Tuesday, Sept 24 To Hayle and Back!!

Tuesday September 24, 2013 To Hayle and Back   (Think about it!!!)

I called the ATS car place at 8:00 – no answer!  I called at 8:31 and there was an answer.  Our car was ready to be picked up.  No, they can not deliver it to us.  So I called Sue and together we got a taxi and went to pick up the car.  The keys were in it and off we went.  Avis did pay for it.  We arrived back at the hotel in time for our 9:30 breakfast/meeting.  Just after breakfast, we did it!!!  Yup!!  We put on our pirate eye patches and had our photos made.   

Then we had our waiter and waitress put some on and took their picture. 

The waitress took their patches and had the chef put it on also, but we don’t have a photo of that.  Then we made Alex, the reception lady we had dealt with so much, put it on and she even posed as a pirate (appropriate noises and all) for her photo.  

 We even have a mystery guest traveling with us who wore one and is still wearing one.  

We went back to our rooms and got our belongings and headed to the car to load it up.  As we walked outside, we saw the taxi driver sitting at the top of the parking lot waiting on us – he was early, but he was happy to wait.  We soon were in the taxi and it was such a nice, wide, spacious vehicle.  Patrick, he was born on St. Patrick’s day, spoke with a real Cornish accent and I couldn’t understand all that he said, but he told us all kinds of things about all kinds of topics.  For instance, there is a tunnel from our pub (from last night’s dinner) down to the coast that pirates used to use for smuggling – and they may still, who knows.  

We drove all around Penzance harbor on the way out of town and he got gas.  The we really got started on our 2 hour tour.  We first went through the village of Newlyn, 2^nd biggest fishing port in England.  The boats blow their whistles three times as they leave the port each morning.  This village, like most we went through, hugs the coastline and climbs up the steep hillside. 

Next we visited The Mousehole (Mouz’ ul) which had extremely narrow streets.  We walked around this harbor town and did some shopping (Surprise!).   

As I stood on the side of the road sheltered behind the corner of a house, the car in front of me backed up and then pulled forward to get out of the way so I figured a car was coming right beside me.  I was wrong!!  It was a huge tour bus and as he made the turn he came within 2 inches of me and the corner of the house!!  A lady on the bus and I were eye to eye for a few seconds and I’m sure we both had wide eyed expressions on our faces!!  I asked Patrick about the presence of the police because we had seen almost none of them.  Patrick said that this area has a part time police presence except on Saturday night after everyone has a ‘bit of drink’!!  He did say there are quite a few women policemen. 

We next drove to Lamorna Cove and traversed extremely narrow roadways to get there.  It was so surprising how cars generally manage to pass side by side on these roads though sometimes someone has to back up to let the other car pass.  I have yet to see an angry or frustrated driver!   The cove was horseshoe shaped and was at the bottom of very tall cliffs.  We could here the waves breaking and I hope that sound makes it on the video I took of that area.   They even do scuba diving there!!   

From there we drove on up the mountainside to the very end of the road where he showed us “Sarah Cot” where there is a beautiful view of the entire cove.  

That house was not a really large house and it was barely accessible but he said the price to purchase this house would be six figures up to a million pounds.  Patrick said that many of the houses we saw today were 200 to 300 years old and that slate roofs generally last about 100 years. 

We continued on our way and passed many hedges on more narrow roads and sometimes we got to see fields of cabbages, corn and rapeseed (canola oil).  This area is often warmer that areas just to the north because of the Gulf Stream that flows from the south.  We went to Porthcurno where the first telegraph cable the UK to the US was laid (perhaps in the 30s) and where Mimack Amphitheater (it’s build into the cliff wall) is located.  We didn’t go visit the actual amphitheater since it involved a lot of stair climbing up and down the cliff. 

There were many plants blooming beautifully, I guess due to all the moisture in the air.

And of course, some of us posed for photos.

 

We then went to Land’s End which is entirely touristy. We did wander around some and we are glad we went but it was not a big favorite in our group.

We then went by Sennen Cove and saw surfers in the water and on the land.  This is one of several good surfing areas in Cornwall.   

We then wandered many more miles as we admired the beauty of the fields and the coasts.  

 We also asked him lots of questions and we enjoyed hearing opinions from his point of view. We also saw lots of moors so now we know what they look like.  We passed more fields of cows than of sheep while in this area and at one point, there were even cows wandering on the road!!   

There were many similarities between this area and Ireland, in our opinions.  We travelled through many more small villages – they seem to be about 2 to 3 miles apart, generally.  We made our way back to Penzance, paid him handsomely, and thanked him. This had been his day off but I’m sure it was worth it financially for him to spend his day with us.  It ended up being a tour that lasted almost 4 hours instead of 2.  We went into the hotel and the receptionist looked at us as we headed toward the bathrooms and said “We just can’t rid of you, can we?”  all in good fun.  She really was sweet and cheerful.  After taking care of needs, we squeezed ourselves and even more shopping in the car and left, taking care to avoid THAT curb at the bottom of the hill.  It bit us once and that was enough. 

Then we went to Hayle (It is pronounced like hell and we had a lot of fun thinking of expressions we could use it in that would sound rather daring for us!!!  We are such wild creatures, aren’t we??)  Patrick had suggested going to this town and finding Philps, a takeway food store that supposedly has some of the best pasties around.  Unbelieveably, we found it and enjoyed our pasties.  

 These were created in this shape for the tin miners in the area.  They carried them for lunch and held them by the edge of the crust which is nice and thick so the meat, potatoes, onions, rutubagas and turnips would not fall out.  They only touched the edge with their hands because of the chemicals on their hands from the tin mining would make them sick it they ate it.  Now, most Cornwall citizens eat at least one pasty a week.   

We found our way back to the larger road (thanks entirely to Myrtle) and headed toward home.  We stopped two times on the way home to stretch, fill the car with gas, use the toilets and buy snacks, but otherwise we just rode the roads.  Some were quite large roads and some were very small but we made it home just after dark. We found it interesting that the gates to our driveway were shut – thankfully, they were not locked.  Wonder who shut them.  

 Maybe it was the same person who took out our trash before we got home – we expect it was Ann, the housekeeper.  We sure were glad to be ‘home’ and we all breathed a big sigh of relief to unfold ourselves from the car and take our loot back into the house.  So far, we have taken our stuff to our rooms, eaten a dinner of fridge food which everyone fixed for themselves, and we are beginning to head toward showers and a nice sleep.

Our plans for tomorrow are rather loose at this point.  We have pretty much decided that we will not get into the car until at least noon.  Some of us may walk around town – there are a few shops that some of us have not been explored yet.  I understand there is a china shop here and I have often brought home one place setting from several countries.  It might just happen here too.  We are considering a short jaunt tomorrow, perhaps lunch in Snowshill.  We hope to have an easy day after the hard driving of today and the hard day we anticipate on Thursday. More on that day later.

Thanks for all the replies to the St Ives questions.  Many of you had correct answers and many of you had incorrect answers.  I’ll not give the answer yet since several of you are still thinking of the answer.