferry sink!

Postcard of the Padstow Lifeboat

The harbour at Padstow

Just along the coast from Bideford, is the historic fishing village of Clovelly. No cars are allowed and the steeply cobbled and stepped path sinks half a mile from the car park to the ocean, past all the little fishermen’s cottages.

Its a killer climbing back up, but I can drive down to the harbour and pick up any Customers not willing to risk their hearts !!

So no cars…..how do they get their stuff down to their houses? By sledge of course!!

Clovelly was quiet and cold on this late January afternoon but in mid August expect the place to be packed with visitors and with braying donkeys plying their way up and down the cobbled hill path.

Here are rather a lot of photos…..just so you get the idea !

Rob Little
Driver / Guide
Lets Tour England

Clovelly – halfway down the hill

Clovelly – a local resident sledges her shopping down the hill to her house!

Clovelly – sledge park !

Clovelly – oh no we’ve gotta walk back up here !

So SO right !!

Clovelly – The Harbor

Clovelly – The Harbour

Clovelly – The Harbour

Yes it was windy – check out the chimny smoke ! oh and below freezing too !

Clovelly – that cobbled hill again!

Clovelly – the little fishing harbour

Clovelly – The Harbour

When I am in New England, I always feel so at home with the familiar names of towns which are not only from “old England” but from my native county of Devonshire from where so many of the first pioneers sailed from. Indeed the named these towns Plymouth, Dartmouth, Exeter, and Biddeford and that’s just the ones named after towns in the county of Devon !

Our Bideford – the original, of course, was a little more frugal with its “d’s” !

Rob Little
Driver / Guide
Lets Tour England

Bideford and the River Torridge from East-the-Water, North Devon

This is The Pannier Market and the famous Butcher’s Row, in the market town of Barnstaple in North Devon. Its b***dy cold brrrrr !

Butchers Row used, funnily enough, to be reserved just for butchers – north facing to keep the meat cool. But now, wth the advent of cheap meat from the supermarkets, most of the butchers here have given way to delicatessens, bakeries and purveyors of fresh Atlantic fish !

And then, to lunch at the “Boston Tea Party” restaurant…..somewhere to make even the most conservative of our guests feel at home….Ha ha !!

And finally, after a good lunch, you may get “taken short”? So to the “public convenience” which, in case you had anything else in mind, tells you exactly what you can find behind close doors !

Rob Little
Driver / Guide
Lets Tour England

Butcher’s Row, Barnstaple, Devon

The Pannier Market, Barnstaple, Devon

The “Boston Tea Party” restaurant in Barnstaple, North Devon

Oh good a “public convenience” – what a polite way of putting it?

Oh my…..ok ok I get the message !

A 14 minute News Video !

I have made the point before that the BBC is the best news organisation in the world….and without doubt they are ! But the best news PROGRAMME in the UK is in my view Channel 4 News. A minimum of advertising and an hour of intelligent probing journalism.

February 7th 1990 was a momentous day. Channel 4 News reported that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Central Committee approved the deletion of Article 6 from the Soviet Constitution which guaranteed the monopoly of absolute power for the Communist Party. This was closely confirmed by the Congress of People’s Deputies which formally deleted Article 6 on the following March 13, 1990. This day marked a major step in the ending of the Cold War.

Rob Little
Photographer & Guide
Lets Tour England

A

There’s a moose loose aroond the hoose…..

Today is Burns Night. Robert Burns (1759 – 1796) is Scotland’s bard and the Scots traditionally celebrate his birthday by piping in a haggis on a silver platter and reciting Burns’ poems throughout the evening. There may or may not be whisky drunk by the gallon too.

Haggis is not for the faint-hearted, but bizarrely, therein lies its charm! Here is Burns’ own tribute to the haggis written in 1786:

Fair fa’ your honest sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the pudding race
Aboon them a’ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe or thairm
Weel are ye wordy o’a grace
As lang’s my arm

(Is this the beginning of the American dialect I wonder…?)

If you’re celebrating tonight….have a good one !

Rob Little
Driver / Guide
Lets Tour England

“Rabbie” Burns – the bard himself

Haggis running wild, in the field

The Haggis is prepared and cooked along with the local “wine”

The Haggis is ceremonially piped to the table

Edinburgh….Scotland’s Capital, today !