LAST DAYS OF THE DEVON/CORNWALL TOUR

The last 3 days of our tour where quite tiring ! After our arrival in the Falmouth Hotel, we started a long tour. We had to take 3 trains before a bus took us to St. Ives.



We left our hotel sitting above the station, and arrived in St. Ives where we had 2 h to visit the town.



Then our bus picked us up to take us to the "Land's End", a beautiful place with an amazing landscape. Unfortunately it was cold and very windy but at least it didn't rain and the sun was shining. We walked around for 45 min and then we continued our route to Mousehole. That's a funny name I thought.



I even met a cat in Mousehole, without mouse. We found a cozy pub which had a terrace on the roof, where we sat and had a drink. Then we made the long trip home back to Falmouth, this time by bus and not by train. We didn't even have the time to change clothes, dinner was served at 7 pm and we arrived shortly before 7. We all were very tired from this long day.

The next morning we all said good bye to our group of 31 people who returned home into all corners of the UK, except two couples who came from Australia and South Africa who continued their tour through Europe.



We took the train to London and arrived 5 h later in Paddington station. From there we carried our luggages into the tube to King's Cross and from there pulled them until our Hotel near the station. We were so tired that we decided not to go to London center anymore but rested a bit in the garden. Ilona and I had a room in the basement with a beautiful little garden. Finding palm trees in London was quite strange ! In the evening we found a cute Indian restaurant nearby and had a wonderful supper. I was the only one who knew the Indian food for the others it was the first time and they loved it.

The next day we had to leave Ilona in the hotel, she was feeling very sick and had stomach cramps and couldn't come with us.



We took a bus to Buckingham palace and sitting on the top we saw a lot of London. When we arrived at the Palace it was just time to watch the "Changing the guards" ! There were so many people from all over the world that it was nearly impossible to see something except the heads !

I had enough of this crowd and we tried to get out of there which wasn't easy. And then we were lucky, we were standing opposite to palace to return to Victoria Station, when they came all marching along going back from where they came, without standing in the crowd ! We couldn't get a better view !



From there we went to Carnaby street where we had a nice traditional  "Fish & Chips" outside a pub from where we could watch the people, without moving ! Restored we made a tour in the "Liberty" store which took the breath away from Nicole ! She saw a beautiful scarf but when she saw the price of 250 £ (429 $) she thought it was a mistake and refrained from buying anything !

It was time to return to our hotel, pick up the luggages and a tired but better feeling Ilona and went to the station to catch the Eurostar train.

Mr. G. picked us up and was surprised that we came back from holidays in pieces !

Today I rest, and just do nothing ! Last year when I did the tour around the UK it was less tiring. the "Great Rail Journeys" should improve the program. We stayed far too long in Torquay doing nothing, and the rest of the tour was squeezed into one day from Falmouth on.