Third week in August
Spent a very relaxing few days with Liz and Bill (and cats) who have retired to Newlyn (next door to Penzanace) and have a had the foresight to buy a place with great ocean views and on the bus route to a large chunk of Cornwall. First outing was a bit of a walk in Poldark Territory - with the third photo below being used as a backdrop for the Wheal Leisure Mine.
Next day opted for what was planned to be a shortish walk along some of the Cornish Coastal Path starting in Zennor.
Zennor is a tiny village and has one claim to fame and that is a Mermaid Chair, that is some 400 to 590 years old, in the local church. According to local lore, in times long, long ago a beautiful and richly dressed woman would occasionally attend services at the church. She would appear from time to time over the course of many years, but never seemed to age. Locals noted her beauty and her lovely singing voice, but no one knew where she came from. Eventually, the mysterious woman came to fancy the churchwarden’s son, a young man named Mathew Trewella. One day Matthew followed her home, and the two were never seen again.
We were about five minutes into our walk and out of the corner of my eye I could see something hovering and must admit my first thought was, "sodding drone", but wasn't till I looked properly that I realised it was a Kestrel hovering. Quite amazing as body was moving about in the breeze yet the head was perfect still.
Suffice to say the walk took a bit longer than expected and was a bit, OK quite a bit, more strenuous than planned.
On the Cormwall peninsula is a small village called Porthcurno which is famous for being the starting point for various intercontinental submarine cables, the first of which was laid in 1870! Spent a good few hours wandering around PK Porthcurno the Museum of Global Communications. A few fun facts - 97% of all communications traffic, phone and internet is via physical cables - 25% of all communications traffic still goes through Porthcurno.
The world as we know it would not be were it not for John Pender. He's the man that combined cable manufacture with Gutta Percha (tree sap that was a durable insulator) and took major investment risks in laying multiple cables. Having said that he was not a well like man as most caricatures of him present him as a octopus with grasping tentacles.
The number of cables in existence in 1894 is astounding.
A small selection of the types of cables in existence.
Maps (tea towels) showing the extent of the cable network.
You can't visit Cornwall and not check out some standing stones and Cornwall has a good number of them. These are known as the Merry Maidens and are said to be a group of dancing maidens, and two minstrels, turned to stone as punishment for dancing on Sunday.
Men Scryfa and Men an Tol. The first literally means stone with writing as has an inscription on it that commentates the death of Rialobranus son of Cunovalus.
Legend has it that passing through the hole in the centre of the Men an Tol stone will cure all ills, well all except obesity as the hole ain't that large.
The last set of stones we visited was Lanyon Quoit. This dolmen dates back 2,500 to3,500 years ago the trouble is even though it looks great it has been a bit messed around with over the years as at one stage it collapsed and was rebuilt - which meant it was shortened and rotated by 90 degrees. Even so it still looks very cool.
OND or Ordance Newlyn Datum is measured in a small red and white building at the end of a wharf in Newlyn and is the home of mean sea level for mainland Great Britain. For six years between 1915 and 1921 the sealevel was recorded here at one hourly intervals - this data was used to determine mean sea level and even today every level in Britain is based on the zero point recorded here.
From Liz and Bill's house you can see Sardine boats fishing in the harbour pretty much every night. This of course means that fresh fish, particularly sardines, are available. Fresh sardines means BBQ'd sardines.
Whilst shopping for sardines we found a v tasty treat, imported from Turkey, and that is smoked anchovies! Smokey, salty, fishy and chew - very tasty.
From Penzance it was back to Warminster for a few days. In Warminster we tied up loose ends re sending back stuff we didn't want to carry etc, a trip out to Laycock Abbey and a farewell dinner for us was planned on our last night in the UK, to be paid for by Doris who had had a major win in bingo a couple of nights earlier.
Laycock Village and Abbey are quite cool and on the must visit place for fans of Downtkn Abbey and Harry Potter and the streets of the village are used in various episodes of Downtjn and the abbey's cloister used in Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone.
Dinner was booked at an pub called The George, and one that we had been to in the past, and niece Emma along with Maple the dog made a special trip in from Taunton. However rhe dinner was memorable but for the wrong reasons. Warning signs were when the waitress was v slow and had no idea what she was doing, but weren't to worried as a place that has a entrees comprising of pork sausages, pickled onion and mustard can't be that bad.
After waiting for over an hour for mains and being told no eta as the kitchen was slammed (and they were still seating fresh customers) we, and other tables, walked out. Plan B was Chinese takeaways back round at Phils. Think the happiest one at the table was Alfie the dog.
Next stop Porto in Portugal - be interesting to see how much it's changed in the 20+ years since we were last there.
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