Once again, I had the Veggie breakfast. This time without the avocado, it was much more to my palate.

After breakfast we checked out and dragged our luggage through the city centre to the car park. We loaded the car and then drove to Wells to visit the Cathedral to get another stamp in my Cathedral passport. We found the Cathedral was a lot busier than it had been on our previous visits. Even busier than it had been during an Easter visit.

Inside the Cathedral there were a lot of tourist groups making it difficult to see and enjoy the normally serene surroundings. I missed seeing the quire because, as I passed the first time, it was full of tourists so I decided to wait until I passed it on the other side. Unfortunately, when I got there the quire had been closed for choir practice.

During our visit the finishing touches to the Mythical Creatures adventure for children (of all ages) over the summer months was in its final stages of completion. Some of the mythical creatures were not hard to miss, we were greeted by one in the nave of the Cathedral. The creatures were drawn from works in the Cathedral’s chained library.

Our visit to Wells brought back happy memories of our stays in a lovely Wells B&B as well as regrets that our planned Easter visit in 2020 was cancelled due to Covid.

Later, we stopped at Gloucester services and were interested to note that the northbound side of the carriageway was not quite as good as the southbound side.

In Wells and Gloucester services we purchased food for both our Saturday and Sunday evening meals. So back home after unpacking bags we were able to enjoy ‘fine dining’; salmon with lemon and chive mayo, cubed potatoes and pea shoots. It was the second best meal of the week.

The first destination of our holiday was Padstow. When we set off (on time), the temperature was 94F s0  we were glad of the car’s air conditioning. We stopped for lunch in Gloucester services where we sat inside after we decided it was too hot to sit outside. Later, we stopped at Exeter services for a leg stretch and another cooling drink.

Padstow, was positively cool at 81F. We parked the car and checked into our hotel, The Old Custom House, which was conveniently close to the car park. We arrived at the most inconvenient time; the hotel was experiencing a power cut. In fact, the whole of Padstow was experiencing a power cut. The power kept cutting in and out for the next half an hour or so.

We dumped our bags in the room and visited the hotel bar just as the power cut out again. The bar maid was in the process of telling us that she couldn’t serve us when the lady who had checked us in intervened and told her that we were residents and she could serve us. All she needed to do was bill it to our room number.

One glass of wine and a cool beer later, we were chilling out in the lounge which overlooks Padstow Harbour. Whilst we were driving to Padstow the restaurant we had booked to dine in that evening phoned to tell us they weren’t able to honour the booking as both of their Chefs were ill. The journey to Padstow had been a long one so, rather than look for somewhere else, we decided to dine in the hotel restaurant for convenience.

However, when we arrived for dinner most menu items  had sold out leaving us with the options of burgers or curry. We told the person serving us that this wouldn’t work and we left. We were able to find a table at the Harbour Inn which is next to The Old Custom House. The food was nice. I chose scampi. This was served with chips cooked in beef fat. I know that many people rave about this type of chips but I was not convinced the flavour worked with scampi. I found the flavour clashed and I think I would have felt the same way if I had ordered the fish instead.

After dining we had a leisurely walk around the harbour before enjoying a nightcap in The Old Ship Inn. We returned to the hotel to find it was buzzing as we sat relaxing in our room with a view over the harbour.

Just as I was settling into bed, I remembered that I had forgotten to pack my lovely new alarm clock that worked so well when we were in Winchester for Easter.

We set off on our journey in glorious sunshine; planning to have lunch on the way. The SatNav was advising  an hour’s delay on the motorway so we decided to take a detour which led us to a lovely café that we have previously visited, The Café Craycombe at Fladbury in the Vale of Evesham.

We enjoyed our lunch sitting outside soaking up the rays.  I chose a tuna and sweetcorn baguette which was delicious.

After lunch the motorway delay seemed to have subsided so we rejoined it, stopping off at Gloucester services for a drink. Inside the services was hectic so I found the perfect seat overlooking the outside pool and the wildlife area. Back on the road the SatNav detoured us off the motorway onto delightful country roads although towards the end of our journey we got stuck behind a tractor on a narrow lane with no chance of overtaking.

We eventually arrived in Sherborne and, after a slight confusion with parking, we checked in to the Eastbury Hotel. We were taken to our lovely room overlooking the garden. After unpacking our bags we took advantage of the complimentary Sloe Gin that was conveniently waiting for us.

We freshened up before walking to The Green restaurant for dinner. The food and service was as good as we remembered it from our previous visits in 2019. I chose skate wing followed by meadow fresh nougat. We returned to the hotel for a nightcap where I sampled the local Sherborne Castle rose wine. I wasn’t disappointed.