Heathrow To Cornwall

After many legs – and many forms of transport – Crystal and I arrived in Fowey, Cornwall, late Saturday afternoon. The travel gods were with us: no airplane delays from Denver, super fast transit through Heathrow customs and the train snafus were in our favor.

From Heathrow Terminal 2, “The Queen’s Terminal,” we rode the London train to Hays and Harlington, arriving just just five minutes after departure. ‘‘‘Twas a cold and windy day.

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Our multi-stop train to Reading was on time. But “trouble with overhead lines” caused this train to skip most of its planned stops. We had 5 cars all to ourselves as other passengers bailed out to make different connections to those intermediate stops.

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Early arrival at Reading’s open air station gave us plenty of time to freeze before embarking on the Penzance train, traveling along the Cornish Riviera from Exeter.

The train windows were really dirty so these pix of that lovely coastal journey are from the web.

The stylin’ guy with the Victorian top hat is Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the Great Western Railway mastermind behind this portion of the line.

We left the train at Par, catching the #24 bus from the railway station to the Safe Harbour Hotel stop in Fowey.

A short walk along Fowey’s narrow, winding main drag took us to Beam Reach cottage, our home from home for the next week.

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It’s three levels on the inside, and another 3 levels up the hill that doubles as back garden…

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…with very fine views of Fowey harbor and Polruan across the way. Hopefully we’ll have a sunshiny day when we can enjoy that picnic table.

There is, of course, a Cornish cat presiding.

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And some fine old sailing ships moored just across the way.

After a takeout dinner of traditional fish and chips with mushy peas, non traditional pastie (sweet potato and feta), and frozen broccoli, we were happy to go horizontal for a good night’s sleep.