On Monday morning on our holiday in Cornwall, OH and I got up quite early and decided to go for a walk into Newlyn, which is the next village along the coast. It's quite an easy flat walk. The coastal path is eroded in places, so we were forced to walk on the footpath adjacent to the road for most of the route. This didn't detract though, as you get lovely views over the sea and we passed the odd place of interest including a memorial garden to victims of a shipwreck back in the 1980's, which paid tribute to both the seamen lost and the members of the Lifeboat crew that were attempting to save them. It was very touching and a strong reminder of the dangers of the sea.
We stopped off in Newlyn for a coffee, snack and toilet stop before venturing further up the coast to Penzance town. It was only about 3 and a half miles in total, but we enjoyed just getting out, getting some exercise and checking out the local area. There was plenty to see along the route, including the Newlyn Art Gallery, harbour and the Jubilee Pool, which is another sea water swimming pool, but on a much bigger scale.
When we got to Penzance, we had a walk up the main high street, which has lots of lovely little independent shops and cafes, then later caught the local bus back to Mousehole, which runs every half hour and deposited us a hundred yards from the cottage.
It was a lovely sunny day, so when we got back LB joined us and we went down into Mousehole and sat on the beach for a couple of hours. OH and LB went for a swim in the harbour, whilst I just had a paddle.
On Tuesday, we headed out to the Minack Theatre, which is an outdoor theatre built into the cliff in the 1930's by an amazing local lady called Rowena Cade, with the help of her gardener Billy Rawlings. It was an amazing place. Here's a few photos:
Here, we watched a talk by an actor, playing the role of Billy Rawlings, telling us about the work it took to build the theatre. We had amazing views over the sea and coast and the sun beat down on us.
It was well worth a visit and was definitely one of the highlights of our holiday.
From here, we went a few miles further down the coast to Lands End and then stopped for a while in Sennon Cove, which is another beautiful sandy beach. We walked along the beach and watched the surfers and stopped at a local cafe for lunch before later returning to Mousehole.
Wednesday, was another morning of Car Booting. OH went out for another bike ride, whilst LB and I visited the Rosudgeon Car Boot Sale which was situated on the other side of Penzance. This was a great car boot sale with lots of stalls. I bought a few plants here and a few items of clothing. The stalls were super varied and there were lots of interesting items for sale.
We spent three hours at the boot sale before meeting OH in Helston a few miles away. Here, I visited the Museum of Cornish Life, which was full of artefacts, costumes and antique machinery and tools from hundreds of years of Cornish life. It was interesting to find out more about life in Cornwall over the centuries. I saw a toploading washing machine that was similar to one my mum used to use in my childhood, which brought back memories of washing day when I was a child.
I also saw a photograph depicting the fashions of the 1970's and I can remember wearing a party dress that was very similar to some of the dresses in this picture.
There were also lots of costumes on display, that were worn to the Floral Dance, which takes place every May in Helston. Only those who are born and bred in Helston are invited to take part in the dance. There were also items of clothing worn by both men and women in the tin mines, the remains of which can be seen all around the Cornish coast.
After stopping in a cafe in Helston for lunch, we then went on to Porthleven, which is another very pretty fishing village on the coast with a lovely harbour. Here the waters outside the harbour walls were quite rough and there were people out surfing again.
(Please excuse my fingers in the corner of this picture!)
We bought an ice cream here and after doing so, a seagull dove down and almost landed on my head in an attempt to steal it. They weren't successful, thankfully. (Although I did see one steal a whole cone from a gentleman in St Ives later in the week. It vanished in seconds, so be warned)
This post concludes Part One of our Cornish getaway. More in Part Two
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