Discoveries

Well, how have I never been to Cornwall before?? Cornwall is such a lovely place and it was a really great holiday. The weather, on the whole, was sunny, and it was really peaceful and quiet and there were very few people about and we just wandered from place to place and saw the sights and ate food and strolled about and generally had a nice time. The place we were staying was really lovely and everything about the holiday was great – it was very hard having to come home.

A brief summary follows, which I may expand on, with a few photos, in due course:

-Stayed in a place called St Keverne, which is on the Lizard (if you think of Cornwall as a boot, The Lizard is the heel). Really nice place and there was even the local brass band playing in the small village square one evening.
-Lizard Point – the most southerly part of the UK. Very beautiful. The village there is a bit uninspiring but you can just walk past that and walk along the Cornish coast. Lovely.
-The Eden Project. I suspect I am in the minority here, but I just did not get all the hype. Basically it’s a couple of biomes and they have lots of plants in them. It’s quite interesting, but was in essence just a couple of large greenhouses. I had expected much more of it. It costs £15 each to get in, which actually we didn’t pay as we got the tickets free via Nectar, but I have no idea what would have justified that cost.
-Lands End. The shops etc that have been built there are somewhat tacky (if you have ever been to Niagara Falls it is a bit like that but not quite as tacky, there’s no Dracula’s Castle etc but there is a Doctor Who exhibition etc which seems an odd place to have it) but you can ignore those and just walk along the coast and appreciate the views and enjoy the fresh air and the sea and soak in the wonders of the English countryside.
-St Ives. A lovely town, although I think best avoided at peak holiday season (which we were there just before it started fortunately). We also had a really nice cream tea there.
-St Michael’s Mount. When the tide is low you can walk out there along a causeway and at other times you have to take a boat – a very short trip as it is only 400 metres out into the sea. We only went to the base of St Michael’s Mount, but there is also a castle there. Really lovely place to visit and we walked one way and got the boat back because the tide had come in (lots of people waded until the water was really quite deep, it’s amazing what Brits will do to save £1.50!).
-Roskilly’s Farm. They make famous Cornish ice cream – and it is very nice. This is where they actually make the ice cream and it was about a 10 minute walk from where we were staying. A really pleasant place to visit and you can have lunch there and eat ice cream and about 4.30pm watch the cows being milked etc.
-Around the Lizard generally – Coverack is lovely and has a really pretty harbour where we sat and ate fish and chips and ate more ice cream. Driving through Goonhilly Downs was sort of mesmerising because it is really flat land and there are massive satellite dishes on them and wind turbines where most of the UK’s communications are processed. That probably doesn’t sound interesting at all but there was something really impressive about it. There were also other small harbours that we walked to that were just so peaceful and you could just look out to the sea and watch the waves.
-The Lost Gardens of Heligan. These were the precursor to the Eden Project. These gardens were much more impressive and beautiful and also a lot cheaper to visit. I’d really like to go there again, I wouldn’t say the same of the Eden Project.
-Fowey. Another nice little town and the home of Daphne du Maurier. A nice place and set in a lovely bay. We didn’t get to spend much time there, but what I saw of it I liked.
-Jamaica Inn. This is on Bodmin Moor and we stopped there on the drive home as I had read the book, Jamaica Inn, while we were away, which is a du Maurier book of an entirely fictional story set at the inn. It is basically a somewhat touristy spot and is basically a pub, hotel and a gift shop, but there was something nice about stopping there and trying to imagine the story unfolding – and for somewhat of a tourist trap it wasn’t actually a rip off to eat there etc.

Cornwall is such a great place to visit and hopefully some photos will help to convey that a bit. It was just such a relaxing time, visiting beautiful places and soaking it all in. We did lots but also found loads of time to read and just not do very much at all. We both enjoyed every part of it (despite being perplexed by the Eden Project, but we did basically get in for free so we’re not complaining). Lovely place, friendly people, beautiful sites and a slow pace of life. Marvellous.