Beer drunk: 330ml, Distance walked: a few miles, Time taken: couple of hours
Well my last B&B was officially the worst by a long way. All the others were at least average to good, with a few very good. This was just plain bad. The walls were tissue paper thin. The toddler turned out to be very well behaved. His father, on the other hand, snores. My bed was both soggy in the middle and had a slight tilt to one side so I spent the whole night bracing myself trying not to fall out. I woke (from my doze) with a painfully sore back.
As for breakfast, the best you could say is you could eat it. I don't think I can face a fried egg again for some time and I've almost managed to have too much bacon. It was a good thing I didn't want sugar in my coffee as the sugar basin was empty except for a few, dirty smudges.
I spent the morning puttering around Pendennis Point, looking at the castle first built by Henry VIII and the various gun emplacements that have been added since to protect the Falmouth estuary. I also spent some time watching 4 J class yachts sailing out the estuary to take part in a regatta further down the coast. These sailing ships are huge. They have over 7,500 square feet of sail and masts around as high as a 10+ storey building (that is a smallish one). Absolutely gorgeous to watch under sail.
I then made my way back to London by train, with 2 changes. It is good practice for tomorrow. A lot of time spent making sure you get to the departure point on time (since I had cheap tickets good for one particular train only) and then lots of time spent sitting around waiting for something to happen. I had a 20 minute wait for the train to Truro, then a 40 minute wait for my connection to Plymouth and then a -2 minute wait for my connection to London Paddington (which was exciting).
The Truro to Plymouth leg was horribly overcrowded (again shades of travel in cattle class). It turns out it is half-term break for several colleges/universities so the train was packed with students going home. I think there were signs saying not to pile luggage in the doorways but they were obscured by the piles of luggage, so I just added my suitcase to the heap. By the second stop the conductors were refusing to let people on if they had too much luggage or had prams. A man with a dog was allowed on. The English much prefer dogs to children. Did you know you can get life vests for your dog?
I'm staying at the Mercure Paddington which is literally next door to Paddington station. I can see it from my window. I think if I really, really saunter I can make the travel time from my hotel to the station for the train to Heathrow tomorrow take as much as 2 minutes. I had booked a single but they upgraded me to a small double. I shudder to think how small the single must have been if this room is bigger. I had perhaps 2 feet of space to one side of the bed and another 2 feet at the foot and that is it. However, I do have my own bathroom and it is ensuite so the world looks good to me.
I had dinner at the Ryath Indian Tandoori restaurant which was the first Indian place I found down a side street near the hotel. I've been meaning to try "genuine" Anglo-Indian food. I don't think I got it here as it seems to cater to tourists rather than Londoners and I suspect any self-respecting resident of the subcontinent would refuse to eat here. As it wasn't fish-based it all tasted good to me - except for the pistachio kulfi which was more like pistachio ice cream. Bummer.
In any case, it is airline/airport food for the next 24 hours so it was definitely better than what is in store for me.
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