England #11 – wandering around Port Isaac (part 2)

note: this is actually a trip that my bff Kim and I took to England last May – I’ve been posting entries on PB and am copying them here. This is actually the last one I’m behind with, despite it being EIGHT MONTHS AGO. Now I’ll be able to update in real time, which seems appropriate considering that OD is now publicly online for us all. 

Part 1 of Port Isaac is back one entry, detailing our immense difficulty in actually finding Port Isaac thanks to the Google Maps GPS From Hell. Port Isaac was well worth the effort to find, though. This entry is just to post 232,563 more photos. I am shocked at myself for actually making two entries in a row, but I am, bizarrely, bored out of my mind at work, and the boredom is coming to a screeching halt tomorrow so better do it while I can.

Port Isaac is not just Doc Martin’s TV home – it’s an actual fishing village with actual fishing / boating stuff.

These were some sort of seacreature-catching things that I could see out the window of the public bathroom:

(just a note ages later… these are lobster traps and they actually do feature in the opening scenes in Doc Martin! Apparently they were stored here for future reference, and to be viewed out the bathroom window).

However, they do know what brings in the tourists!

Doc Martin’s house!! It was bizarrely small in reality, and quite sparse on the outside:

But, how exciting to see it in person! So exciting that I texted a picture to Baker B. Unfortunately we didn’t have a phone signal at the time (I also tried to call him) and since he never texts he didn’t even realize I’d sent it till ages later. Then he’s all, “how did Doc Martin’s house get on my phone??!!??”

Despite it being quite small, I still couldn’t get a really good picture of it head-on because the little road in front is very narrow and you can’t get far enough away without falling over the cliff.

It has a gorgeous view:

So after that, we just walked all around. I didn’t recognize a lot of other buildings from the show, but here’s Mrs. Tishell’s Pharmacy! She’s the crazy woman who is inexplicably obsessed with the surly Doc Martin.

OMG— I have JUST realized, while looking at that picture to see how you spell Tishell, that I actually have, right here at work, a label from the Buttermilk Confectionery that I bought not long ago at TJ Maxx, here in Boone- I bought it solely because I saw it was made in Cornwall, and then after I’d eaten so much of the candy that I had to throw the rest away, I saw that it’s manufactured in Bodmin, of all things – how weird to find candy made in Bodmin in a TJ Maxx in Boone NC! So of course I kept the label and texted a picture of it to Kim.

Okay, now I’ve spent forever trying to find it on my camera roll in Flickr, and my mobile Flickr has suddenly and inexplicably decided that everything there is outside my Safe Settings (??? WTF, Flickr???) and apparently I can not post this picture so, FINE, you’ll just have to take my word for it. Buttermilk sells candy all over the universe! We went inside and bought little souvenirs and chatted with the friendly shopkeeper, who told us how they clear out everything when they are filming Doc Martin and using their shop for the chemists, and then they put it all back as soon as they are done. Over and over and over.

More hilly walking for poor Kim!

Alas, we finally did have to leave Port Isaac, and drive back to Bodmin. Using the ancient GPS so getting there in about half an hour, instead of two and a half. We spotted an Indian restaurant –Viraj – and decided to dine there instead of having our usual pub fare. It looked like a dive on the outside, but actually was really nice. And reasonably priced. And very good! We split a couple of dishes- Tiger Prawn and Massala, and more Tiger Prawn Malabri , with rice and nan bread and Cobra beer.

Next stop, Land’s End!