The Holiday in Cornwall

Our last holiday was at the end of April, when we travelled to Norfolk for a week. Little wonder that I was eagerly looking forward to this holiday in Cornwall. Our last visit to Cornwall was over three years ago, and although we have usually been to Devon and Cornwall a few times over the years, this is the furthest we’ve been.

The Drive Down to Cornwall

We mapped the route down to Cornwall with breaks at the Welcome Break on the M3Stourhead and the Moto in Exeter. Ultimately, we decided to skip the Moto and drive straight down to the cottage.

I’ve enjoyed driving since the day I started and was looking forward to this drive. Ashwina did the first leg of the trip to the Welcome Break. I’ve liked this Welcome Break as it’s clean and has a lot of good food and drink options. The only annoying things I found are the lack of a signal inside the building and a Wi-Fi network that asks you for too much personal information. Guess what I did?

I then took over the drive. Stourhead was one of the places we had stopped at during previous trips down to Devon and Cornwall. This time we looked at other restaurants to stop for lunch but because Ashwina and baby snacked in the car trip towards Stourhead, we decided to just stop there and get some food at the National Trust cafe onsite. Who doesn’t love a good pulled pork sandwich?

We had a Tesco order due for delivery in the evening, so we decided to skip the Exeter stop and keep driving. Amusingly, this is exactly what we did three years back. It’s a good thing we did because the last hour was me driving (and unloading the car) in pouring rain.

Nanceglos House Cornwall
Nanceglos House, Cornwall

A few rainy days

The rain continued for the next few days. This gave us an opportunity to rest and relax in the cottage. We had placed a Tesco order to be delivered on Saturday evening soon after we reached and hence were well stocked for the next two days.

On Monday afternoon, we headed out to the Sainsbury’s superstore in Penzance, which clearly is a superstore. Whilst we do most of our shopping online, especially groceries, walking through the superstore gave me a great amount of joy, especially with the little one getting the fun experience of pushing the trolley (not riding in it like her peers in the store).Not to mention the Nectar points as well. It feels like I’ve been living under a rock with Sainsbury’s and Nectar.

On Wednesday, the rains finally stopped, and we headed to Rock to pick up frozen dishes from Fee’s. Ashwina did a serious amount of searching for good quality ready meals before finding Fee’s. If you’re in Cornwall, I highly recommend Fee’s. They deliver to a select group of postcodes, and whilst Penzance was out of this radius, you can always drive over to pick up the food. In particular, the beef chilli was delicious. Toss it in the oven for 45 minutes and it is ready to eat.

On the way to Fee’s, we stopped for lunch at The Tartan Fox. This was a random restaurant that Ashwina found that was mid-way between Penzance and Rock. As this was a Wednesday at lunchtime, it wasn’t that crowded. Whilst I do think the prices are slightly on the higher side, the food was very delicious and we all ate heartily.

I did come back to the Sainsbury’s superstore for some groceries as well as to refuel for the long journey back.

A visit to Trerice

Nanceglos House is located on the Trengwainton estate, which is known for its garden with exotic trees and shrubs. Because of the rain, we couldn’t visit it on the days that it was open. The garden was closed on Friday and we made a spontaneous decision to visit Trerice, which is an Elizabethan manor house in Cornwall.

The weather was the right kind of sunny and windy and chilly, i.e. pleasant enough to roam around without being covered up with tens of layers. It gave us some nice time to walk around and get some fresh air.

The Welcome to Trerice sign along with a map.
The Manor House at Trerice
The Manor House at Trerice from behind
A wall of beautiful autumn leaves on the outside wall of the Hayloft at Trerice

The journey back

Having successfully done the 3+ hour drive from Stourhead to the cottage, we felt it prudent to do a similar one in the morning particularly when we were fresh. We set out around 10am which is when we had to checkout anyway and I began the steady drive towards Stourhead. With about an hour or so to go, I spotted the exit to the Moto Exeter. This was also the same place we had stopped when returning from Cornwall three years back and since it was about noon, we decided to have lunch at the Moto. There is a good variety of shops to eat at and we defaulted to lunch at Pret as it had sufficient choice for the three of us.

We debated where our next stop should be and decided it made sense to make the 2.5-hour drive directly to the Welcome Break at Fleet. I should have let my wife drive, but I chose to do it instead. We encountered a bit of traffic near Stonehenge, more than normal, due to a crash, which made the journey a little longer.

After a short stopover to refuel (our tummies), we headed back with much excitement and exhaustion back home to London.

Not sure when our next cottage holiday will be, but having done our longest trips with our little one, I think we can be fairly confident to go further. Maybe up North?

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Ajay
Ajay

My name is Ajay D’Souza and I’m a blogger and WordPress developer who has a passion for creating and sharing. I also have a professional career as an Investment Banker.

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