Last week I left London behind and headed West to Falmouth in Cornwall for a week of what I hoped would be rest and relaxation. I knew not to expect sunshine and a heatwave, in fact the idea of walking by the sea in gale force winds really appealed to me and I wasn’t disappointed!
I’m not quite sure why I settled upon Falmouth. I’d actually started talking about it 2 years ago, anyone who knows me will know that’s not very long in my book! Cornwall was one of William and Cleeve’s favourite places to holiday and I originally planned on visiting in August but as that coincided with them both being admitted to hospital I postponed the trip. It therefore seemed appropriate that it was Cornwall I went to when I needed somewhere to go to grieve their passing.
As you can imagine, January is not really the height of holiday season in the UK so a few places were closed, some ferries were out of action but that was okay by me, I had taken along my Buffy the Vampire Slayer box set on the off chance I didn’t face going out and in so doing managed to re-ignite my crush on Cordelia, played by the beautiful Charisma Carpenter who is currently helping raise money to buy beds for a school in Uganda.
While in Falmouth I stayed at a beautiful little place called Puffins which was on the High Street so pretty central to everywhere. It was a great base, not least for the views out over the River Fal. It certainly felt like home from home with all the cooking utensils you needed to rustle up a meal, decent speed wi-fi, ipod docks and TVs with built in DVD players in the lounge and sleeping area.
It was great waking in the morning to see the sea and occasional burst of sunshine tho if I thought the birds that tweeted outside my bedroom window were bad, they had nothing on the seagulls that seemed to enjoy waking me from whatever slumber I found myself in and to think Jonathan Livingston Seagull is one of my favourite books, I don’t recall him talking about the early morning wake-up call routine!
Talking of books I should mention the awesome Beerwolf Books, a pub that, as its name suggests, sells books. It had a roaring open fire and was a nice place to sup an ale or six either in the afternoon or evening, it’s quite a popular place with a good selection of ales but an even more impressive selection of ciders.
Another favourite place to sup a drink was in a little place called the ‘Front which was situated under arguably the best fish and chip shop in Falmouth, Harbour Lights. This was probably my favourite place to stop by in the evening. Staff and regulars were friendly and you were welcome to buy fish and chips upstairs and bring them down to the pub to enjoy with a pint of fine Cornish ale or cider and I did, on several occasions!
If I’m going to talk about food then I can’t fail to mention The Wheelhouse which is open for 3hrs a night Wednesday to Saturday. I managed to get a table early on Friday and enjoyed some of the finest seafood I’ve tasted. They have a basic menu of oysters, scallops, prawns, crab and mussels and I managed four out of five leaving the mussels for a second visit. It’s off the beaten track and quite small but worth seeking out if you want seafood at its freshest and finest. The service was almost as good as the food.
Not only did I take photographs, I managed to extract them from the phones and cameras I used and put them on Flickr so if you fancy have a look at where I went and what I saw, head over there. Now I just have to catch up on all the emails I chose not to read, I was on holiday after all!