The Beyond Series and Mancunian Crime Tales: A Year Travelling the Coastline of the UK in a Motorhome - Week 43 - Plymouth - Looe

Tuesday, 16 June 2015 Week 43

Last weekend we were moving into our new home, so it was a long trip up to Lancashire, then two whole days moving everything from storage into said new house, many thanks to our special friends who live locally for all your help💖. So when we resumed our tour last week in Truro, we moved on to a site in Looe.

I was getting close to finishing writing my next new Trilogy of Sci-Fi novels, so I spent much of my time hiding away in the van to get it finished... I ventured out one day to explore the town centre and harbour, and it was really lovely. It was just a shame the weather wasn't all that great. Talking about the weather, I was given a severe weather warning for the weekend. I was so looking forward to a good thunderstorm (I know, a bit weird), but I love storms, and I was promised one, then didn't get it. Very disappointed!

We had a little look around the little fishing town and found the old Tudor Guildhall. Inside the Guildhall Museum, there was the usual hotchpotch of paraphernalia collected by the townsfolk over three or four hundred years - reading glasses, a crumbling Armada cannon ball, some scary dolls in a Victorian pram, to name a few, but nothing prepared me for the horror in this glass case! Actual Punch and Judy Dolls from the 1600s! Apparently, the odd puppet show was not created for scaring the life out of little kids at the seaside - No!

Once upon a time, when only the gentry could read, a puppeteer would go to the local courthouse, watch the trials of the local drunks, thieves and prostitutes, then name and shame them in an adult show at the town's market - a bit like a medieval tabloid puppet show! Some people were so ashamed of the ridicule that they went to what is now the local car park and hanged themselves! Nice Eh? For me, though, it just brought back nightmares of Punch and Judy shows I was forced to watch in the name of entertainment as a kid!

Another lovely view of the harbour at Looe, where we had a gorgeous seafood Tapas lunch in a very unspectacular seafood café by the fishermen's trawlers. The woman in charge was so rude to everyone, it was actually hilarious, and I decided it was an act to get more people through the door just to watch her at work in this open kitchen! Del said she was forgiven for her bad manners and curtness because she was an amazing cook!

So, no thunderstorms that were promised to me 😞, we moved on to Plymouth. I have to confess, I didn't think there would be much to see here, but the city is vast and there was a lot to see. This photo was of The Hoe, which meant something important in olden days! I had to look it up... it meant high ground...😃! There was lots of lovely green grass and lots of phallic monuments along the coastline. I guess the Navy wanted tell the Armanda lots of hard ass men lived here! A lighthouse on The Hoe! There were lots of other examples, but I didn't want to bore you all.

We did eat at a very posh restaurant for lunch, though. A big glass dome building along the main seafront, and I chose it because it said Food Serves All Day, and I was starving... Turned out we were eating in the famous TV Chef Gary Rhodes' restaurant and the food was deelish! Just had to show the presentation of the tapas finger food - Very Posh Nosh. My dad loved Gary Rhodes on TV, so I thought it was befitting to have a meal here... my dad would have loved it!

This is the Tinside Lido on the seafront of Plymouth. We decided to go down there and check what the water temperature was so we could come back on a sunny day with our cozzies! The lady said, "16 degrees!" At first, I thought she must have said that wrong and stupidly asked, "So what's that in Celsius?” She kind of looked at me, puzzled, then said: "It's two degrees warmer than the sea! 16 Degrees!" As you can see, no one is mad enough to go in! They were a lot harder in the 1940s and 50s because there were pictures everywhere of the place being absolutely packed back then.

We then went on a boat trip. This island used to be a prison. I wasn't at all surprised. I find places like this really creepy, as it would have been a place of misery, suffering and death. I must be a little bit psychic or something, as I get this feeling a lot when we visit places like this. Another couple I didn't like was Bodmin Jail and the World War Two caves in Jersey.