Cornwall - the REAL one

Saturday - Noise and I took a bus to the car rental place and picked up a brand new Skoda for our trip to Cornwall. With the help of Auto-Route (Streets and Trips for Europe) we navigated our way to Buggy's sitter and out of London without any muss or fuss.

Our drive to Penzance took longer than we expected - there were several bottle-necks on the highway. As the highway moved from 4-laner to 2-laner and back, traffic slowed to a standstill. And around Salisbury traffic was very slow because everyone was rubber-necking to see a pile of rocks beside the highway. Don't know what all the fuss was about - it's not like it's something new to see.

We arrived in Penzance in the late afternoon and checked into our B&B (Chiverton House). We had chosen it partly because it is close to the promenade on the seawall so before dinner we walked down to the ocean and enjoyed watching the surf splashing up over the wall. we also visited the obligatory Pirate Gift Shop (Penzance, you know) but refrained from purchasing anything. We had dinner at Turk's Head, a pub dating back to 1233 - the oldest pub in Penzance. After dinner we walked around the town and marvelled at the palm trees lining some of the streets.

Sunday - After a scrumptious full breakfast at the B&B, we headed first to Mousehole, a little community clustered around a small harbour, up the coast from Penzance. Then we trusted the GPS and headed overland toward Land's End, the most westerly point in England. We travelled on some roads today that were barely wide enough for our car, let alone to meet another car (which we did on several occasions). We had to do some serious squeezing, jockeying and a bit of backing up to negotiate some of the encounters. We even had to fold in the side mirrors a couple of times. We would never had tried to navigate this route except the GPS kept telling us we were on the green route (the route we had laid out the night before).

We made a stop at Sennen Cove and walked on the beach - a beautiful, broad sand beach with enough surf that there were surfers. Then we started off for St. Ives. Only when we had completed the nursery rhyme did we realize that we had missed the turn and had to go back. At St. Ives we parked about a 10-minute walk above the town (straight down - and straight up on the way back!!). We walked down to the harbour, had Cornish pasties for lunch and ice cream for dessert. Then we climbed the mountain back to the car and were on the road again.

Off to Tintagel - on this route we encountered the scariest narrow and steep roads of the day. However, we arrived in one piece and set of to tour the castle ruins where King Arthur is purported to have been born. It is a fascinating site, perched on the side and top of a huge island mountain. The trek was a lawyer's dream - very steep and dangerous. The stone steps (about 3,000 of them) were very uneven and slippery (it had been raining) but the view from the top was worth the climb.

Then back in the car for a short drive to Boscastle where we have a reservation at the Riverside Hotel. We had a wonderful dinner of roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, lots of potatoes and six vegetables. We all had dessert as well, with clotted cream. We thought we'd climbed enough steps today to justify the calories.

Off to bed now - tomorrow we have breakfast at the hotel and then Clovelly and back to London.