Cardiff to Looe

Another day of huge contrasts-both in scenery and in our moods! We breakfasted at the lovely Raddison Bleu hotel and set off towards Cardiff Castle. By chance we came upon Cardiff Arms Stadium, to David’s delight. We carried on for what seemed a short distance to view the castle from its gates. We then spent the rest of the morning retracing our steps from last night and David did some good shopping in House of Fraser. The shops were lovely, especially the huge John Lewis department store which really was lovely. We had lunch at Wagamamas and it was delicious. We then collected our bags and caught the bus out to the airport, all of which went smoothly. We arrived at the car rental office to spend a most frustrating hour waiting for service by a very incompetent worker and the whole place seemed so disorganised. An hour later we finally left for Looe. Our GPS said we would arrive at 6 30 which was a three hour trip. However the traffic from the spectacular Severn Bridge was horrendous until it was barely moving. We were in queues of traffic for at least an hour with huge trucks and cars converging from all directions. We realised that the big intersection of roads south and to London was the issue and it was Friday afternoon. Goodness knows where everyone was going! Worst traffic we have stuck and we were yet to face the later challenge of very dark, narrow winding roads as we followed the GPS to Looe. Even then there seemed to be a lot of traffic and everyone was driving with their lights on full as it was like driving through dark tunnels created by trees over the roads. We were exhausted by the time we got to Loee at 8 15 and we then had a bit of a mission finding Clara’s Cottage. However we were rewarded with the best B and B yet. It is the cutest little two storey cottage up a very steep street. It has all we want, even a welcoming hamper! We were starving so left for the walk back into town. As the town is on two sides of a river we crossed the bridge and dined at a small pub there. The manager gave us some tips on things to do in Looe and by dark it all seemed very cool with lighting along both sides of the river. We look forward to seeing it in the daylight.Read more