Cheers for following along from home. This is the second edition of hopefully many blogs that Baylee and I put together to catalog our travel! We hope to share some of the trip with all of you, and in turn have writing we can go back and read when we’re eventually back home. This one, and subsequent ones will be a touch lighter on day-to-day details, as we have loads to fit in!

So, what have we been up to recently?

London - welcome to the UK!

Following on from where we left off, we boarded our flight and headed through to London. This flight was fairly average, but got us in to Heathrow on a beautiful sunny Sunday morning. We immediately got a taste for overland train travel, and found ourselves wandering through the then-quiet Hyde park on the way through to our accomodation.

Our time in London lasted four nights, which saw us tick off a bunch of attractions. Notably we got to all major museums, and spent a day at the Tower of London. What we hadn’t anticipated throughout this was the crowds! Not only were we in peak season, but being close to school holidays saw plenty of student groups also trying to get a look at the museums.

On top of museums and sight seeing, we got some steps in and explored a lot of Central London. We also caught up with a friend of ours, tried out a few pubs, and experienced several disappointing and overpriced meals.

Two nights in Bath

We checked out of our accomodation and made our way via the underground to London Paddington - the main train station serving the southwest. As we’d pre-booked tickets using an app called Trainline, we could simply scan a ticket at the barriers to our platform and hop on the next train! We arrived in Bath just under two hours later.

Bath was meant as a stop-over on our way down to Cornwall. Trains heading in that direction tend to go via Bristol, and not wanting to be locked on a train for more than a few hours meant we stopped at a few different places along the way.

Our stay in Bath was fantastic. The weather held up, allowing us to explore the Roman Bath’s as well as places like Royal Crescent. We also visited a pub called The Raven for dinner one night, which ended up serving us the best pies yet!

Down to Exeter

In keeping with our want for cheap accomodation, short-ish train rides, and new places, we opted to stop one more time on our way to Cornwall. With those considerations in mind, as well as being a step in the right direction, we opted to stay a couple of nights in Exeter.

Exeter was an interesting place. We found we had far less things to do, and we also managed to get rained on again. To top it all off, Jamie had managed to pick up a cold, which he soldiered through to get out and about on our second day there. That being said, we still managed to enjoy ourselves. Exeter saw us get out in the bush for a short hike, the first time we’d done so in the UK, and also produced some pretty cool photographs.

Cornwall

We hopped on yet another train from Exeter, taking us all the way down the south coast to Penzance, deep in Cornwall. This was to be our home for the next week, giving us ample time to check out all the interesting places in the surrounding area, of which there were a LOT! Unfortunately by the time we got there Baylee had picked up the same cold, and was having a much worse time of it, which meant we got off to a slow start. Here’s what we saw:

St Michaels Mount

Our first outing saw us walk over to Marazion for a look around St Michaels Mount. This old castle on a hill is connected to the land by a causeway made of granite, passable on foot around low tide. Some may recognise this location as one used for filming in the recent Game of Thrones spin-off, House of Dragons! We arrived nice and early, in time to walk across for our timed entrance.

Walking around the castle was cramped, but very interesting. Turns out the family still live there, and have a portion of the castle open for visitors! While on the island the tide turned, so we took a short ferry ride back to the mainland.

St Ives

Our next notable excursion was to St Ives, a small, artsy town across the south-west peninsula from Penzance. We took our first trip on Cornish public transport to get there, hopping on a bus which works its way through impossibly narrow lanes.

In St Ives we ticked off a few more firsts. First proper Cornish pasty, and first dip in the Cornish waters, both of which were better than expected!

On the way home we found we couldn’t readily get on a bus when it arrived at the stop, due to the number of tourists in the line ahead of us. Instead, we opted for a pint of cider on the beach while we waited for a train ride back to Penzance.

Land’s End to Porthcurno

The next trip out of Penzance saw us taking a bus to Land’s End, for our next big outdoor adventure. With walking shoes on and a packed lunch in our backpacks, we set off on a portion of the South West Coast path - England’s longest waymarked long-distance footpath.

Along the way we saw some pretty cool things, such as massive rock carns, a historic lighthouse, and some friendly wild horses which wouldn’t allow us down to a beach without a head scratch. Portions of the path were wildly overgrown, but we’re almost certain that’s how it always is.

Extra: Eating in England

We’ve mentioned pubs and packed lunches so far, but you may be wondering how the food and drink situation has panned out in the UK. The long and short of it is, pretty well!

To begin with we would have breakfast at a cafe, lunch as a snack somewhere, and dinner at a pub. As we became more familiar with how things work, we ended up opting for cheaper establishments for breakfast & lunch, while still trying out pubs for dinner. This allowed us to try a variety of quintessentially British meals, including steak and ale pies, and fish and chips with mushy peas.

In Cornwall we had a full on kitchen at our disposal, so we had the majority of our meals at our accomodation. The times we did go to the pub were eventful, though! The most interesting of which was a night where we opted to sample some local seafood, only to be surprised that “whitebait” in the UK aren’t the small white fish we know in New Zealand, but instead lightly battered and deep-fried whole fish that you dip in sauce?? Picture included, in case you’re having trouble visualising it 🤣

Wrapping up the UK leg

After a week in Cornwall, we packed our bags once again and jumped on a train. The first section saw us riding from Penzance to Plymouth, where we check stayed in a VERY cheap backpackers. One night here meant we didn’t see much of it, but we did managed to pop down to the waterfront for lunch.

Somewhat rested and somewhat fed, we hopped on the next train up to Bristol. This was to be our last night in the UK for a while, as we had a flight the next morning departing at 6:40am on the 21st of June! Bristol was fairly uneventful, and we ended up filling our time with wandering aimlessly. One sleep and one early morning wake up later saw us lining up in the gate lounge in Bristol Airport, about to set off for our next stop: Venice!

In the next edition of Jamie and Baylee’s travels

You may have noticed that we left the UK over a week ago, and have been travelling Italy ever since! Keep an eye out for the next post shortly, where we talk about our travels through Venice, Florence, Pisa, Livorno and more. For now, here’s a sneak peek:

See you soon!

Jamie & Baylee