Day Sixteen from Miriam - Chocolate, Polperro, and Newquay

Today started with a bus ride.  On the ride, Dr. Durham asks puzzlers.

Today's puzzler:

How many times do the minute and hour hands on a clock align in a day?

The winner:

Me.  :)

The prize:

It was a good day for chocolate.  We stopped at a gas station, and found Kinder Happy Hippos and Surprises.  Melissa's never had a Happy Hippo, so I was really excited for her to try one.

It's kind of like like Nutella in a hippo-shaped cookie shell.

Or heaven in a hippo-shaped cookie shell.

Take your pick.

Then, there was the Kinder Surprise.  We'd had these when we were really little, and were super excited to have them again!

As the wrapper on our long-ago childhood Surprises said, MMMMMMMMHHH!!!!

There is just something so magical about them!

Then, we arrived at Polperro.

BRACE YOURSELVES.

PICTURES ARE COMING.

I'm not sure which I love more, the fact that they have a Harbour and Smuggling Museum, or the fact that I just found Toad Hall.

The water behind me comes from the channel!

We found a house COVERED in seashells!

Story time.  So, I got splattered by a seagull.

Grossest.  Thing.  Ever.

While my friends were helping me clean up, it sat on the roof nearby and made a laughing sound.

Pure evil.

Not sure if this is the same seagull, but just look at those evil eyes.

PURE EVIL.

Moving on from THAT.

Pictures don't do Polperro justice, so I took a video.

OH MY HEAVENS.  I JUST RE-WATCHED IT.  HELLO.  I'M GETTING A BRITISH ACCENT!!!!

DOGGIES!!!!

I climbed out on a rocky outcrop looking over the water, and took a little video.  My voice is a little less British-y in this one.

I climbed out farther to the farthest outcrop, but it was some serious rock climbing (like, think sheer cliffs with minimal handholds) so I had to leave my bag and phone behind.  Ergo, no pics.

There was a nice gentleman out on the outcrop that helped anyone who needed a hand to get back (I didn't need help, brag brag), because he said the tide would come in soon and cover the farthest outcrop and anyone out there would be sucked away by the powerful current and drown.

In other news, glad I'm a good rock climber.

The farthest outcrop is obscured by the peak you see above the building in the pic below.  But you can imagine it.  Sheer and craggy.

Oh, remember Roly's Fudge from an earlier pic?  On the way back through town, we stopped and tried some Cornish sea salt and banana fudge.  Mmmmmm!

Oh, and we tried Cornish ice cream for the first time.  I've found it's common practice to order your ice cream with clotted cream heaped on top and a giant chocolate flake stuck in it.

HEAVEN.

Oh hey.  They claim to sell battered seagull.

I think I have a seagull to donate to the cause.  I met him earlier today.  He was evil.  He would make great battered seagull.

OK OK OK.  BREATHE.  MY FIRST EVER SCONE WITH JAM AND CLOTTED CREAM.  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

The streets look like they came out of a storybook.  Or Disneyland.

Oh hey.  That's me on that lovely bridge there.  There's lovely scenery, and I'm in it.  I'm actually there.

OK, this was interesting.  This hand washer is totally automatic.  If you can get your hands in just the right spot, it gives you a squirt of soap, a spray of water, and a burst of air.  It does it all.  All, that is, except let you control what part of the cycle you are in.

Great idea, unless you got dive-bombed by a seagull and you just want LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of water and a hearty amount of soap to clean yourself off.  Then, it is the worst thing in the world.

I think I impatiently waited through like three cycles trying to frantically splash myself with soap and water whenever they were generous enough to grace me with their presence.  AAaaARrGHhhh...

Oh, this is what we drove through for hours.  Nbd.

Note to self: if the bus crashes and the doors are stuck shut and the bus is on fire and all you have to smash the thick glass windows is a little plastic torpedo on a gas pump handle, PRAY.  YOU ARE GOING TO DIE.

We arrived at Newquay in the afternoon.

We started with a room on the 3rd floor (which, since the ground floor in England is floor 0, means we were really on the 4th floor).  This was the view from the window (squished by your friendly local panoramic).

I think I found Narnia in the wardrobe.

Mr. Tumnus, is that you?

Then, we got moved to a room on the 1st floor (read: 2nd floor) because the lift was broken and stairs were not Melissa's friend.  We had a door that opened right out onto a tide-swept balcony.

More squishy panoramics:

We went for a stroll and found these funky trees.  They have a palm tree-like air about them, but their trunks almost looked like pine trees.  Anybody know what these are?

We finished the day with a walk on a lane overlooking the beach.  How glorious it is.

Peace and love, everyone.