England #12 – a meetup in Penzance and tour of surrounding areas.

I am starting to think I will never ever get done with this – we took the trip in MAY!!! Both prior trips I moaned about how long it was taking me to write up my travelogues. The first trip, in 2010, took 2 1/2 months. That was awful, I said!!! The second trip, in 2013, took six months. At least it didn’t drag into the next year!!! I said (we went in June and I finished writing about it December 30). This time not only has it drug into the next year, it’s beginning to look like I’m going to lap myself and STILL be writing about it a year after I went. Oh, well! I wouldn’t mind so much, but I’m afraid I won’t remember important things. I did keep a paper journal, fortunately. (On the plus side, I am FINALLY caught up with what I’ve already posted on Prosebox so am posting as I write them now.)

OK. So on we go, to Penzance, with sidetrips to Land’s End and Marazion. We had the only meet-up of the trip in Penzance, and he was the brother-in-law of a friend of Kim’s. Nobody from PB or OD! We almost got to meet Ermentrude, a PBer we were quite near during the second week, but sadly it didn’t work out since she could only meet up on the weekend and we weren’t in her area either weekend. And we’d really hoped Marg could join us again- she came all the way from Scotland to Nottingham on our first trip! – but her health forbade it, sadly again. Next time!!

Kim’s friend, a former co-worker, is from England, and her brother-in-law Michael lives in Penzance. It’s a terribly sad story, though. His wife, Kim’s friend’s sister, died of ovarian cancer about eight years ago. It was very sudden and unexpected, and she was only 54. Michael had just retired – he’s 74 now- and he clearly is not over losing his wife. I honestly think Kim’s friend had hopes of them hitting it off, as she’d been VERY insistent with both Kim and Michael about us getting together. She’d also tried unsuccessfully to get him together with another woman they worked with who had lost her husband very suddenly from an apparent heart attack at 49. He did not seem at all interested in romance, and talked quite a lot about his late wife- not as weird as it may sound, as Kim knew her sister, but clearly he wasn’t on the market. Regardless of intent, I’m glad we met him – he was incredibly nice, and we enjoyed having an outing with him. I also enjoyed having someone else drive for a bit. As much as I loved driving, it was reallynice to just sit back and gaze at the gorgeous scenery.

It’s a straight shoot from Bodmin to Penzance on the A30 and only took an hour. We met Michael at his house, right off the A30, so it was easy to find and we had no GPS misdirection drama. He was very welcoming and gracious, which was a relief as we’d both been a little afraid his SIL had forced him to meet us! After a drive down to the waterfront area in Penzance, which is yet another gorgeous harbor town, he drove us on out to Land’s End.

Land’s End is not just an online clothing retailer – it’s the most south-westerly point in mainland Britain, and is made up of breathtaking 200-foot granite cliffs and astonishing views. Oddly it also seems to be a massive tourist trap full of garish kiddy stuff, at least in the little welcome-center area that you can see behind us here:

The path to the very farthest point, looking back towards the entrance.

First and last Refreshment House in England!

And the first and last postbox in England:

The views were breathtaking-

The Isles of Scilly in the distance. Michael retired from the Navy, and had worked at the lighthouse.

After a quick drive into the teeny town of Seenan, which is where Land’s End is, we went back to Penzance, and bought Michael lunch as thanks for being our tour guide and driver. We ate at the Dolphin Tavern, which is his hangout. I had a Cranberry and Brie sandwich and a salad, and….sparkling water, because Michael was VERY concerned about me having a pint before driving!! Yikes. I wouldn’t have two, but one was fine. But whatever, I stuck with sparkling water.

All of us, with me in the middle thinking I WANT A PINT, DAMMIT!!!:

After lunch, we …. ummm…. lied!!! And said we had to get back to Bodmin for some unspecified appointment. Because although it was SO nice to meet Michael and get a tour, by then we were ready to get back to exploring on our own. I’m sure he was fine with getting back to his own stuff too, since he spent quite some time with us. So we said our goodbyes, and …. zipped over to Marazion, about 10 minutes away. Because although I’d have loved to see more of Penzance, we didn’t want to say we were leaving then run right back into him!

That meant I didn’t get very many pictures of Penzance. It’s very pretty and on the list to go back to.

This was really interesting – it’s the Art Deco Jubilee Pool, which is one of the few open-air pools left in England, and opened in the 1930s. It had been seriously damaged by storms during the winter, and had been closed, but it looks like it opened back up again after we were there.

Marazion is home to St Michael’s Mount (oddly just realized the shared name), which is actually a civil parish where about 35 people live. There’s a castle and a priory, home to the same family since the 1650s, and the oldest buildings date back to the 12th century. I’d LOVE to see it – again, next trip – but sadly it’s National Trust, not National Heritage, so we didn’t have the free pass, and it was 10 pounds to see the castle and 8 to see the gardens, plus two pounds to get the boat over since the tide was in (you can walk at low tide), and since it was already 3:00 we decided against it.

It’s really impressive to view from a distance, though:

There’s the causeway you can walk to it on when the tide is out:

So we walked down the very seaweedy beach from the parking area to the town-

It’s yet another pretty little town that I’d love to see more of:

And of course we stopped in at the King’s Arms, and had our delayed pints-

Then it was back to Bodmin for a stroll around town and dinner at The Weavers (fish pie, which was really more mashed potato with fish in it and a cheesy crust, but was quite good).

I need to post some Bodmin pictures, but this was REALLY REALLY LONG so I’ll do that later.