Today was a very exciting day!  Dad and I started the day with a run up the steep hills of Port Isaac and along the top of the beautiful cliffs, little did we know that the track we were following would end up taking us through river crossings, dense prickly bushes, and mud puddles! Safe to say our nice clean runners were not as nice and clean by the end of it!! But, we did see some lovely parts of Port Isaac! 

 A view from the cliff top!  

 Sunshine!

  This is the world’s second smallest road! It used to be the smallest, until one in Germany ‘over took’ it. It’s in the Guinness World book of records! 

After washing all the mud off, we went on a walking talking Doc Martin tour of Port Isaac! It was so awesome! We learnt so much about how they film it, and we even got told a little bit of a sneak peak as to what’s coming in the season they’re currently filming! We also learnt that one of the actors (Bert Large, played by Ian McNeice) is staying in the village at the moment. Which is interesting because earlier today when we were strolling around the village, Tess had remarked that she saw someone who looked similar to him! Maybe it actually was him!! The tour guide had two dogs and Tess and I got to walk them whilst on the tour! The tour took us to many different sights around the town. We learnt that Doc Martin’s surgery is actually owned by an Australian person! The film crew aren’t allowed to actually block off roads, so they just have to apologise when they are blocking people way, they often give out bottles of wine as a way of saying sorry to the surrounding shop keepers for the disturbance. They were not filming while we were there, but they have been in the last few days and they will most likely be back in the next few weeks! For those of you who are fellow Doc Martin watchers, you may have noticed that it is always bright and sunny in the show. This is most definitely not the case in real life! So the film crew have to set up big machines that make ‘artificial’ sunlight! The chemist shop in the show is actually a fudge shop in real life, so when they film scenes in the chemist, this is what they do:

1. Take a photo of the shop so they know where to replace things once they’ve finished.
2. Take everything out of the shop.
3. Put all the chemist props in.
4. Unhinge the door! Because after the show had started, the shop owner decided to replace the door, Doc Martin filming crew decided that just wouldn’t do, so they bought the old door off the shop owner and now, every time they film in there, they have to hang the old door!
5. Hang the old door.
6. Film the scene.
7. Reverse these steps!

A very involved process! 

Many of the locals have been cast as extras, our tour guide had not been for Doc Martin, but he had for a movie, Saving Grace, which was also filmed here. Anyway, now I’m just waffling…

So after the tour, we jumped in the car and drove out of Port Isaac, trying not to knock over anyone on the narrow roads with no footpaths! (ruddy tourists!) We went to Lanhydrock Castle. It was so grand inside, and out, as are most castles in the UK. The gardens were absolutely magnificent! They way they did the displays inside was really good, too! They had real food on display, and instead of having signs up everywhere, they wrote little bits of information on things like tea towels, and uncooked pastry tarts! 

  The front of the castle.

 The beautiful gardens!
   This cool marble makes an ideal surface for pastry rolling.

 Milk was delivered to this busy room twice a day from Home Farm for the vast quantaties of butter and cream made here.

Following our visit to the castle, we went on to a place called The Eden Project! The Eden Project is so amazing! It’s a series of bubbles that contain, in a way, different worlds! One set of bubbles held a tropical rainforest (it was very warm!) and the other, The Mediterranean! 

  The biomes!

  It was so hot in the rainforest, in fact, that they had a cool room! 

   Tess and a waterfall in the rainforest!

  Trekking through a rainforest!

 The Mediterranean!

  Chilling in the Mediterranean…

After the Eden Project, we went to  where we had yummy English fish ‘n’ chips by the sea. 

   The location of our fish and chip eating!

 The English chip fork.
When we got back to Port Isaac, we went to the pub from Doc Martin for a little bit, it was the perfect way to end another fantastic day!

  The balcony at the pub.

Tara.