OMG, I can't believe it... I've just added 3 more places I definitly wanna go see to my list. Any region with places called Cheddar, Beer and Leedstown soooo deserves a visit!
After the monkey sanctuary, Camelot Castle Hotel and all the other fun things, I really didn't need anymore convincing that our next road trip has to be to the South West ... but everytime I google the area I find new treasures.
Cheddar
A village in Somerset, which is just 25 km from Bristol and on our way to Cornwall. And yes it gave the famous cheese its name ... oh, PLASTIC CHEESE!
home of:
1) Cheddar Cheese - still produced there.
2) Cheddar Man - Britains oldest known geezer ... ehm human skeleton, found at:
3) Cheddar Gorge and Caves - second greatest natural wonder in Britain ... the south of it is owned by the Marquess of Bath and the north by the National Trust. There are 350 officially graded climbing routes on the 27 cliffs ("we should definitly hike on one of those hills").
The two main caves Cox's Cave and Gough's Cave (Britain's first authenticated cannibal site) are open to the public AND it has been suggested that the caves were the site of prehistoric cheese-making. Fantastic... cannibals as well as prehistoric cheese-making!
Coming back to Cheddar Man ... they did some DNA testing in the village and what can I say... it produced two exact matches (2 schoolchildren) and one match with a single mutation ( a history teacher).
When cousins marry...
4) Cheddar Reservoir - the first water reservoir in England that allowed sailing... other recreational activies include bird watching! borin' ... but pretty...
Beer
Beer is a village in Devon. Once upon a time the Beer men were the kings of the smugglers ... which basically in a way makes them pirates! The women of Beer are very good at lace making and hand-made lace for Queen Victoria's wedding dress. They also made a book of Nursery Rhymes out of lace for the christening of Prince William.
Sometimes the residents of Beer are referred to as Spaniards, because rumour has it a Spanish ship was once wrecked just off the shore and the Spanish crew settled down in Beer.
AND they've got a pre-school called Puffins at Beer ... BABY PUFFINs! Cute!
Actually I wanna live in Beer now... it has some sort of Stars Hollow vibe ... there is a website where you can leave your e-mail adresses if you leave Beer and want to stay in contact. The locals know each other ... I can so see Taylor, Kirk and Miss Patty living there.
Leedstown
Leedstown is a village/town in Cornwall and I just wanna go there, because I can't go to the North to check if the real Leeds is indeed still there and this way I will have at least visited a place called Leeds-something.
And then of course there are plenty more reasons to go like
Men-An-Tol
which is a holed stone that is said to have healing and fertiliy powers ... you just have to climb through it nine times or something...
or, and now we come to something I'm REALLY excited about, the Dartmoor and Exmoor Ponies!
Who are still running about the Moors ... they are semi-wild and most are owned by certain farmers, but they run around freely. How cool is that? Wild Ponies in England? There are no wild ponies in Germany! Could you imagine? Ohoh! These ponies kinda dropped of my radar after I stopped being a horse girl, so discovering them again has been quite funny!
People feed them out of their cars (like in a horse "serengeti" park ... I'm appalled! ) even though it is illegal to do so.
Oh, I want a Pony now!
The original plan has been altered... we will now be fleeing British shores with a monkey and a pony on board! I clutch the pony, La Bonette clutches the monkey and Special K is driving the boat! har, har ...
6 comments:
I definetly am interested in the cannibal cheese making ground... but we´ve also just got one week! It´ll be hard to see all the great sights in so little time ("quick").
I thought we had decided that in the end, we might stay there, if we meet and marry a Lord thus making the random act of piracy obsolete...
that would give us plenty of time.
honestly, I don't even see us making it to Land's End as we will be victims of the Camelot Castle Murder Mystery on our second night.
I can't believe you are not giving Cheddar and Beer the adoration they deserve... blasphemic!
And who says we have to see everything? Not possible, but that doesn't make it any less brilliant... wherever we end up.
oh, blogger has me in giggles ... omg this is great... the word I have to enter to make sure I'm not a robot is giggf which if you change the last letter to s would be Uncle Ryans last name AND as I just realized it also forms the first part of giggles ... hihi!
you are so easily to amuse!
but back to cornwall - i luv cheddar and beer!
in other food-news: had real English Christmas pudding and minced pie today. international work mates are the best. (btw: Christmas pudding tastes interesting)
I was always promised Christmas Pudding by my english housemates, but they then forgot... hmpfff!
I had mince pie though and it was ... well, I bought a packet of 10 and had just one ... okay I admit it I took just two bites and then I decided to stop, coz it was the sweetest and weirdest thing I ever had and sorry, but that is not pie ...
(these horrible pastry things they do in England... no wonder I went for lentil soup in Scotland, I was scared!)
Thinking about it, maybe that is why I never got any Christmas Pudding from my housemates ... cos as wikipedia informs me, Christmas pudding is also made with dried fruits and shockingly sweet...
actually I think I even remember that I decided not to bother with it after the mince pie fiasco...
Reminder: not getting her started on food!
miiiiauuu!
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