Gilbert
and Sullivan's comic opera, The Pirates of Penzance, was
written in 1879. At that time, Penzance, England was considered nothing but a sleepy, peaceful resort town. My guess is that the thought of a sleepy,
peaceful town being totally over-run with pirates seemed comical, thus spawning
their inspiration for the opera.
Our TransAtlantic port of
call for Penzance, St. Ives and Land’s End was Falmouth, England. I had pre-arranged a small, private tour
for eight, with owner Andrew Mills from Cornwall Tours. Ship
size dictated that we tender to the port to meet up with Andrew, taking an
additional 30 minutes and putting us dockside at 9:00am. Andrew was cheerfully waiting for us and quickly
led us to his shiny blue van. Within minutes we were off.
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| Owner Andrew Mills, Cornwall Tours |
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| Cornwall Tour 8-passenger Van |
Individual cost amounted to
$48.48 per person and well worth it.
Andrew was courteous, knowledgeable and a careful driver. He was able to answer all questions presented and went out of his way to accommodate us and stick with our time
frame.
Our first stop with Andrew would be the popular
seaside resort of St. Ives. The distance from the port of Falmouth is
only about 30 miles but travel time will take close to an hour. This colorful
and quaint town holds several titles including “Best
UK Seaside Town” from the British Travel Awards, “Best Family Holiday Destination” by Coast magazine and one of TripAdvisor’s “Top
10 European Beaches”.
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| St Ives |
St
Ives is also renowned for it’s number of artists and the
Tate Gallery, only 1 of 4 in the world.
Parking is at a premium if you can find it. Andrew dropped us right downtown next to the
beach, and gave us ample time to explore the narrow cobblestone streets and visit
several of the small independent shops. The
local fudge shop was a favorite.
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| Andrew dropping us off in downtown St Ives |
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| Cobblestone Streets of St Ives | |
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| Local Bakery in St Ives |
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| Fudge shop in St Ives |
St
Ives also serves as home to The Godrevy Lighthouse, an inspiration for the 1927 novel To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf.
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| Godrevy Lighthouse of St Ives |
The cobblestone pathway leading to the
island and parish is only passable between mid and low-tide.
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| Cobblestone path to parish at low tide |
The
population of the parish has been as high as 300. Currently it is only 35 and has been the home
of the St Aubyn family since 1650 but the earliest buildings date back to the 12th century. St Michael's Mount is the Cornish counterpart
to Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy,
France, which
shares the same tidal island characteristics and the same shape, though St
Michael’s Mount is much, much smaller.
St
Michael’s Mount has been the site of several films:
There
is also a short underground, St Michael's Mount Tramway. This is a funicular narrow gauge railway that was built in Victorian times and was used to bring luggage to the house. It
occasionally operates but only for demonstrations and it is not open to the
general public. St
Michael’s Mount is closed on Saturdays so we were not able to tour inside, thus
leaving that for a future visit.
Our stop at Penzance was a few
short minutes from St Michael’s Mount.
It is most noted for being the
most westerly major town in Cornwall.
One of the reasons for the success of Penzance could possibly date back to 1512
when King Henry VIII granted Penzance the right to charge harbor dues.
Penzance
was the birthplace of Maria Branwell, mother of three famous novelists – Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë. Charlotte was the
eldest of the three sisters and her novels have
become classics in English literature. She first published her
works, including her best known novel Jane Eyre,
under the pen name of Currer Bell. Due to prejudice of female writers, the Brontë sisters adopted masculine first names. All three retained the first letter of their first name. Charlotte became Currer Bell, Anne became Acton Bell and Emily became Ellis Bell. Emily died in 1848 at the age of 30, Anne in 1849 at age 29 and Charlotte in 1855 at age 39.
Andrew had selected Penzance for our lunch
stop and surprised us by taking us to Admiral Benbow’s Pub andRestaurant. One
of the oldest pubs in Penzance, the Admiral Benbow has been in existence since
the 17th Century and is popular with locals and the famous, including Gregory
Peck and the Rolling Stones. It is also the fictional home of Jim Hawkins in
the 1883 novel “Treasure Island”
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| Admiral Benbow Pub and Restaurant |
What an amazing place this
was. Once
you step inside you find yourself surrounded by a fascinating collection of
maritime artifacts rescued from numerous shipwrecked vessels found off the
Cornish coast over the last 400 years. Many of its treasures are incorporated
into the building and the Captain’s Cabin
Restaurant displays an stunning array of woodwork from a Man of War
frigate.
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| Man of War Frigate Design |
The Lady Hamilton Lounge is home to a
magnificent and well preserved cannon and a ships figure head.
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| Cannon |
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| Inside Admiral Benbow Pub and Restaurant |
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| Inside Amiral Benbow Pub and Restaurant |
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| Inside Admiral Benbow Pub and Restaurant |
The
upstairs bars afford beautiful views over Penzance harbor towards St Michael’s
Mount.
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| Mike steering the ship |
After our lunch experience we headed out to Land’s End. A granite cape peninsula listed as the most westerly point of
mainland Cornwall and England, Land’s End is located about 8 miles
west-south-west from Penzance. Although
the average wind speed for May is listed at 12kts or about 14mph, the day we
visited I feel pretty confident that it must have been more like 40mph.
If you visit be sure you dress
properly as I found it to be very cold and we were there the middle of
May.
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| Mike and I at Land's End |
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| Land's End, England |
You will see some stunning views
of the granite cliffs and the famous Longships Lighthouse. The lighthouse has been unmanned since 1988.
The current lantern, which has a range
of 11 nautical miles (about 13 miles), emits one long five-second flash
every ten seconds and the Fog horn signals sound every ten seconds.
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| Longships Lighthouse at Land's End |
On a clear and sunny day at Land’s End you will be able to see the Isles of Scilly but weather did not cooperate with us on the day we were there.
Our
departure from Land’s End found us heading directly to the port of
Falmouth, arriving at 4:00pm, plenty of time to spare as the last tender
wasn't scheduled until 4:30pm. After a 15-minute
wait, it began to drizzle but within 15 minutes it was raining
significantly. I always take along an
umbrella so I was prepared but there were at least 40 other people waiting for the tender, none of which were prepared for the rain. Norwegian Cruise Lines only provided 2
small pop-up canopies so people were desperately trying to squeeze under the
shelter. After another 30 minute wait in
the rain I politely asked one of the crew members what seemed to be the problem and was told the
seas were very rough and they were having difficulty getting passengers on
board the ship. By the time a tender
finally arrived, boarded the remaining soaked passengers and took us back to
the ship it was 5:30pm, an hour and a half after first arriving at the
pier. We would later come to find out
that the problem stemmed from two of the tenders crashing into each other,
injuring some passengers. Not sure why
we had to anchor so far off shore but we arrived safe and sound, although saturated
and cold.
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