Monday – M. and I were in beautiful, beautiful Cornwall, and I was worried that something was going to go wrong. Even the scenery down the street from the hotel couldn’t distract me:
I wanted to visit Saint Michael’s Mount, which sat lovely and tantalizing just off the coast, but that required negotiating bus schedules and ferry schedules in both directions to make it back to the station in Penzance by 2 PM. The British rail system offers considerable discounts on its tickets, provided that you purchase them in advance and are precisely at the station at the time specified. This was making me sweat.
So, we figured out which bus to take to Marazion, then we wandered around on the beach until we found the spot for the ferry, which was just leaving – but it was only for the staff, as the island wasn’t open. We waited for the tourist ferry, which, as it turns out, was also early. Because of this, we got a special trip around the island, with some spectacular views:
It was quite the climb, with me carrying all of our luggage, including my laptop, to the top. The castle was beautiful, and the view was stunning, with Cornwall on three sides and the Atlantic on the fourth.
Having seen it, we made it back to town without incident, window browsing in some shops and getting some excellent ice cream before taking the train back. On the way up and back, I managed to finish Ruickbie’s Faust biography, which I’ve already reviewed.
Tuesday – Not much happened on this day. M. decided to unwind at the hotel while I headed to the Wellcome Institute’s library to view some of their manuscripts, examples of which you can view online.
More later!
Papers Falling from an Attic Window 
Very nice pictures. It must reallybe refreshing to be in the midst of such a historical place.
Best Wishes to you Dan!
Great pics, Dan! Looks like you got some beautiful weather for traveling. It must have been fairly balmy, with the palm trees and all–surprised there weren’t any hippos wandering about…
Warlock: Thanks! It was a great place.
Paul: England was warm and disturbingly balmy for all of our stay. The hippo was holding down the fort in London while we were gone.
Cornwall is the birthplace of your maternal great grandfather. The family was involved in tin mining. When tin was discovered in Brazil in the late 1880’s, he immigrated to Canada and later settled in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan where he mined copper. There is an old family legend that the family was also involved in piracy off the coast of Land’s End in Cornwall. To this day, characters resembling the family espcially our erstwhile blogger can be seen on the Pirates of Penzance ride at Disney World.
There is an old story about how the poor folk of Land’s End made ends meet in the hard times. On dark nights, one of the villagers would climb to a high place with a lantern and a donkey. The lantern shining out to sea would trick sailors into thinking there was a lighthouse, and cause them to wreck on the rocks. Then the villagers would collect the booty that washed ashore from the wreck.
Legend does not record what exactly the donkey was doing during all of this.
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