What a lovely day in Cornwall today with slightly overcast skies but rather warm weather and bits of sunshine here and there. Cornwall is the very southern point of western England and looks like a finger jutting off the main island.After a very nice breakfast we were off in our coach for a tour of the area along the seaside. We passed PerranPorth, St. Agnes and than to a shopping area. Cornwall is a very hilly landscape with so much beauty in it's green, sheep, cow and lama dotted fields, it's massive dark cliffs leading to a whirling dark Atlantic ocean and sandy beaches.
On one of the main beaches near the center of town there is a large rock that is about 50 feet from the main land and someone has built a house on this rock and a suspension bridge to get across. Really lovely as you can see from the pictures.
It was low tide most of the day so we got beautiful views of the beaches and there were so many people out surfing. Yes, surfing as you can see from my pictures when I was walking along the beach in Newquay. It's December and although they were clad in wet suits I still can't believe 40 or so men and women were out there and when I got back to the hotel a young man behind the front desk said he was out a few weeks ago and it was fine. I did asked what do these people do when they get back to their cars and he said they just disrobe and dry off and jump in the car and head home. Brrrrrrrrrrr!!! Is all I can say.I walked through Newquay for a few hours and in and out of shops and along the beaches and just enjoyed being by the seaside on such a glorious December day. We didn't get to walk around St. Agnes or ParrenPorth but the drive was so lovely.
I'm off to dinner at the hotel soon, I'm just using the internet at the hotel across the street where they have a nice pub and free wifi and they don't even require you buy something which is so nice because they feed us so much on this tour. I am seated at a table for breakfast and dinner with a lovely older couple from near Alton which is where Jane Austen spent much time writing her books and also not far from Winchester Cathedral where she is buried. They said the museum is very nice in her home and that when friends and family come they always take them their as it's a favorite of so many people.
I've found the Cornish people so friendly and it's a really nice walking town with lots of hills which is great for exercise especially when I had a Cornish Pasty for lunch, which is a large calzone shaped puff pastry filled with meats and veggies. It was yummy but incredibly filling which I suppose is and was in the past a great easy meal for the fisherman to take with them or walk and eat as I did. I did find it funny that one of the girls I was talking to today who work and live in here that people who live here and only a few minutes from their jobs don't actually walk. Those who have cars always drive no matter how close. It's just such a beautiful place to walk so I can't imagine taking your car and bothering to find a parking space in the town center when a five minute walk is all it would take. But we all know people out in the suburbs in the States who wouldn't think of walking to the grocery store even if it was only a few easy walking blocks from their house, you know who you are!Below is some interesting information on the towns we visited:
Newquay - Newquay looks back on 1600 years of history and a dramatic change of identity from fortified cliff settlement, through tiny port to premier resort. Iron Age Man smelted ore here for weapons and tools, Industrial Age Man made it his conduit for the trade in tin and china clay, but Modern man found its hidden gold; the chain of eleven beaches that have transformed Newquay in less than a century into the most popular holiday resort in Cornwall.
Because of its position at the heart of Cornwall, Newquay
makes the perfect touring base to explore its history and legend. To the north-east
is Tintagel where Merlin wove his spells and King Arthur held court. To the
east is Roche Rock, spiritual home of the Cornish Gorsedd and the wildly
beautiful moorland of Bodmin. And south is the 11th century Restormel Castle,
one-time home of the Black Prince, the beautiful valley of the Fowey and the
lushly different riviera of sleepy estuaries, secluded coves and picturesque
fishing villages like Mevagissey. 
Sixteen hundred years ago all that existed within the modern
boundary was a settlement on Porth Island. You can see a reconstruction of the
inhabitants' lifestyle, hunting and iron-mining methods in the Tunnels Through
Time exhibition in St Michael's Rd. In 1439 Bishop Lacey of Exeter allowed the
burghers of what was then called Towan Blistra to build a New Quay. It was the
beginning of the towns second life as a fishing port culminating in the arrival
of the great pilchard shoals of the 18th century and the galvanising cry of
"Heva !" from the whitewashed Huer's Hut, still standing above the
harbour. 
When the pilchards went, the Industrial Revolution came,
turning Newquay from a fishing to a commodity port loading tin, lead and china
clay. The famous six-oared gigs you can watch in harbour races originally
competed to put pilots on board incoming vessels. Bedruthan StepsIn the
seventeen and eighteenth centuries, low wages from fishing and agriculture were
supplemented by smuggling and more sinisterly the "wrecking" made
famous in Daphne du Maurier's Jamaica Inn. Crantock hid many a cargo of silks,
spices and brandy from the Revenue Men, and wreckers used to swarm from the
villages of St Columb and St Mawgan at news of a ship in difficulties near the
jaws of rock called the Bedruthan Steps.
Cornwall has its own language with a 2000 year tradition and
close ties with Welsh and Breton. As late as the 18th century peasants
resentful of English ways and taxes would say "My ny vynnaf cows
sawnsek" ("I will not speak English"), but now the language is
heard only in bardic revivals of verse or plays in Plen an Gwary - open-air
theatres.
Perranporth - (Cornish: Ty war'n Heyl; meaning manor on the
estuary) is a small seaside resort town on the north coast of Cornwall,
England, United Kingdom. It is 6 miles (10 km) southwest of Newquay and 7 miles
(11 km) northwest of Truro. Perranporth and its 3 miles (5 km) long beach face
the Atlantic Ocean. It has a population
of 3,066, and is the largest settlement in the civil parish of Perranzabuloe.
The village's modern name comes from the Cornish for the
cove of Saint Piran (Porth Peran), Saint Piran being one of the patron saints
of Cornwall. It is believed that Saint Piran founded a church at Perranzabuloe
near Perranporth in the seventh century. Buried under sand for many centuries,
it was unearthed in the nineteenth century, and again early in the twentieth
century, but again left to the mercy of the sands in the 1970s.
And our tour guide Darren mentioned that this is the best beach in Cornwall for Surfers although I didn't see any there this morning but it's also, according to him a very dangerous place.
And our tour guide Darren mentioned that this is the best beach in Cornwall for Surfers although I didn't see any there this morning but it's also, according to him a very dangerous place.
Information on St Piran (whom I hadn’t heard of before but
it’s a very interesting history) - St
Piran is the patron saint of Cornwall of whom landed at the sandy shores of
Cornwall at Perranporth. Legend says that Piran originated from Ireland, cast
to sea tied to a millstone on the order of the Irish King who was suspicious of
Piran's miraculous powers. Piran survived stormy seas and arrived at
Perranporth where he built an oratory to promote Christianity (his first
disciples were said to be a badger, a fox and a bear!) The oratory is now
preserved in the sand dunes at Perran Sands.
According to legend St Piran was fond of a tipple or two, despite
his tipples, he is said to have lived to the age of 206. St Piran's day celebrations continue to grow in popularity.
The annual St Piran Play on Perran Sands being a highlight with hundreds of
people making a pilgrimage to the site of the oratory and other landmarks.
St Agnes - (Cornish:
Breanek) is a civil parish and a large village on the north coast of Cornwall,
England, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately five miles (8
km) north of Redruth and ten miles (16 km) southwest of Newquay. The village of
St Agnes, a popular coastal tourist spot, lies on a main road between Redruth
and Perranporth. It was a prehistoric and modern centre for mining of copper,
tin and arsenic until the 1920s. Local industry has also included farming and
fishing, and more recently tourism. The St Agnes district has a heritage of
industrial archaeology and much of the landscape is of considerable geological
interest. There are also stone-age remains in the parish. The manor of
Tywarnhaile was one of the 17 Antiqua maneria of the Duchy of Cornwall. - Tucked
into a stunning and unspoilt spot on the north Cornish coast, St. Agnes sits in
both a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and a World Heritage Site.
