Coasting around Cornwall

We left Plymouth on a lovely sunny morning and not too far down the road we saw a sign to Restormel Castle.  "Hmmm" said Matt.  "That's interesting, Restormel is one of the original shell keeps.  I'd like to see that".  Well lucky Matt, it was an English Heritage property so didn't cost us anything additional once we produced those magic OS Visitor Passes.   Unfortunately no photos as my camera and SurfacePro seem to have stopped talking to each other...Microsoft swears it's nothing to do with the software upgrade but I'm not convinced!

Leaving Restormel we drove on towards pirate and pendragon country.  Our first stop was planned to be a trip to St Michaels Mont.  It was not to be as the parking outside the village was already full to overflowing - so we drove through Marazion and back to Penzance where somehow, despite all the "summer" visitors we'd managed to score a sea-view room at the Union Hotel.

View of St Michaels Mont from our room in the Union Hotel

Tropical flowers in Morab Gardens, Penzance

The Union Hotel was once where Society went to be seen and it was during a ball here that the English victory at the battle of Trafalgar (1805) was announced.  You can also still see scorch marks on the wall from when the Spanish invaded in 1595!  We were sorry to only have one night here as we would have liked some time to sit and enjoy the view.

We enjoyed strolling around the town and admired the Morab Gardens for their collection of tropical plants (how did they not die of cold?) and managed to tee up somewhere to stay the next night (phew!  I was getting worried).

The following day we spent traveling to several sites of interest to us and every other tourist.  Our first stop was in the lovely little town of Mousehole.  Charles de Lint set his wonderful book "The Little Country" in and around this area so I enjoyed prowling the streets which he wrote of so evocatively.  This not being able to download photos is getting frustrating!  Luckily I took a few on my phone of some (by no means all) of the spots we visited.

Next up was the clifftop theatre of Minack.  We didn't get blown off the edge and did get to hear an actor declaiming the story of Rowena Cade and how she built her theatre.  A true English eccentric!

The weather was fairly ordinary but we couldn't miss a stop at Lands End.  I finally had a cream tea and discovered with disgust there were THINGS in the scones.  Squashed flies maybe?

You can see exactly what I think of sultanas in scones!

Unfortunately I was feeling a bit under the weather so we returned to the Yacht Hotel, our evening's home from home and I took to my bed.

The Yacht.

Saturday saw us braving the weather yet again and heading for Tintagel, a spot I've wanted to visit since I was a small child and first becoming fascinated with the legends of King Arthur.

I've stolen this picture because all mine are on the camera that won't be connected!  Grrr.  You'll have to imagine it in the pouring rain and the surfaces as slippery as soap (just ask Matt...).  It was very atmospheric in the stormy weather but I would have been just as impressed in the sun!

We stayed the night at the delightful - and truly elegant - Bossiney House Hotel where we again had a room with a wonderful view of the water - while the sun came out briefly we weren't convinced it would stay!