On Friday, last week, I set off for a much needed mini holiday to Cornwall, with my boyfriend. It had been over a year since I was last in Cornwall (and even then it was only for a day before heading to Devon camping with my old sea swimming buddies) – which after three years of living there is a pretty long time to not smell the salty air and admire the stunning scenery. It was also Steve’s first experience of, not only Cornwall but, the South West of England in general (I know, what?!) so it was all very exciting.
We had amazing weather for pretty much the whole four/five days we were there and managed to fit a lot of different things in – having a car is really a necessity if you want to see Cornwall at its best. We stayed in Falmouth at a lovely B&B that both I and my parents have stayed at previously and although we spent a fair amount of time in Fal – we ate there every night – we also had days out in other parts of Cornwall.
It was a fairly smooth drive down to Falmouth (about 6/7 hours including stopping for about half an hour) and we arrived right on time to check into the B&B at 3pm. It wasn't overly sunny on arrival but it was warm. We visited the important places – the beach and Trago Mills – and also went for a night time stroll around Pendennis point after dinner at Gylly Beach café. But it turns out it gets very, very dark around Pendennis in the evening…
When can I move in?
Some excellent new informational and directional signage around Falmouth.
Steve befriending the hotel kitty – we later found out he is called Buster.
On Saturday, our first full day, we headed off bright and early to the Eden Project. I’ve been a few times before but it was great to see that, despite that, there were lots of new things. Plus there was a dinosaur attraction on for the school holidays – even though the school holidays were over!
Baobab smoothie was absolutely delicious.
Ice cream too (and pretty signs/typography).
There was an apparent lack of As, I had to make the two in this out of C and Ls.
We spent way too long drawing dinosaurs with wax crayons in the kid’s Design-a-saur area.
And proud of our drawings we were too… well, someone was.
Back in Falmouth for late afternoon, we visited Gylly beach again to dip our feet in the sea.
And witnessed a levitating ship.
Probably my favourite trees in Falmouth.
And this shows how close to the sea we were staying!
Sunday was an even busier day with two different locations that I had planned for us to visit…
In the morning we headed down to Lizard village and the most southerly point in the UK. We admired the lighthouse, landscape and bird-life, and then even explored a small beach below the ‘point’. As always with The Lizard, it was rather windy… but some sunshine too!
Lizard Lighthouse.
Tourist!
I have photographed this shop’s sign before, and I photographed it again. I like it.
When we were done getting blown around at The Lizard, we hopped back in the car and drove further west (although we had to drive north first, as it was the most southerly point afterall!). We parked up at Marazion which is near Penzance and home to St Michael’s Mount – ‘the island castle’ as Steve referred to it as. This was something that he had been wanting to see ever since I first suggested we go to Cornwall, although I didn’t actually even realise that the building was a castle. We later learnt that it started life as a chapel and extra bits got added over the years – so it’s not a castle like Pendennis or St Mawes. Still awesome though.
We had to get the boat over as the tide was in and the walk-able route was inaccessible
(but I’ve walked over before).
The perfect shot – no people.
What. A. View.
For our final full day in Cornwall, on Monday, we left the car at the B&B for the whole day and travelled by boat and train instead. Firstly, we took the little ferry over to St Mawes to see Pendennis’s neighbouring castle and generally soak up the sun.
Boat ‘selfie’.
We sat on a bench here for a little while. The view was so stunning, no photo would do it justice.
After that, when back in Falmouth, we popped into Truro on the train for a spot of record shopping. Steve bought me Springsteen’s The River, which is my first Springsteen record (I have been
listening tonight and it’s very good – obviously I’ve listened to it before, but not on vinyl). I took no photos in Truro. The only thing of real interest photographically is Truro cathedral, which still has scaffolding around it and it also had a funeral party surrounding it so seemed inappropriate to be snapping pictures.
We finished our last night in Falmouth with a tasty plate of fish and chips at Harbour Lights. It was a bit chilly outside, by the time we went out for dinner, to sit and eat on the pier, so we ate in the restaurant. Lovely it was too.
All of these photographs were taken on my iPhone (some through Instagram, as you can probably tell) but I did also take some photos on my
Pentax film camera which I will get developed and scan in at some point. I just have half of another film to use up first.
As always, it was difficult to leave Falmouth and Cornwall once again but Steve seemed to like it very much, so I hope we’ll be back before too long. If only it wasn’t quite so far away…
