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Live the adventures of Dan Walker's travels through reading his travel journal. The travel journals are listed below in descending order of date. To search the travel journals, use the keyword search at the bottom of the page.

Journal Entry:

Tuesday, July 30, 2019 10:12:50

Africa Great Migration, Ireland, England 2019: 8 - Newquay & home

Thursday, July 25, 2019

It was a lazy morning. Our room has a beautiful view over the ocean and beaches from above the cliffs. We finally got going a bit after 10:30 and strolled the main street until we found a place still serving breakfast – and a great breakfast it was. The rest of the day was spent wandering through the old town centre, and some of the four beaches in front of the town. Drinks were had here and there, ending at a place called Rebellion where the food and service were superb. It was also not a long stumble up the hill to our hotel.

Friday, July 26, 2019

St. Ives was recommended as worth seeing, so we caught the 10:15 train, changing to other trains at Par and St. Erth where connections were only a few minutes. It took 2 1/2 pleasant hours seeing a lot of the Cornish countryside. Par is on the ocean on the other side of the peninsula so we saw that as well.

St. Ives is a pleasant old city with streets barely wide enough for one car, so to get anywhere by vehicle was a tedious process. To make it worse, the town was swarming with tourists who clogged the streets. We walked down the shopping street, spent some time by the harbour and hit some of the pubs. This town has the most aggressive seagulls I have seen – one flew into the face of a small boy on a bench who had an ice cream cone, scaring the kid, grabbing his ice cream cone and flying off. I was enjoying a famous Cornish pasty when I got the same treatment – one minute I was holding it, the next minute it was gone.

The hike back to the station was a pretty brutal hill climb which was sadly lacking in pubs to seek nourishment. When we reached the station I bought an ice cream cone, had a couple of licks and was attacked by a seagull that came in unseen over my shoulder, grabbed the ice cream and kept going.

Back in Newquay the route from the station to our hotel went past the Rebellion, so we headed in again. The food and drinks are excellent. The bar manager, Tom, came out from the bar and said, "Hello Dan & Marilynn, welcome back. Can I get you the same as last night?" We were pretty impressed, having only met him the once, so stayed on to make a bit of a night of it. The locals are easy to meet, and a lot of fun, so we were always talking and laughing with someone.

Saturday, July 27, 2019

I had made a mistake in booking our hotel, with a check out date one day short, so tonight we booked the Marina Hotel about a block down the street, as the Kilbirnie was full. We checked out, left our luggage at reception in the Marina and walked the short distance back to town for breakfast. Marilynn did more shopping – prices here are very reasonable.

The plan today was to have a nice big seafood lunch, and skip dinner. The Fish House on a neighbouring beach was recommended, but the walk was about four kilometres up and down hills and we arrived exhausted to find that they were full, and had bookings up until 4 PM – it was only 12:30. The lady in charge was very kind, but couldn't do anything, so she called a taxi and escorted us to the road where we would be picked up. She also recommended we eat at the Harbour Grill, which had a patio with a fabulous view of the harbour, the town and the waterfront. The only problem was that the food was horrible.

They called a taxi for us- we were too sore for any more walking – to take us back to the Marina Hotel where we move suitcases into our room. The Kilbirni Hotel had an elevator, this one not, so we had to get someone to carry the bags up for us. After a rest and getting settled we walked back to the Rebellion where Tom said they were fully booked, but that they would find us a place on one of the animal skin covered sofas. We just had light snacks and some drinks, said goodbye to Tom, and walked up to where we had the fabulous sticky toffee pudding for desert and a nightcap.

Sunday, July 28, 2019

A pleasant taxi driver took us to the airport for our 10:55 flight on Flybe to London Heathrow. Another airport experience lurked within!! After waiting for a fellow to argue that his bag was the size for carry on, and proving it by shoving it into the hole they have for bags. It went in, but not the wheels, but too bad – they charged him 40 pounds to check the bag.

When it was our turn it was the same thing, 80 pounds extra charge for our two bags. The miserable woman at the counter said she worked for the airport, not the airline, and that was their policy. It didn't make any sense to me, but she also said that if we had paid the baggage charge in advance, it would have been 25 pounds per bag, something Expedia neglected to mention when we booked. They also did not mention that tickets one way are sold by the airline for as little as 29 pounds, where we paid $247 Canadian dollars.

About half the people at the airport were officious or just plain miserable, surprising for a town where everyone else was friendly and helpful. Should we return here from London I would take the train- a pleasant 6 hour trip, which is only 2 1/2 hours longer than a flight when including being at the airport 2 hours ahead for flights.

The plane was on time, and I quickly seized the only empty adjoining seats on the plane as soon as the doors closed so I could sit across two seats. We were bused to the terminal to get our suitcases. At the Heathrow Lufthansa lounge a passenger cart was arranged to drive us to security for our gate, which was severe but better than the last time. We were now ticketed all the way to Costa Rica.

Our arrival in Frankfurt was on time, and there was a jet-way so we didn't have to navigate stairs. We cleared security again and went to the Lufthansa lounge that also serves Condor passengers. A bus drove us miles to where the Condor A330 plane was parked for another hike up stairs. The seats reclined to almost flat, but were side by side as in planes without reclining seats - so there was no storage areas around the seats..

It was over 10 hours to reach Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, so we got some sleep. In Santo Domingo, a 1 1/2 hour stop, we were surprised to be required to leave the plane with all our belongings. It was down stairs from the plane to the biggest unwanted surprise - it was necessary to go through security again, shoes off and the whole routine. We spent the entire time standing in line for security in a secure transit area to get back onto the plane!! This definitely puts the flight into the "not recommended" category. There was little service during the final three hours to Costa Rica where we were very happy to walk off the plane in a jet-way and go through our very easy and friendly immigration and customs.

It was going on 5 AM Monday, July 29, when we received our suitcases, among the last to come out, which scared the heck out of us. Marilynn called our trusty caretaker, Carlos, getting him out of bed, to come and get us. It really felt good to be home.