Plymouth

Coming from Roscoff, in Brittany, our ferry got into Portsmouth late in the evening, but the setting sun gave us nice views of the port. We took a cab to our B&B, the appropriately named Brittany Lodge.

We were a short distance from the Hoe, the big open parade ground that sits on the headland looking out to sea. Camilla was tired but I went for a short walk around this, looking at memorials for the RN, RAF, Drake and the Armada. I still had a nasty shin splint in my right leg.

Sunday 8th July

We got up early - around 7.30 - did some laundry, and then had a full British breakfast - sausage, bacon, egg, beans, tomato - which was rather good.

Camilla did some work on her paper while I went back to the Hoe to look at war memorials: the Falklands, Korea, Normandy, 1st Army (Africa), Polish, Dunkirk, 997 Vikings, Malaysia, Burma, the Boer War. It was very quiet.

We wandered into the old town, had lunch in the garden of a little cafe, and looked at a secondhand bookshop.

Camilla wanted to buy a bag to help her carry extra stuff she'd acquired in Brittany, so we went to a big central shopping mall, past an old church ruin isolated in the middle of a roundabout. Central Plymouth was flattened by German bombing during the war, and rebuilt in a regular geometric layout — very different to what was left of the old town.

The Plymouth City Museum was unfortunately shut, so we went to the aquarium instead. This was good, but not nearly as good as Oceanopolis at Brest. We wandered around the Barbican and had dinner in a fancy pub restaurant.

In the evening we went out to watch the Brittany ferry come in, then I finished reading Remains of the Day while Camilla worked on her paper.

Monday 9th July

Camilla somehow managed to eat her entire breakfast! We got away by 10am, catching a taxi to the hire car pickup, where we did the paperwork and were away.

Next: Tavistock + Merrivale
Up: Cornwall