Tiny Roads, Some Cheese, Did we mention Tiny Roads??

Today we left Bath, and as luck always has it, it was sunny and beautiful! I took some last shots around Bath while Brian went off to grab the car. He'd spent a good portion of the previous evening studying the roads we would be taking. Jen and I went over traffic signs so we'd be helpful navigators.

Brian arrived back with our 2014 Skoda Octavia in a 5-Speed........its red.....of course. Seriously, any other color, but again the luck thing. Its actually a pretty nice car. Aside from reading off directions and giving a general idea of how much room the side of the car had between hundreds of cars parked on the street, you could here a pin drop in the car as we made our way out of Bath. In one word it was TENSE, we're talking clenched bottoms and breath holding here. Luckily, it was beautiful and more importantly dry outside of the car. The scenery could not have been better and seemed to have a calming effect on all of us. The Somerset countryside is stunning. Its like a green patchwork quilt made up of every shade of green, okay not every shade, but all the good ones.

We planned a last minute stop on our way to Port Isaac, and it really worked out for the best. I'm a terrible navigator because I get horrible motion sickness, so I was extremely happy we stopped, having tasted my breakfast three times before we arrived at our first stop. Brian was happy to be able to unclench is teeth after his first hour of right-hand driving.

A week before we left on our trip Brian and I had randomly been talking about cheese, yeah, we have fun. Anyhow, I basically said that cheddar cheese was my favorite cheese, and then he and I made a bet on where cheddar cheese was invented. He said Wisconsin, and I said England. I won. Out of curiosity we decided to look up where Cheddar was, and luck was on our side this time. It was just a short detour from our Port Isaac route, awesome!

Cheddar cheese comes from the Cheddar Gorge region of England. Its not much of a Gorge to us, just 450ft tall, but for England we could see it being a big deal, maybe? The area seems to be a bit of a tourist trap, imagine cheese instead of salt water taffy and you get the picture. That being said we totally bought into it and left with a wedge of Cheddar cheese (aged in a cave in the Gorge, yes, a cave). We also bought some amazing cheese sticks/bread roll things, there are five in the package, we should have bought 50 more packages.

After Cheddar we made it the M5, which was a welcome site for all of us. The M5 meant wider lanes, all cars going in the same direction and no round abouts. Hallelujah. Two hours later we were in Port Isaac, or Port Wenn as you Doc Martin fans may know.

Port Isaac sits on the Atlantic Ocean and has a lovely crescent beach. It is the main location for Doc Martin, a show the three of us kind of obsess over, Brian a bit less than Jen and I. Jen and I were pretty giddy walking down the hill to the village because it really does feel like you are on a set, it does not feel real at all (there may have been some giggling). Brian wasn't as giddy, the tiny roads drained any of the happiness out of him temporarily, then we saw some cute dogs and he started to improve. Port Isaac is super dog friendly so we hope to see lots of cute pups while we are here. So far its been a lot of Spaniels. In Bath it was a lot of Border Terriers and Golden Retrievers.

We found our cottage, after ten minutes searching for it. There are maybe six streets in the main village, but this cottage was practically invisible, until we found it, then it seemed obvious. We found the key easy enough but could not manage to get the door open. All three of us tried for 25 minutes to get inside the cottage. We worried that maybe the salt air corroded the lock or the vintage skeleton key was bent. Just as Brian walked off to try and get phone reception, I randomly pulled just right and the door gingerly opened. We dropped our gear off and headed out to take a look around, we had Brian test the door one more time while we waited inside and it happened again, except this time we were locked inside, another 15 minutes pass and it turns out all the windows but one are painted shut. Brian passes us the key from the miracle window and we are free. We all practice opening the door just right and we are finally set to go on our way. Guess What? The sun has decided to go away too, we make the best of it and walk around anyway. More on Port Isaac/Port Wenn coming soon.









































And we're off (note clenched teeth).


Butcher's truck in Cheddar.


Mmmmmmm, cave cheese.


Photo in front of a big tank. We hope its full of melted Cheddar. (I tried to cover up the bad Comic Sans font as best I could)





Downtown Cheddar, weather couldn't have been Beddar......yeah, I typed that.



Please witness the most glorious candy dispenser in the WORLD......although I'm pretty sure this wasn't Cadbury. I couldn't find 20p to find out either. I walked away sad.



On the M5, wider roads and wide smiles.


The best navigator.





Here is an idea of the size of the roads here.



Port Isaac Panoramic.


Arrival. Who's house is that off Brian's shoulder.....



The Doc's house! (Just a sneak peek)



Searching for our cottage.


Cottage found, but the keys hate us.


Here we are locked inside the cottage. Awesome.

Somethings to note:


This is an Audi A1 Hatchback. We are assuming this can't come over the ocean because the A1 name is already being used in the US. We blame you Heinz! (These posts will be our way of leading a protest against hatchback discrimination in America).



So entering and exiting our cottage is a huge pain, the one thing we can take comfort in is the fact that whoever owns this cottage has excellent taste in movies. (Trish's all time favorite movie, although the US dvd cover art is a lot better, so yay America, still mad about the hatchbacks though)

P.S. We're thinking about you today Jayme and the Taylor Family. Hope all goes well.


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