The Great Western to an Enterprise

The Great Western is not a book or movie about the US western states. It is a railway franchise. which started in April 2006 with the former First Great Western, First Great Western Link and Wessex Trains businesses. It provides trains from London in the east to Brighton and Gatwick in the south, Carmarthen, Pembroke Dock and Penzance in the west and Banbury, Hereford and Worcester in the north. We booked a train on the Great Western to go to Truro in Cornwall. First Great Western train to Cornwall from Paddington Station in London. The destination: Truro, depart 10:06 (cost $222 or £130) We have a train ticket and a seat ticket which we picked up yesterday at the station. The seat reservation didn't cost anything.

17 March 2015

Bob set the alarm for 7:30 and he got up. I went to the bathroom and then decided that I needed to email Enterprise when we would be at the station to be picked up (trying to avoid having to figure out how to use the phone to make a call in England). After a struggle, I got dressed but I changed my mind several times about what was to go in my suitcase, much to Bob's disgust. I had decided that it would be foolish to try to walk to the station with baggage so Bob took some of the stuff over to the main lobby

PIcture in the hotel lobby

and told them that we wanted a cab. Then he came back and got me and the bellman came to help with the rest of the stuff. It was the same guy that helped us yesterday and since Bob had gotten some smaller bills when he went to the money exchnge yesterday, he was able to tip him £2.

The taxi came and loaded the scooter and Bob's big bag in the front seat and all the rest of the bags in the back. Bob and I were back there too. He took us to the station. Unfortunately the cab dropped us off at an upper level at a different entrance than what we went in yesterday. The luggage trolleys would have cost £1 so Bob put the computer bag on the scooter and I carried my pocket book and my cane, and he took his big brown bag, my little red bag and his green carryon. Since we did not know we were in a different place in the station, we went the wrong way and ended up at the subway trains

Bob going the wrong way with the luggage

We had to go back.

Elevator down from where the taxi dropped us

And someone had to explain that we had to take an elevator down. I got ahead of Bob and got to the assistance office first. When I got there, I could not reach the button door open button from the scooter so I reached out and punched it with my cane. The man sitting at a table next to the door thought that was cool. Bob came in and dumped the luggage and parked the scooter and we told them we were there.

Inside the handicapped waiting room

Originally we were going to get breakfast from Burger King or McDonalds. But Bob did not walk back there to get something. Instead he went to a place next door to the handicapped waiting room and got some fruit yogurt thing for us to eat for breakfast.

Five Berry Pret Pot - yoghurt, fruit and granola

Napkin with recycling information

Of course he did not yet know that Porridge was the English for hot oatmeal. There were lots of other things he could have gotten which I would have liked better. For instance, breakfast rolls and croissants.

At about 9:30 they came and got us and loaded the luggage onto a golf cart/tram vehicle. There was an old lady and her bag on it already, and they picked up another old lady with a walker. With the two ladies and Bob and all the luggage, there was no room for me or the scooter, so I just followed him.

Cart ahead of me with two ladies and Bob

Tramcar ahead of me unloading an old lady

The tram was very fast - even at the highest rabbit setting, I couldn't keep up but I could catch up when he stopped to offload the old ladies.

Tanking sign on a train

First he put one old lady in first class (coach K). Then the other old lady was in one of the other cars.

Keep your bikes safe

We were in car C at the front,

Directions for handicapped on the train

and he helped us on with our luggage, which was good.

Scooter and our bags at the front of the car

We are sitting in the front of the car and there is a plug and wi-fi on the train.

Plug for the computer

Leaving the station

Reading station

But as we got farther from London, the wi-fi got slower and slower. I got the Goggle maps on my phone to follow our progress, but then I decided that I needed to get the GPS out of my suitcase. I tried to get it started when it was attached to the computer, but it would not turn on. It wouldn't turn on until I unplugged it from the computer.

I went into the bathroom. I had to push OPEN on the panel beside the door in order to unlock it and get out. Took me a couple of tries to figure that out.

Locked door

It was hard to take photos from the train because of reflections. In order to avoid hot spots from the flash, the pictures tended to be blurred from the movement of the train. We went by fields, and gardens, churches and cows and sheep.

Cows and horses

Church

Plymouth station

We saw a river with boats

Crossing a river

Blurred photo

and also where the tide was out and the boats were sitting on the mud.

We saw fields of daffodils that seemed to be growing wild. Bob claimed that he never had to memorize any poems and hadn't had to memorize the Wordsworth poem about daffodils which starts
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

At lunchtime Bob went down to the dining car and brought back a bacon baguette (which was good)

Bacon baguette

and bottle of

Cranberry crush

which was awful. It was carbonated and had rose water and vanilla in it. The train stopped at Bodmin Parkway.

Bodmin Parkway Station

Normally to go to Port Isaac, you would get off at Bodmin Parkway and Enterprise would pick you up there and when you were ready to leave, they would drop you off at the station again.

Bodmin Parkway

But we were coming in by train and leaving by airplane, and the Bodmin Enterprise would not take us to the Newquay airport. Geoff_Wright (of VT) called Enterprise in Truro for me and put me in touch with Christopher Bell. So we are going on to Truro to get a rental car from Enterprise which will take us to the airport after our visit. We got to Truro about 2:30 - Bob got us off the train without much help (I hadn't asked for any).

Truto station

Truro station map

There is also a Hertz rental car place in the station but of course we would have had to return the car to the station.

Pumpkin Cafe at another station

I got down to the station exit and they wanted to see my ticket, but I had put it away in my pocketbook which was under the scooter seat. I must have looked harmless, because they let us out without collecting our tickets. They had to manually let me through the gate anyway. David, the guy from Enterprise was there. He gave us a Vauxhill and took us back to the office.

Driving to Enterprise

Their office (should you want to go there) is Newham Road Industrial Estate, Newham Road, Truro, Cornwall TR1 2SU.

Map from their website

The car has a GPS,

GPS in the car

but it was almost impossible for me to set. Bob kept driving really close to the left side of the road - sometimes scraping the tires on the curb.

Eventually I got out my own GPS in order to see what was going on. Every now and then my GPS would say turn right and the other GPS would say turn left.

Driving to Port Isaac

We were on the A30 which was OK and then A39 - also OK. Then we turned on B3314 and the road was almost wide enough for the car. We did meet one car. I didn't take any photos during this part of the trip. We drove 12 miles that way and eventually ended up in Port Isaac. We found the hotel and went in through the bar.

Door to the bar

There are 10 rooms and the manager stays in one of them. There are two of us staying here - a lady and her daughter (I think) from Wales. But this is off-season and they are not filming now.

From where we parked to unload the car

When I made the reservations, I asked for as few steps as possible and they emailed me before we came and were concerned because all the rooms are up at least one flight of steps. But I really wanted to stay in the middle of Port Isaac, and that is where this hotel is, so I was willing (and able) to do the one flight of steps. We were on the first floor (English first floor - really second floor). We had a little balcony

Window onto the balcony

and could see part of the harbour

From our window with the tide in

and the hill up to where Doc Martin's house (in the TV series) is located.

View from the balcony of the cliff path

Looking down

This is a very old building. It dates back to 1527 and is located across from the fishing harbor. Originally, it was a ship's chandlery in the 19th century selling all types of ship supplies and provisions out of what is now the two tiered restaurant. The Slipway was converted into a hotel in the mid twentieth century and has been gradually upgraded into its present state. Some reviews complain that the decor is 'dated'. But in my opinion the decor is just right for the age of the building.

Bob sitting in a chair next to the TV in our room

The internet was good in our room although the stone walls are so thick that some people need to go to the lounge to get a signal. We had a tea making set-up in the room, and a TV.

TV and tea set-up

Initially Bob couldn't figure out how to turn on the TV. There was a switch but it didn't come on right away.

Toilet and sink - shower is on the left

Shower in our room

The bathroom is small but it was perfectly adequate for our needs. Breakfast at the hotel is 8:30-9:30 and is included in the price. Staff was all very friendly and helpful.

There is no parking at the hotel. You have to park at the top of the town in a car park for £5 a day. Bob brought the suitcases up and then I suggested that he drive the car up to the car park and ride the scooter back. Which he did although he said he got lost once and he said he had to fold the scooter up once to get through some

scaffolding

We had dinner here.

Upper Dining room

We didn't even have to do steps as we ate in the upper dining room. Before the dinner they brought out the

Bread board

I had the

Chicken liver parfait-caramelized red onion and oatcake

as a starter and

Mushroom risotto

as the main dish. Bob had the soup of the day (Celeriac). He liked the soup so well that he wanted to know how to make it at home. He also had

Fish and chips and mushy peas

Tomorrow we will do the Doc Martin tour