Day 205 - Eat, drink and be merry

If you are what you eat, then today at least we are a lot of homemade goodness.

Source: www.theoldbakery-cawsand.co.uk

Amanda and I started our day with a trip down to our favourite spot in the village of Cawsand, the most-appropriately named The Old Bakery. This place is really a little slice of cafe heaven. Amazing that such a fine dining experience is ready and waiting for us each morning. Today, we went off to have a latte... but just the coffee as we are heading out today to have a roast carvery lunch. Of course, once inside the bakery, and tempted by the smell of fresh bread baking, we did have to indulge in a small breakfast of "just toast." The bakers here make their own sourdough bread (along with other types of bread throughout the week), and because Amanda is also a sourdough aficionado, we had to give it a try (that's our excuse and we're sticking with it). Now, you'd think that would be a simple breakfast. But the two slices of toast were accompanied by a healthy helping of local Cornish butter and strawberry jam...and each slice was the size of a giant's foot. Delicious.

But, now it was time for us to work for our lunch. As rain was in the forecast, we decided to hike in the morning while it was still just cloudy and end up in Plymouth looking around the town.

We started with an uphill climb out of the village. Certainly gets the heart started. We stopped in to see the Maker Church. In this Rame peninsula area, it was the church of the wealthier residents, whereas yesterday's Rame Church  was the church for the local workers, fishermen and farmers. Phil and Amanda read about a murder that took place at this spot. The church's bell tower was used in the 18th and 19th centuries as a signal station by the Admiralty and one of the signal men was murdered within it, apparently for his silver belt and shoe buckles.

Amanda enjoys a cider and a roast
lunch. We just watched her eat it!

This 15th Century church was used by the Edgcumbe's so from the back you can walk across Edgcumbe Park and down to the area of the Cremyll ferry. But first, lunch at the carvery of the Edgcumbe Arms was in order, since Amanda won't be here to enjoy a Sunday roast.

By the time we left the pub, the rain was coming down. Of course, we had come prepared with our umbrellas, and as luck would have it, the Cremyll passenger ferry was just pulling in to the dock. We hoped on board and paid our 1.50 GBP for the crossing. It was still drizzling when we got to the other side, unfortunately, but we made the most of the walk into Plymouth along the area known as the Hoe. From here, you can see the large ferries preparing to cross the channel to France.

At the top of the Hoe, are various monuments to the military in numerous engagements. Plymouth has always been and remains a predominately military town, and has risen from the ashes on more than one occasion.  In the early summer of 1940, The Plymouth Blitz by the Nazis destroyed two main shopping areas and most of the city's heritage buildings. Thousands died or were left severely wounded.

We continued around the Citadel, a large fort that dominates the city's seafront with its 70-foot high walls. The Plymouth Marine Laboratory is also located here.

In the old town, known as the Barbican, we wandered through the streets and looked through the Elizabethan Gardens. This garden is in a small courtyard off New Street (which was 'new' in 1600 when it was created to house merchants), in the heart of Plymouth's historic Barbican district. It is a recreation of a walled city garden, planted with historic plant varieties to recreate an authentic Elizabethan garden, although not too many were in bloom when we were there. The"walls" of the garden are made up of the ruins of previous buildings known as "backlands" which were used to house workmen. These were small buildings built into the backs of the merchants' gardens. With World War II's bombing destruction of much of Plymouth, the city council wanted to build new houses to replace those destroyed. They planned to tear down everything except one house. But the public didn't want to see the historic area demolished and formed the Plymouth Barbican Association to buy up and restore the houses with historical value. However, the tenement cottages behind them were removed and the garden area restored as it might have looked over 400 years ago.

The Elizabethan Gardens in Plymouth.

Amanda continues her search for
the perfect Cream Tea...alone,
of course.

The Tudor Rose Tea Room.

By this point we were starving from all the exertion. On New street is the Tudor Rose Tea Room. We managed to squeeze the three of us around a tiny table and soon had it brimming with a large pot of tea, teacups, milk, sugar and three plates of homemade scones (two each), clotted cream and strawberry jam.

A side street in the Barbican area
of Plymouth.

We looked around the Barbican area, including taking a bit of time to explore a wonderful used book store that was jam-packed with books over three floors and had the requisite grumpy older man behind the counter with his litany of rules one must adhere to while in the shop. Hilarious! We didn't buy any books because we really didn't think he wanted us to.

After this it was time to catch the double decker bus back to Cawsand. We had to wait quite a while and the Mother Nature took this time to wring out any remaining rain. Just as the bus arrived, the sun came out in all its blazing glory. We sat up front on the top of the bus, with a picture window view of the scenery as it unfolded before us on the hour and 20 minutes ride back to the village where we refused to eat anything more...at least today.