There are all sorts of coastal roads in Cornwall and we could have done several but ended up doing the one called the Penwith Peninsula. We had another windy day-the girl giving the weather report said it would be “blowey” and she was right.

Our first stop was a little village called Zennor and in the church there is what is called “The Mermaid Chair”. There have been mermaid sightings in the water around Zennor over the years. Apparently, the church considers a mermaid a sort of symbol of Christ.

All of Cornwall is covered with remains of former tin mines. You can see one far below. We climbed up to look for an ancient ruin which we think we found but the view was the best of all.

One of the tin mine ruins. They always had chimneys which I think means they burned ore to get the tin.

Just a very small section of the Levant Mine which had many chimneys. They mined right by the ocean a mile underground. Thirty one men were killed there when an elevator malfunctioned.

Here is a photo of what it looked like at one time. It was a hard job and most men who worked there didn’t live much past 30.

An enthusiastic lady in the tourist office in St Ives told us that a trip out to Lanhydrock Castle was a must so we drove out there. It was in a beautiful setting with gorgeous flowers and the interior of this huge place was fascinating to see.

This photo of the front gives you some idea of the size of this place. I think it had 51 rooms.

Beautifully sculptured trees.

The kitchen was enormous with six separate rooms each for a different preparation-fish, desserts, meats, etc. I love copper and used to want to collect it but don’t want the work of keeping it shiny.

One of the many rooms with the sun shining in.

A nightgown lying on a bed.

This was on a dresser of the lady of the house. One of the volunteers there had been a little girl when the family was still living here. They had nine children. I swear I could smell violets while standing there.

A look outside at some of the pretty flowers.

Next on our list (in Cornwall) was Tintagel. On the way we made a stop at Boscastle a little town that was almost totally wiped out by a flash flood a couple of years ago.

One of the side streets there in Boscastle.

Maybe one day I’ll have a model of a ship in my window.

This was the tourist office that got totally destroyed in the flood and rebuilt. There was a film inside someone took from a hill of the whole thing. It was incredible to watch. Twelve people were rescued from the roof of the tourist office by helicopter before it was all over.

Next was Tintagel of King Arthur fame. It’s totally in ruins and it takes a breathless climb uphill to get there but what a view. There was a raging wind when we were there and it rained off and on but I’m glad I got to visit.

The sea crashing down below.

A look back further up the hill.

The Eden Project has to be seen to be believed. Gardens, biodomes, sculptures, museum, huge eating spaces-it was full of things to see. It really promotes ecology and saving the earth.

My photo of a poster showing what was there before: a stone quarry.

What you see as you enter the grounds. These domes have tropical gardens on one side, mediterranean on the other.

A scarecrow in one of the vegetable gardens outside.

Outdoor sculpture. This was huge and there was a rope attached to it so you could make it move back and forth.

Inside the tropical plant dome. You can climb the stairs and go to the top for a bird’s eye view. We wanted to do it but didn’t as it was a 45 minute wait.

A sculpture made of technical trash that seems to be covering the world. It was made of TVs, computers, appliances, etc. Amazing how much trash we are all producing.

We took a tour offered by the tourist office around St Ives which is always a great way to see a town or city. St Ives, besides being a tin mining town, was also a major fishing village especially for a fish I haven’t heard of before, the pilchard. Enormous groups of these fish would arrive somewhere near St Ives and a watcher would sound the alarm (I assume the water was churned up by a sort of feeding frenzy which I saw once on a fishing trip in the ocean off of Mexico). Large boats would go out with very long nets and pull fish close to shore. Smaller boats would then go out and bring the fish to shore. The fish were mostly pressed for their oil most of which was, interestingly, sent to Italy for lamps. Then suddenly in 1924, about the same time as the tin mining stopped, the fish stopped coming-maybe over-fishing? Tourism, as is the case in many places, then became the source of income for the village. Plus, there were many artists who came here for the light. One building in the village made a sort of dividing point and the part above was called “The Up Along”, the lower part, “The Down Along”.

There was Cornish pasties everywhere. They were created when some housewife came up with the idea of putting meat and vegetables inside a pastry and baking it, thus making a way to carry lunch without a dish. I had one with beef and potatoes-very good.

I liked this sign. There are, as you might think, life boats for saving lives or floundering boats and there was all sorts of history about various events. There was a museum in town too full of photos and drawings about all that happened.

Trying to control the sea gulls. I actually didn’t see many around the harbor which made me think that maybe there was some sort of population control going on.

The tiny beach in the village.

Can you see the little shelters set up among the people on the beach? At first I thought it was for privacy but, after the wind arrived with those dark gray clouds, I believe they are shelters to keep the wind from ripping everything away.

We just briefly saw part of Penzance which I only know of because of the musical from many years ago, The Pirates of Penzance. We only walked down one street really, had dinner at a pub and then caught a bus back to St Ives.

The street was very colorful and flowers were everywhere-which seems to be the case in most of England.

We considered dinner here-loved the sign.

But settled for dinner here. It was full of nautical decorations. My main memory here was of two little girls running around going into dark halls and scaring themselves saying they had seen ghosts. One of the waitresses sneaked up and scared them.

Loved this very English red door.

The cathedral catching the evening sun.