The Annual Holiday 2017

THE WEDNESDAY WALKERS ANNUAL HOLIDAY

Newquay 20^th to 24^th March 2017

The group consisted of: Beatrice and Tony, Sue, Trudy B, Trudy H, Fionnuala and David.

This year we elected to take our group holiday in Cornwall. On Monday morning (20^th March) we were picked up from homes. The coach driver had the right idea - no service station stops. Instead he made the first comfort break at the shopping outlet at Wilton. It's in the converted mills where they once made Wilton carpets. The second stop was at the Otter Nurseries at Ottery St Mary. Much nicer than stopping at service stations.

The hotel was ideally situated overlooking Fistral beach just beyond Newquay with magnificent views of the bay. To add to that, the hotel laid on a real Cornish cream tea to make us feel welcome. All the food we had at the hotel was excellent, even if it did amount to three cooked meals a day. We coped with that very well. And the staff were all very friendly and helpful. If we asked for something not quite as it was on the menu, we were given it with a smile. Our group gathered in the bar at 6.30 in the evening for the first of our free drinks, and we took our refills into dinner. We expected the drinks to be cheap quality as they were free, but we were wrong. We enjoyed them and went back for more. After dinner we had more free drinks in the ballroom where the night's entertainer regaled us with fifties and sixties songs for the older generation.

On Tuesday we went out on a morning trip to St Agnes. There’s not much to see in St Agnes, but we went on to the Cornish Cyder Farm and had a more interesting time there. They had some old Austin Healey cars on display as the farm is linked to the Healey family. The Healey of Austin Healey was a Cornishman. We went into the restaurant for a cup of coffee and sat at a table numbered 30. Most of us realised that because there was a glass jar on the table numbered 30. It was filled with sand to make it sit steady. We watched with interest when one of our group thought it was filled with brown sugar and poured it into his coffee mug. Enough said. We came back to the hotel for a cooked buffet lunch. Yes, more food! After that most of th group went off on a trip to the Cornish Gold outlet.

On Wednesday we went to Padstow, or Padstein as they call it with so many Rick Stein restaurants in the town. After Padstow, we went to the big Cornish Market at Holmbush. The evening went the same as before, with free drinks, an excellent dinner, and more entertainment in the ballroom. 

On Thursday we were taken to St Austell town. We don't know why because there's nothing much to see in St Austell, but it was on the itinerary so the driver had to go there. He wisely cut that stop short and, on his own initiative, took us down to Charlestown. That was much better as most of the group had never been there, and there were no other holiday-makers there at that time. Once again, we went back to the hotel for a buffet lunch and then the day turned wet, the only real wet period we had. Some of the group had a walk in the rain in Newquay. The evening followed the same routine, drinks, good food and a singer in the ballroom.

And that was it. The next day we set off home again. As before, the driver kept away from service stations and we made our first stop at the Jamaica Inn at Bolventnor.  It was once a remote inn on Bodmin Moor. Now it’s been expanded and is a big tourist attraction. Overall, we were lucky with the weather, apart from that one wet afternoon. All-in-all it was an excellent trip, and a welcome break that everyone enjoyed. Our thanks must go to Beatrice for organising the trip with her usual aplomb. 

Did you know....?
When Cornish names begin with Tre- Pol- or Pen- the emphasis is on the second syllable. So it's PolDARK with the stress on the DARK, and not POLdark.