Making a house call

Wednesday dawned overcast, having rained in the night, and temperatures down a little. Undeterred we put on shorts and T-shirts, willing the sun to come out. (Warm clothes were duly put in the packback, just in case. Good forward planning paid off as we both changed as soon as we got to our destination as it was pretty cold)

This was a day that we both had looked forward to with anticipation as we went to visit Port Isaac, aka Port Wenn, the setting for the TV series, Doc Martin.

And we were not disappointed. Despite reading about how difficult parking is, get there early to not miss out, we found plenty of spaces and the 1km walk to the actual village wasn’t that hard. We’d read about how steep the streets were so were a little worried. Afterwards we both wondered what the fuss was about. St Ives, and even Torquay, was more of a challenge than Port Isaac.

Upon arriving in the village Brent cheekily asked a chap walking in the same direction as us if a particular house we’d spotted was the Doctor’s house and it turned out he was the local guide. He gives guided tours of the town but we opted to not take one (claiming we didn’t have 1.5. hours to spare) but he very kindly took us to a shop to buy a map of the tour which had all the houses used in filming marked and then he took us to a little back street and told us that lots of people don’t even know to go down the alley, which opens up a whole other area of the town, including the house where “Aunt Ruth” “lives”. It was so awesome that he explained a few things to us, for free.

A sentiment shared by many, I’m sure, in these small seaside popular tourist spots

Is the Doc available? He didn’t appear to be home when Brent popped by

On a local “footpath” – very pretty with the wildflowers but need to avoid getting tangled

Known as Squeez-ee Belly Alley, less than 50 cm wide at its narrowest point

Brent is clearly less than 50 cm wide at his widest point

The school where Louisa teaches. Just around the corner from her house, actually. (I know it’s fictional)

Aunt Ruth’s house, just along from Squeez-ee Belly Alley

Mrs Tishell’s Pharmacy, which is actually a sweet/gift shop.

The house on the lower side of the hill is Bert’s restaurant and the house second from top is Doc Martin’s

Once we’d finished exploring Port Isaac and done with “wow”ing about how gorgeous it is we headed to another iconic Cornish town – Padstow – renowned for being a town where Rick Stein has a restaurant, cafe and bakery. We don’t watch Rick Stein shows but know of him, so we weren’t particularly bothered.

From Port Isaac it’s quite a drive to Padstow, so we opted to drive to a closer town, Rock, which is directly opposite Padstow. We had lunch in a cafe in Rock before catching the ferry to Padstow. It’s very similar to many of the other seaside villages we have been to in Cornwall – all centred round the harbour, narrow, windy streets and expensive ice creams.