Our Grand Tour of Europe

Saturday, June 26

Charley left our flat on Elizabeth Street about 9:30 am—he decided to walk to the Marble Arch to pick up our rental car. Kelly and I finished packing and made a quick trip over to the post office on Eccleston Street to mail two packages of books back home (about ₤7 each). I was nervous about Charley getting the car, driving back by himself and navigating the one-way streets, and then finding a parking place near the flat. This would be his first drive in an English car and on English roads for two years. When Charley hadn’t arrived at 11:00 am, Kelly and I got very anxious and took turns looking out the window. Not long after that, Agnes arrived to start cleaning the flat—she was very nice… turned out she was from Poland and has been in England about four years. She works as a nanny for some friends of Penny, the owner of the flat.

Then about 11:20 am, there was Charley—everything had gone just fine and he was actually quite proud of his success in getting back to Elizabeth Street and then lucking into a parking place right in front of our building. He had waited till 11:00 am to pick up the car so our timing would work out on the return in Carlisle six weeks from now and we wouldn’t have to pay for an extra day. He was also able to get a free upgrade, which we really needed because of our three big duffel bags. Our car is a Vauxhall Vectra, kind of a silver blue color. It was sprinkling a bit of rain when we loaded the car, so it was helpful to be close while we (mainly Charley) hauled our bags down the three flights of steps and out to the street. Our three big bags and two of the backpacks fit perfectly in the trunk. Then there’s plenty of room for Kelly in the back with the computer bag and her backpack. We also now have a supplies/food bag, my trusty fold-up Harrods bag that I bought on our honeymoon.

The ViaMichelin website said it would be 293 miles-- about 5-1/2 hours—to get from Elizabeth Street to Mousehole. We left Elizabeth Street about 11:30 am… and arrived in Mousehole at 9:30 pm, just before dark—a ten-hour trip. We only made two short stops along the way. It was initially a bit slow getting out of London, and then the road (the A303) that we were to travel on much of the way was closed near Salisbury; we were diverted to the A30, a parallel route just to the south. Then there was a big problem on the A30… we poked along and stopped/started for about 25 miles… maybe 2-1/2 hours on this one small stretch! Horrible! Kelly had a decent time, because she finished three books on the journey. I was also disappointed because the A303 went right by Stonehenge, which would have been neat to see on the side of the road. We did get a good view of Salisbury Cathedral though (the tallest spire in England)… Charley and I had visited there on a day-tour on our honeymoon.

We couldn’t find a place to get a meal… we had only a snack (foraged from the food bag) for lunch, and Kelly was getting almost frantically hungry. There weren’t fast food places at “exits” like we’re used to in America except for a bland chain called Little Chef, which didn’t appeal to us. At one point Kelly saw a Pizza Hut in a town and desperately wanted to stop—we would have had to park a ways away and walk back into the town center, which Charley and I did not want to do. Kelly was devastated! Finally we ended up stopping at a big Tesco somewhere. We raced through the store to get things to make sandwiches. (At one point Kelly asked a store manager where to find chips and was directed to the frozen food section—we keep forgetting that potato chips are “crisps” here and “chips” are what we call french fries.) We made sandwiches (and a bit of a mess) in the car and ate most of our meal in the parking lot. Finally the A30 became four lane and we made good time, though the weather was odd and alternated fog, rain and clear skies. As we drove through Cornwall, the scenery changed considerably. We were especially intrigued by several what we called “windmill farms”—groups of huge windmills standing at the tops of high barren hills, generating electricity. Many people think these ruin the landscape, but we think they are actually beautiful!

It was almost dark when we got to Mousehole. We passed through Penzance, which seemed quite large and reminded me of an old beach town like Nags Head—though obviously Penzance is much older. There was some type of carnival in Penzance, so we were diverted off the main road through the town there also.

We picked up our keys at the Coastguard Hotel, one of the first buildings in Mousehole. We found our cottage easily, but the street in front of the cottage was just one car wide. We had seen some public parking at the harbor, not far away, but couldn’t figure out how to turn around to get back there. We ended up going out of the village, up into the countryside, and then doubling back into Mousehole. The parking lot was just a few minutes away, but it was interesting hauling all our stuff across the cobbled streets.

Our stone cottage is named Little Dorrit (after the Dickens’ novel) and seems just right for our family. The front door is painted a bright blue and is right on the street (cross the doorway and you’re standing in the street), decorated outside with two pretty baskets of flowers. The cottage is small and compact, but has everything we need. Downstairs is all one room—living room, dining room and kitchen. The kitchen has a combination washer/dryer, something we’ve never seen before. A steep stairway leads to two bedrooms and a bathroom. The larger bedroom has two twin beds and gets very little sun in its one window, which looks out on a tiny side street. The smaller bedroom (really not much bigger than the standard double bed) and the bathroom face the street and get a lot of bright sun. Our view of the harbor is from the bathroom of all places—you can look between the two buildings across the street. Our street runs next to the harbor, but right in front of our cottage (beginning perhaps at the house next door) there are buildings on the other side. Out the back of our cottage is a small courtyard, shared with two or three other cottages. We have a cobbled stone area with a table and chairs and several pots of flowers.

The cottage is filled with antiques and interesting objects—really decorated in a very warm way… not a sterile rental cottage. It could also be called The Old Curiosity Shop! There are old oil lamps and lanterns, a neat old rocking chair, interesting old artwork, a big model battleship. The colors are blues with kind of mauve tones. We decided to let Kelly have the bright small bedroom (bright pink bedding), and Charley and I took the larger room with the two twin beds.

We were “wired” after our long drive and didn’t get to bed till 11:30 pm. It seemed strange to be in a twin bed, though I like the big duvets they use on the beds in Europe and Charley prefers just a thin blanket and ideally a fan blowing in his face.

Sunday, June 27

We decided to sleep in (no alarm) since we had a long driving day and had stayed up so late on Saturday night. Charley was the first one up—he woke me up a bit after 8:00 am looking for the house keys so he could go out to get a paper and breakfast. Unfortunately, the little newsagent didn’t open till 9:00 am on Sunday, and that was the only option in Mousehole. We got accustomed to a daily paper in London (our paper became the Times) and want to try to get a paper every day to keep up with the world.

The noise of the motor coaches and traffic on Elizabeth Street in London has been replaced by the chatter of sea gulls, who begin their conversation at daybreak… about 4:30 am. But since our room overlooks a side street, we’re not awakened by sunlight like we were in London.

The backdoor to the courtyard is an old-fashioned door I’ve never seen—except in old movies and TV shows. The door is in two parts that can be bolted together or separated—you can open the top part of the door to let in fresh air and see out, without having the whole door open. (Perhaps the mother in Lassie looked out a door like this? And I think Mr. Ed also talked to Wilbur through a half door…) I like this kind of door a lot—I love fresh air in a house. But it wouldn’t work in a place like Knoxville where bugs would come in! When I opened the door to the courtyard this morning, I saw that the little antiques shop behind us—that also opens onto the courtyard—was open for business. The couple running the shop—Pat and Allan—turned out to be the owners of Little Dorrit, our cottage. They were very glad to see us. They live up near St. Ives and often stay at the cottage when it isn’t rented. After meeting them, we understood why the cottage was so well decorated with antiques—they said the shop and cottage were mainly hobbies for them. They were extremely nice.

We ended up with two papers, two biscuits and two Cornish pasties with cheese. The Cornish pastie is the best-known local food of Cornwall… served everywhere, and normally filled with meat. We finally woke Kelly around 10:00 am and decided to explore Mousehole on foot. It’s a beautiful, quaint little village. There seem to be lots of “holiday rentals” but also a number of people that live here year-round. This is the type of place where people say “good morning” when they pass you on the street. I love the way that so many houses are decorated with flowers in window boxes and planters… some have small gardens. In this climate (not too hot, not too cold and lots of rain), the flowers seem to flourish. We were also surprised to see lots of palm trees!

We stopped in an interesting bookstore—lots of used books. I bought Kelly “The Mousehole Cat,” a famous British children’s book that’s apparently required reading in most schools. We looked for used paperbacks by James Herriott without luck. Kelly finished “All Creatures Great and Small” in London, reading a copy I had from when I was a teenager. (This series of books written by a veterinarian is set in Yorkshire.) We ate lunch at a little café/tea shop next to the bookshop. This is one of the only times we’ll be on the ocean until we spend a week on the Amalfi Coast next May, so I wanted seafood—I had Newlyn crab from the fishing village next to Mousehole. Charley had a meat Cornish pastie, which he didn’t like too much. Kelly had a toasted cheese and chicken sandwich. She didn’t like the chicken… so overall, not a successful $30 lunch!

After lunch we went for a drive to explore this part of Cornwall. It started to rain, though it had been beautiful sunshine earlier. (We found through the week that rain could come on very quickly, last five or ten minutes, and then be followed by bright sun again.) We drove through little narrow roads to Lamorna Valley and Lamorna Cove, an old haunt of smugglers. We passed by a prehistoric stone circle—the Merry Maidens—2500 BC. This is kind of a mini Stonehenge… just sitting there by the side of the road with absolutely no fanfare. I want to go back when it’s not damp so we can walk among the stones. We went to a beautiful area called Porthcurno, then up to the outdoor Minack Theatre. The “Coast Path,” a National Trust-sponsored path that circles 630 miles of the British southwest coastline, runs right by the theatre. There’s a pretty beach at Porthcurno that we could see far below, surrounded on both sides by rocky cliffs. The view was stunning. We decided to try to go to the Minack Theatre for a performance later in the week.

We drove just a few more miles to Lands End, the most western part of mainland England. There was a big entertainment complex at Lands End… kind of an old-fashioned mini Pigeon Forge. Other than buying ice cream, we didn’t participate in any of the entertainment options. We did have our picture made at the Lands End signpost though. You could customize one of the posts—many people did theirs with the name of their town and the distance home, but we decided to say “Our Grand Tour.” They will mail our photo back to the USA, so we can see it 13-1/2 months from now. We walked over a small swinging bridge (even Charley!) to another overlook point. We saw the first and last eating place in England. The view was wonderful. Twenty-eight miles west are the Scilly Islands… and after that, America! Knoxville is 3916 miles away according to the list at the photo signpost—this is the closest we will be to home for the rest of our trip.

We headed back to Penzance for our major grocery store trip of the week. But first, we detoured over to the nearby village of Marizion, the access point for St. Michael’s Mount. We just wanted to get a closer look at the Mount and planned to make our trip over later in the week. The Mount is so imposing! We had postponed grocery shopping earlier so we could enjoy the pretty day, but when we got to the Tesco about 5:30 pm, it was closed—grocery stores apparently close at 4 pm on Sunday. We didn’t have enough food to scrape together a dinner, so we ate at a restaurant (Tremaynes) around the corner from our house—we were the only ones there when they opened for dinner at 6:30 pm and got the prime table overlooking the street and the harbor… a couple arrived just as we were leaving. ₤46 for our dinner… this will be our one “big” meal of the week. We did have an appetizer, a half-carafe of wine, and Kelly had dessert, so we perhaps could have eaten for ₤30 instead. As Charley told our waitress, this was the best meal out of our trip (though we’ve limited our dinners out pretty much to pizza)… I had sea bass and Charley had risotto… we shared our meals. Kelly did have pizza. We returned for a quiet night at the cottage—reading, writing, and computer work.

Monday, June 28

Our first priority of the day was groceries. We got up at a decent time and went to the big Tesco outside of Penzance. We had a fun time shopping—we spent about ₤75, including ₤3 for three pairs of black socks for me (I brought only one pair with me for what I thought was summer). I bought a few staples that we’ll use for the next six weeks (sugar, ketchup, jam, olive oil etc.), plus food for this week. We plan to eat breakfast and dinner at the cottage and some lunches too—or pack a few picnic lunches. Yesterday we ended up spending ₤60 on just dinner and lunch, so I feel OK about spending this much at the grocery store. Our target is to spend an average of $300 a week on food—and maybe less. I didn’t keep good track, but I’m quite sure we went over this in London… too many lunches out.

I like the English grocery store—it has a familiar feel to it and many of the same items, but in other ways it’s very different from our stores at home. Except for meat, the prices seem comparable, especially for fresh produce. Still, you have to remember to multiply by two, and then all of a sudden 75 pence doesn’t seem quite so cheap. I like the variety of breads available. And there sure is a lot more Indian food, even though I really haven’t seen many people of Indian descent in Penzance. Out in the countryside the ethnicity we saw in London totally disappears!

We came home with our groceries and decided to fix lunch—good sandwiches and chips. We ate outside in the sun in our little courtyard. Then we put on our hiking clothes—our serious hiking clothes—and headed out of Mousehole on the Coast Path. We planned to walk to Lamorna Cove and back, which the sign said would be a round trip of five miles. This would at be a training walk for our 18-day Coast-to-Coast walk in August, a chance for Kelly and I to break in our new hiking boots, and most important, good exercise in an absolutely beautiful environment.

The walk was quite strenuous. We walked up a small steep street out of Mousehole with beautiful views back on the harbor, then cut across on a small lane that went by a big house with a swimming pool and a stunning view of Mount’s Bay. Most of our walk was right along the coastline—we were up on the cliffs and had to climb a bit on rocks. Kelly stopped several times to say “wow,” something I don’t remember her doing much in all our travels to places I thought were pretty “wow.” Charley got extremely nervous at one point because the path was so narrow right along the cliffs. He actually suggested turning back, even though the harbor at Lamorna Cove was within sight. He says he is nervous for Kelly, but the reality I think is that he’s mainly nervous for himself. He just does not like the heights and the sense of possibly falling.

We did make it into Lamorna Cove, where there are is a small harbor, a few houses, a shop and a café. We had a Cornish cream tea at a picnic table outside looking out over the water. Along with the Cornish pasties, the cream tea is another Cornish specialty. We had a Devon cream tea when we visited Devon in 1997 and I had a plain old “cream tea” at Aunties Tea Shop in Cambridge. The ingredients to all these cream teas seem the same: tea to drink, one or two scones (heavy biscuits sometimes with raisins), strawberry jam, and clotted cream, which is kind of a cross between butter and whipped cream. You spread the jam on the scone, then pile on the cream. The cream is not good on its own… it needs the jam and the scone. We think the difference between the Devon cream tea and the Cornish cream tea somehow relates to some subtle difference in the clotted cream. Regardless, I like a cream tea in the late afternoon. Kelly says she doesn’t understand why everyone in Britain isn’t terribly overweight—because they have four meals: a big traditional English breakfast (which we haven’t been having, because we’re fixing our own breakfast), lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner. Our theory is that they are able to work off all this food because they walk so much as a way of life.

The walk back to Mousehole seemed a lot faster, perhaps because we did not stop so often to say “wow” and take photos. Kelly and I are both taking photos on this trip—she has her own digital camera and enjoys taking pictures… and she seems to have an eye for a good and unusual shot. Two years of photography camp have taught her something! On the way back we did see helicopters and a ferry boat heading toward Penzance, returning from the Scilly Islands. We would have liked to do a day trip to the Scilly Islands—ideally by helicopter—but it was just too expensive for us on this long trip. Maybe next time!

Kelly really really likes it in Mousehole—something about it has just clicked with her. She says she especially likes being on the ocean and the smell of the water. She has gotten Charley to take her down several times to play on the rocks at low tide, and they have taken bread to feed to the seagulls. We’re comfortable with the village, and so we’re also letting her explore a bit by herself and even go for ice cream. Kelly interacts well with shopkeepers and waitresses… she has a very polite open manner with them. She also meets people with dogs, and it’s interesting to eavesdrop on her conversations… people hear her accent and ask her where she is from and how long she is visiting. Our standard answer is that we are spending 11 weeks in the UK but we are traveling in Europe for 14 months. This is never the answer that people expect, and we all get many other questions about our jobs, our trip, Kelly’s schooling etc. It makes for some interesting conversations!

Tonight—while they played on the rocks and fed gulls—I fixed a great meal… another chicken dish helped out by Knorr Chicken Tonight (mustard and honey), new potatoes, and snow peas. Kelly had plain chicken and rice, but did eat the snow peas. She likes the Herbes de Provence I’ve been using to season the chicken, so maybe that’s a start.

After dinner they wanted me to watch them feed gulls and play on the rocks. This is really a relaxing place with friendly people and lots of dogs and cats.

Tuesday, June 29

Since we’ve been in Cornwall, I’m not waking up early any more… Charley and I have been setting the alarm and getting up at 7:00 am, an hour and 40 minutes later than I’ve gotten up for the past ten years. The last few nights I’ve actually slept eight hours a night… something I haven’t done since…. when??? Ever???

I do find myself wishing we were staying in Cornwall two weeks… there is so much to see and do and we are pushing ourselves to see and do as much as we can… or perhaps I should say I’m pushing. We have a general plan for the week that leaves some downtime and hopefully we can come back to Cornwall again sometime. I know Kelly would love to come back to Mousehole.

We had decent weather today, though it is cooler than we had expected… maybe upper 60’s. We set out with one plan and ended up with another. We got our usual late start (could this be due to the three of us sharing one bathroom?) and left about 10:15 am headed back up the A30 to Glendurgan Gardens, our first destination. This is a National Trust site, so it was free for us due to our memberships. I really wanted to visit at least one of the beautiful gardens of Cornwall. Glendurgan is down on the Lizard peninsula (other side of Mount’s Bay), and it took us a bit more than an hour to get there— we arrived about 11:30 am. Charley had fixed a picnic for us, so we went ahead and ate lunch on a picnic table out in front of the entrance. It was fun—and certainly cheaper—to bring our own picnic, something we don’t do very much at all at home.

We enjoyed our walk through the gardens. The gardens were developed by the Fox family beginning in the 1820s and are set in a valley leading down to the Helford River. At the base of the valley, on the river, is the tiny village of Durgan, now mostly made up of National Trust holiday rental cottages. On our way to the river we first stopped at the maze, which was made of cherry laurel and built into a hillside. Kelly likes mazes a lot, which is one of the reasons I picked Glendurgan. We’ve now been to several mazes, and this one was a bit different because you could see over the top of the hedges, even though the maze was planted in 1833. So we could often foresee a dead end, though we couldn’t foresee the way out. Kelly also enjoyed playing on the rocks down at Durgan. We sat on the rocks and chatted with a nice woman nearby. Charley taught Kelly how to skip a rock in the river… simple pleasures!

The gardens had some very unusual plants, including a number of tropical plants. Right now one of the most interesting plants is an Agave Americana—actually two of them. This is a plant native to Mexico and used to make tequila. The Glendurgan agaves are in bloom for the first time in 28 years—they were maybe 15 feet tall with big yellow blooms up their giant stems. The plants bloom for about two months, then they die. They think the heat spell in Britain prompted the blooming—they had expected one to bloom, and then were surprised to have a second bloom at the same time.

There was one more feature of Glendurgan that Kelly really liked—the “Giants Stride,” kind of a rope swing. About six ropes with handles hang down from a maypole type contraption. One or more people each grab a rope handle and start running, then let their legs up. Charley did this with Kelly a couple of times, and then she did it several more times alone. (I was unsuccessful in my one half-hearted attempt.) Kelly had originally wanted to do the maze a second time but asked to go back to the Giants Stride again instead.

I had thought we might be able to see both Glendurgan Gardens and the Eden Project on this same day, but I realized at the time we arrived at Glendurgan that this wouldn’t work and that I didn’t want to rush through the Gardens or feel pushed for time at the Eden Project. I know Kelly and Charley prefer to be more leisurely than me, and I have to watch my drive to try to see and do too much at too aggressive of a pace. I also know that they aren’t as passionate as I am about gardens, though they are good sports about it. If it were up to me, I would see all the gardens in Cornwall!

From Glendurgan we wandered a bit on back roads and finally found our way to Lizard Point, the southernmost point in England. So, we’ve now been to the westernmost point and the southernmost point. It was beautiful at Lizard Point. I wish we had arrived earlier and had the time and energy to walk on the Coast Path to Kynance Cove, which is supposedly one of the most beautiful spots in England, especially at low tide. Down at the tip of Lizard Point, Charley met a German couple who were driving the first-ever BMW—a Dixi from 1928. (According to Charley, we had seen this car in the BMW Museum in Munich on our recent trip.) Charley was really pretty excited about seeing this car and carried on a conversation with the couple in a mix of English and German. The man opened up the engine to show him and I took their photo with the cute little car. They had driven 1000 miles in the car on this holiday.

We asked a nice British man to take our photo at the tip of Lizard Point. He pointed out that we had taken his place as the “southernmost people in England”… and for just one brief moment, we really were.

On the way back, we bought gas at the Tesco-- £39.40… almost $80! When we got to Mousehole, our normal parking lot was full. We had to park in the other lot by the Mousehole Rowing Club. We pay £1.50 every day to park. All the villages in Cornwall seem to charge for parking… probably a good source of revenue for them. I made hamburgers for dinner while Kelly and Charley did their thing outside on the rocks. We were tired and sleepy… to bed about 10:30 pm.

Wednesday, June 30

Earlier in the week I had stopped at the Tourist Information Center in Penzance to find out about internet access. The man there suggested the Penzance public library, so that was our first stop today. The library has 20 computers available for use—interestingly, the computers were financed by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. The first 30 minutes were free, then it was ₤3 an hour after that. This was a pleasant place to work… much nicer than the easyInternetcafes in London—more space to work and in the middle of a big library room with windows. These computers also are set up for other applications besides just internet access—it looks like I’ll be able to bring a disk in and finally post my blog. I was on line for about two hours—spent about 45 minutes e-mailing some information to Karyn at ImagePoint, then did some banking and e-mailed various people.

My mom is a great correspondent, and I appreciate her messages so much. Charley had a message from his brother Joe, who is in his mid 70’s now. Joe has gotten on the internet for the first time ever so he can communicate with Charley on this trip. Charley still hasn’t heard from his daughter Jill, who is not an “internet person” and hasn’t become one yet is seems—hopefully he will hear from her in the next few days. His other daughter Angie is e-mailing regularly to both Charley and Kelly. Kelly is carrying on regular e-mail communication with a variety of friends and family. I’m proud of her computer skills… amazing what a ten-year-old kid can do today!

Charley spent most of his time in Penzance exploring the shopping area and bought a small desk fan to blow on his face at night. (I’m not sure how he’ll transport this in his luggage during the walking tour, but we will see!) We all went down to an electronics store and got an inexpensive memory stick reader that will enable Kelly to download photos off her digital camera to a CD. I have a different kind of memory card, and I brought the reader that works for mine. I did buy a big stack of CDs… I can already tell that the five I brought with me will not be enough for all my photos.

From Penzance we drove about three miles around Mount’s Bay to Marazion, an old market town that’s the access point for St. Michael’s Mount. (As we drove through Marazion, Charley spotted the old BMW parked in front of a shop, but we didn’t run into the German couple.) St. Michael’s Mount is very similar to the more-famous Mont St. Michel in France, and was actually founded as a Benedictine monastery under the guidance of the abbey at Mont St. Michel—the first church was established there in 1135. It’s a small island/mountain, surrounded by water, with an old castle at the very top… very magical. After Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530’s, the Mount became a fortress protecting the coast. Almost 350 years ago the St. Aubyn family bought the Mount and it became a residential castle.

At low tide you can walk on a causeway over to the Mount, but at other times of the day you have to travel by small ferryboats. When we first arrived in Marazion around noon people were taking boats from a big rock just off shore, reached by a short causeway. We decided to have lunch at a hotel—the Godolphin Arms—overlooking Mount’s Bay and St. Michael’s Mount. It was an expensive lunch ($50) and Kelly didn’t like her burger and the cod and chips Charley and I had was just OK, but I guess we paid for the fabulous view. As we ate lunch, we watched the little causeway to the rock landing get covered by the tides. The boat area moved up the way a bit and we could still see people getting on and off. By the time we had finished lunch and walked over to the boat dock, that dock was closed down—covered by the tides—and we had to go further up the street. Our “ferry” held only 12 people and was called Elizabeth. Kelly and I decided this was another positive sign for our trip—first we stayed on Elizabeth Street and now we were traveling on a boat called Elizabeth. (Her middle name is Elizabeth.) Oh, and she also had Kelly ice cream, made in Cornwall!

The boat ride to the Mount took maybe 10 minutes and was a bit choppy. It was a great way to arrive at a truly unusual place. The Mount has its own harbor and a small village at its base. People who work on the property (including some of the boatmen) live in the village. We used our National Trust memberships for admission and watched an interesting little film about the history of the island. There is a mythical story that supposedly happened on the island that seems very similar to Jack and the Beanstalk, without the beanstalk part! We climbed the steep hill to the castle on the old cobbled pilgrim steps. Part way up we looked for and found the heart-shaped rock that is supposedly the heart of the giant killed by Jack. The view was wonderful! We could see Mousehole far across the bay. Along the top of the castle were two gun batteries with cannons from the 1500s. After we explored the outside, we went on a self-guided tour inside the castle. The St. Aubyn family still lives on several floors of the castle. There were several interesting rooms, including a big banquet hall called the Chevy Chase room. There was also a pretty little chapel.

We decided to make it an early day and just went on back to Mousehole and our cottage. Charley fixed meatballs and then I made pasta and a salad. After dinner Kelly and Charley went out to climb on the rocks.

Thursday, July 1

We left this morning at 9:00 am to go to the Eden Project, which was an hour or so back up the A30 near St. Austell. It’s hard to explain exactly what the Eden Project is… kind of a giant horticultural exhibit, I guess… an educational horticultural theme park maybe. It resembled an Epcot totally related to plants but without all the hype and entertainment aspects of a Disney park. Unlike almost everything else we’ve seen in Britain (i.e. very old), the Eden Project is very new… just four years old. It has been built in the remains of an old china clay pit—a 35 acre site in what is a rather ugly industrial part of otherwise beautiful Cornwall. The “garden” is set out in three different areas: a huge outdoor garden leading down the pit to two big biospheres they called “biomes”—big greenhouses, each one focusing on a different climate. The whole site looks like something out of a science-fiction movie. The first biome we went in—the largest—was the Humid Tropics Biome, focusing on tropical plants found in the rainforest regions of the world. This is the largest greenhouse in the world—quite hot and humid, though they reduce the humidity during the day for visitors. The second biome is the Warm Temperate Biome… much more comfortable! This biome included plants from areas like the Mediterranean and California. A third biome is planned for the future and will highlight plants from desert climates. The Eden Project has become one of the most popular attractions in England-- right now they are building a big new educational center. We went to a special exhibit called “Big Build Two” that told the Eden Project story and showcased the new construction plans. We had to wear reflective vests and hard hats to go into the construction area—whether we really needed these for safety reasons, I don’t know, but we enjoyed wearing them! Kelly hated to turn hers back in!

In each of the three areas, all kinds of different plants are showcased with the intention to show the relationship between man and plants. There were some beautiful plants and flowers, but also plants with very functional uses—food, medicine, building materials, clothing, etc. It was all arranged in a very attractive and informative way with all kinds of unique sculptures and artistic objects. Kelly and I both took lots of photos. Charley was probably more interested in the construction of the project and the biomes than he was in all the plants.

The Eden Project really is an incredible story… truly the work of visionaries. They had five million people visit last year. It was crowded the day of our visit, but not oppressively so. Some schoolkids, but lots of senior citizens—the English really do seem to take an interest in gardening. I personally prefer a “real” garden like Glendurgan or Regents Park more than this “fabricated” garden, but it really was interesting and fun. We did lots of walking, including a very steep walk down the pit to the biomes and then back up.

We ate lunch (not that good) in the cafeteria between the two biomes. Charley says the Eden people should take a lesson from Disney about food service! In all we were at the Eden Project about 5-1/2 hours. Oh, there was a GREAT gift shop too—just wish we could do more shopping!

We took a “park and ride” bus back to our car in the “Plum” parking lot. (All the parking lots were named after fruits.) We decided to see a bit more of this part of Cornwall, so we drove a short way to Fowey (pronounced to rhyme with “joy”), a beautiful village on the Fowey River, just inland from the English Channel. Fowey was quite a bit larger than Mousehole with much more shopping. We parked at a parking lot at the top of a very steep hill and then walked down to the harbor. The little harbor was very pretty with lots of boats. Ferries go from Fowey to a couple of other places.

We had only paid for an hour’s parking, so we couldn’t stay as long as we would have liked. (I could see staying here for a few days or even a week.) We have to be careful being too positive about other places, as Kelly sees that as somehow being disloyal to Mousehole, of which she has become an intense advocate. We spent part of our time in a tiny bookshop that specialized in Daphne DuMaurier books and also had a lot of other used books. Daphne DuMaurier (best known book “Rebecca”) was born in Fowey and lived most of her life in this area—many of her books are set here. I bought Kelly three books, including a used paperback of “Frenchman’s Creek” by DuMaurier. On the way back up to the parking lot, we bought a folding cooler bag that we can use for picnics and to transport “refrigerator food” each week—this bag will fold up in our suitcase for the C2C walk and other times when we’re without a car.

Kelly big request has been to go a beach and put her feet in the ocean, so on the way back we detoured a few miles off the main highway to Perranporth, a beautiful big sweeping beach on the northern coast. It was about 5:45 pm when we arrived, and as we got out of our car at the top of the cliff, we heard the lifeguard announcing that the beach was closing. Although it was cold, there were a lot of people surfing—great waves. Kelly decided not to go down after all—too late, too cold, too far to walk down, and too hard to walk back up The town looked a little ratty, but the beach looked great.

Charley fixed tacos for dinner. (We had stopped at a Burger King on the A30 for Kelly—amazing… they were out of ketchup!) I worked on my blog and also my photos… there’s a lot to keep up with just recording our trip! We’re going to the Penzance library again in the morning and I’ll finally post my blog on our two weeks in London. I’m trying hard not to count days, but I know that tomorrow is our last full day in Cornwall and I’m not ready to leave!!

Friday, July 2

We left about 9:30 am to go to the Penzance library and use the computers again. I managed to post my blog and then caught up on a bit of e-mail. Charley and Kelly had less to do at the library and went out exploring for part of the time.

About 11:30 am we drove over to Porthcurno Beach, down below the Minack Theatre. We wanted Kelly to achieve her “dream” of putting her feet in the ocean. Charley had fixed a picnic lunch and we ate on a big rock in a little grassy area just off the parking lot. Then we walked down the rocks to the beautiful beach, sheltered between two rocky cliffs. It was about 70 degrees and windy. There were quite a few people at the beach, most of them with their blankets spread by the rocks, protecting themselves from the wind. A few hardy children were paddling in the water. Kelly rolled her pants legs up and waded in with Charley watching closely. I was very worried that she’d get herself wet or fall over, but fortunately this was not another Trafalgar Square Fountain Incident! It was a tough walk in the sand and wind back up the beach, and then it took a while to get the sand off Kelly’s feet so she could put her shoes and socks back on again.

The Minack Theatre is a three-minute drive up a steep hill from Porthcurno Beach. After we had seen the theatre earlier in the week and read more about it, we decided we wanted to go to a performance. We called a few days ago to order tickets for a matinee today—the operetta “The Merry Widow”. The performance wasn’t till 2:00 pm, but the seating wasn’t reserved and so we wanted to get there early for decent seats. The Minack Theatre is an absolutely remarkable theatre, built mostly back in the 30’s by a woman named Rowena Cade—another visionary. She literally built the theatre herself with the help of only two men. The theatre is built into the sides of the rocky cliff overlooking the ocean. It’s quite steep from the top down to the stage and the view is phenomenal. Every nook and cranny is filled with seating. Each summer for about 18 weeks they have a different show every week, each show performed by a different amateur theatre company. We saw the amateur opera society from Truro. Our show was sold out—I think there were 750 seats.

Many people had brought elaborate picnics, so we could have eaten here. We’ll know that next time. We had ice cream when we arrived and a few snacks at intermission.

The weather went through some major changes during the 3-1/2 hours we were at the theatre. Sometimes it was very sunny and I was almost hot, then it was overcast and I pulled my sweater back on. Finally, about ten minutes before the end of the play, it rained lightly for just a little bit. The people in the audience seemed to somehow know just when the rain was coming and everyone quietly started putting on rain jackets and wrapping their picnics in plastic bags. (Maybe this is some kind of Cornish intuition!) The performers in their elaborate costumes kept right on going! I read that they only cancel a performance in extreme conditions, maybe only twice a year!

The seats are carved into the hillside—kind of terraced levels. Where we sat the terraces were grass. Most people brought their own cushions, but we rented cushions from the theatre. You definitely needed some type of cushion! We heard some American voices just behind us at the theatre—people from Los Angeles. These were the first Americans we have met in Cornwall.

We really enjoyed the entire experience—the play itself, the fantastic view, and especially the theatre. For me, this was the highlight of our week in Cornwall.

On the way back from the Minack Theatre I wanted to stop at the Merry Maidens, the ancient stone circle we had seen briefly on a drizzly day at the beginning of our week. The Maidens are estimated to be from 2500 BC… just sitting in a field on the side of the road, actually next to a bus stop in the middle of nowhere! Charley and I got out and wandered among the stone circle… took a few photos. Nearby and even closer to the narrow road, I spotted another rock formation—called Tregriffin—which turned out to be an ancient burial vault used between 4000 BC and 2500 BC. This area of Cornwall was one of the earliest settlements in England—so amazing! There are little sites like this dotted all over the countryside.

Back in Mousehole the annual Maritime Festival had begun. We walked over to see what was happening… a jazz band of old-timers was playing, they were selling beer, and there were a few vendors… really not much activity. The parking lot man had scoffed about the whole thing that morning when we asked if we would have problems with parking. While we were out on the stone harbor, all of a sudden it started raining… then about two minutes later it stopped. Typical of what we’ve seen in Cornwall.

At 8:00 pm we had visitors—a couple from Slow Travel who have both been very helpful to me in our trip planning… Wendy and Richard. They were just beginning their weeklong holiday in Mousehole today… have been here a few times some years ago. They live about 30 miles from London and enjoy traveling in England and Italy and had recently been in Ravello, where we will be for a week next May. We showed them our little cottage, and then walked over to the Coastguard Hotel for a drink. Kelly really responded well to Wendy, who was very kind and took a great interest in her. Then we walked to see their rental house near the Coastguard Hotel… up a very steep hotel. Their place was big—four bedrooms—with a fantastic view of Mousehole and Mount’s Bay from big windows…. very different from our cottage… more modern, but much less personality. They did have a very neat garden to the back and the side.

Once again it was fun to connect with someone else for just a few hours and to meet someone else in person that I’ve “met” on Slow Travel. I also think it’s good for our family to have some substantial interactions with other people from time-to-time… we need more than brief conversations with dog owners, shopkeepers and parking lot men!

We walked back to our cottage about 10:15 pm… we are still trying to get some clothes dry in our little combo washer/dryer. Very slow!! We have decided not to pack up on Friday nights while we are on the week-to-week part of our trip… we will do that on Saturday mornings and try to make Friday a “regular” day… not a “pack-up” day. Tomorrow we are leaving for our next home-for-a-week… Gants Mill, a farm in Somerset.