Bristol

Unlike  Stonehenge that I had heard so much about and Port Isaac which I had learned so much about, I  knew very little about the City Of Bristol.  What a gem !  It was delightful to tour the city.

Medi near our hotel.

The connection between the City of Bristol and the US goes back to at least 1792.

Bristol Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral

I find it so warm and loving that churches in England mark the history of their worshippers as well as provide a place for daily worship.

Bristol University

St Mark's Church - the only privately owned church in England.

St Mary's Church is beautiful .  In fact,  so beautiful, that the Queen Mother, Elizabeth I, said it was the "goodliest church I had ever seen"  When I questioned the use of the word "goodliest", my son in law pointed out English is sometimes called the "queen's tongue" so by definition whatever she says is correct.  Good point, Kyle.

Would you cross the Atlantic in this ship ?  That is exactly what John Cabot and his crew did in 1497.  Cabot, an Italian navigator,  went to Bristol, then the second largest port in England, to take on the challenge.  He landed at New Foundland and became the first European to encounter the continent of  North America (remember Columbus landed in the Caribbean when he "discovered"  the New World.)

These two ladies claim they would have been adventurous enough to sail with Cabot.

Seaman First Class

Stonehenge

I had heard about Stonehenge and had always wanted to go there.  It was just icing on the cake when my daughter Karen said to get to Port Isaac, our primary destination, we would stop at Stonehenge and Bristol.  The various stops were wonderful proving again it is not the destination but the journey and when you travel with people you love it is like no other kind of travel.

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks. It is at the centre of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds.^[1]
Archaeologists believe the iconic stone monument was constructed anywhere from 3000 BC to 2000 BC.

There was a legend started in the Middle Ages that the stones were brought over from Ireland after fierce battles with the Irish .  Merlin, the magician of King Arthur's Court, supposedly started the project.

 Medi & I brave the cold.

 Medi and Karen.  Medi is listening to a recording about Stonehenge.

A different view of the stones

We were there on December 21, the winter solstice.   Solstice is an astronomical event that happens twice each year when the Sun reaches its highest position in the sky as seen from the North or South Pole.  These folk dancers were part of the many who came that day to celbrate the solstice.

Port Isaac : The Surrounding Areas

The area is known for great seafood . We took the ferry to the other side of the bay to go to best seafood restaurant in Cornwall.

This water taxi was certainly not my idea of a ferry and as we bopped up and down , left and right , I wondered why we had not waited for the real ferry.

Funny, these two passengers do not seem at all as nervous as the camera man.

Well, the name may not be very original but it served the most delicious  seafood I had ever eaten. Not just the best seafood in Cornwall but in the world.

While the restaurant may not have had a catchy name, other establishments did .  Like this one.

And this one.

And this one .

These girls too just "wanna have fun" but I think they would trade the fun for warmth.

Three Jays ?  This town is in trouble .

Was it something I said ?  I simply asked to take their picture .

Port Isaac : Doc Martin

We can't count the number of times we looked down on this scene in the BBC blockbuster series - Doc Martin.  Of course in the series, there was always blue sky, bright sun, colorful fishing boats and, to be sure, high tide.

We had planned a Chrsitmas visit with our daughter, Karen and our son-in-law, Kyle,  in London but after 32 episodes of Doc Martin, Medi decided we could not be so close, give or take 7 hours,  to Post Isaac and not visit the town.  Karen was quite the trooper offering to drive the entire way with husband Kyle as navigator.  She did point out that "no one goes to Cornwall (the area of Port Isaac ) in the winter. "    We did go however and we had an exceptionally fun time.

We got to visit Doc Martin's house ( third on the left ) and take a few pictures.  We had seen two movies about Doc Martin, all 32 BBC episodes and the movie Saving Grace which introuduced Doc Martin.

But there were other movies filmed in this town.  here is what Wiki says :
Despite its isolation the village has had several visits from celebrities. The BBC series Poldark (1975-77) used locations in the area; the BBC drama serial The Nightmare Man (1981) was filmed in and around the village, which doubled for a Scottish island and it was a location for the film of Oscar and Lucinda (1997). The local village hall has been decorated by the team of DIY SOS, and to date, five series of ITV's Doc Martin have been filmed there although the village has a fictional name of "Port Wenn." Saving Grace, a successful comedy film, was filmed in and around the village.
 

There were many signs to the various buildings appearing in Doc Martin.  Life does follow art.  There was no indication from  these signs that these buildings so identified were not really the same buildings in real life.

What would a British TV show be without the local pub?

Medi decided she needed "her daily pint" while we were there.  The number of pints she drank (3) equalled her annual beer consumption.    Kyle was deep in thought over the next Doc Martin episode and forgot to toast.

We had dinner at the Old School House where so much of the Doc Martin show takes place.   We asked if it was originally a school house later turned into a hotel. The waiter said he did not think much learning would have taken place with the bar on the first floor.  Some people are so literal.

The drugstore where Doc martin has made many visits to.

Do we look cold ?  We were freezing but enjoying every minute of it .

The road to the village

The port at (very) low tide