LOOE, CORNWALL 8th to 15th DECEMBER

Arrived in Looe, Cornwall. Had a good run and arrived in time for lunch in what is one of my favourite places on earth. I was ready to be disappointed since it is somewhere in the region of 40 years since I was last here. Hopefully, Julie will like it as much as me.

For me it is as if time has stood still; from memory very little has changed. It remains quaint and charming. Looe itself is a working fishing town with a devastated fishing industry.

Some forty years ago it was fighting back with tourism and it has done well to survive without an overdependence on commercialization.

Our accommodation left much to be desired; one of my less successful bookings. It sounded really good on paper but in reality it left much to be desired. We even had to supply our own towels! To be fair, it's name, Pixies Holt was indicative of a very quaint place.

Electricity was on a meter system with pay as you go. Since the heaters were one of the most inefficient types available the electricity costs were very high. This was of course compounded by the bitterly cold weather of the first couple of days. Still, whinges apart it was a great stay.

When we arrived Looe was just recovering from some flooding and they had a repeat a couple of nights later. Fortunately it was only minor and we weren’t directly affected.

Next door to Looe is Polpero, another gorgeous fishing village even smaller than Looe.

Again this place is locked in the past with very little change apparent over the past 40 years or more.

Our son, Shane who lives near Southampton has been unwell and was due to go into hospital for surgery on Monday. Although we are planning to go to stay with them for a week after Looe we went to Hythe (Southampton) on Sunday and stayed for a couple of nights. We then took Shane back with us to Looe for the remainder of the week. This gave him a chance to recuperate and spend some time with Julie.

Wednesday we all went to Lands End. We found this to be very commercialised but because of the time of the year this wasn’t a problem. Most of the cafes were closed as were the souvenir shops. 

In many ways this was good because it gave us the place pretty well to ourselves. In reality Lands End is a ‘must see’ for anyone visiting Cornwall since it is the southern-most tip of England.

The next day we took a trip to yet another quaint town – Cornwall is just full of these – called Fowey (pronounced Foy).

We actually drove to Polruan and took the ferry over to Fowey; It saved driving the long way round.

I have to admit, we didn’t do much on these days, just looking around and calling into magic little pubs and cafes to dine! No wonder our weight is piling back on.

On our last full day in Cornwall we visited the ‘Eden Project’; a project that turned a disused clay pit into a major tourist attraction.

The core of the project is rainforest under a massive dome. The whole project is run by volunteers and supported by tourism and ‘tax breaks’ from the government. All in all a must  see visit of in the area and well worth the trip.