From the time we determined to take the Voyage of the Vikings and saw the itinerary, I had eagerly anticipated our return to Cornwall. Cornwall is in far southwestern England and most travelers to the British Isles have to be going to Cornwall as it is not a place one passes through to get somewhere else. In that respect, it’s much like Wales. We have not found as many visitors to Cornwall, but after our driving trip to the UK in 2005 where we made a point to spend some times in Cornwall, I was happy this cruise was going to spend time here. Our only real disappointment was that we were to be here only one day in such a wonderful part of Britain.
We debated as to which shore excursion we wanted to do since it was a choice of revisiting some of our favorite 2005 places which included the beautiful fishing village of St. Ives where we spent several nights, Lands End (the farthest point west in Britain) and a few other places we had visited. It was tempting to revisit those places since we had enjoyed them so much. Another excursion captivated our interest too as it was billed as “Classic Old Cornwall” and visited places in Cornwall we had never seen and this unique tour would be what was billed as in a “vintage English coach.” By the time we decided we would try some places we had never visited in Cornwall, we found that this tour had already booked, so we put ourselves on a waiting list and chose the other excursion. We weren’t disappointed but were sorry that we had missed out on doing something different. But a couple months ago, we received an email from Holland America telling us that two spaces on the Classic Old Cornwall were now available, so we booked immediately. And are we ever glad we did! This was a great tour, but then how could any excursion in Cornwall not be great.
I might say that Cornwall has the warmest climate in the UK, receiving the warmth of the Gulf Stream. First time visitors are surprised to see palm trees in Britain, but they are there in Cornwall – not the tall palms of Florida, California, or South Pacific islands, but palms nevertheless. Cornwall has its own heritage and they are trying to bring back the Cornish language similar to what the Welsh are doing, but only 2-3% of the Cornish people are able to speak it today. Cornwall is noted for its pretty fishing villages and in yesteryear was famous for its smuggling dens and pirates. (Remember Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Pirates of Penzance”? Penzance is a village on the coast of Cornwall.)
We arrived in Cornwall this morning to gray, overcast skies with cool, windy temperatures, more reminiscent of what we might expect in Scotland and Wales. I had expected warm, sunny skies and the best weather of the cruise here. It was misting when we went out to board our old coach. Barb and I didn’t know quite what to expect, both of us imagining an old English coach of the 18th and 19th century and maybe drawn by horses. We knew we weren’t going too far from our port in Falmouth so it made sense to us. Instead we were greeted by an old 1956 Bedford bus with soft, but smaller seats than we would find on modern busses. There was no air conditioning and windows would open from the top. Not only that, but the bus had no power steering and of course was a stick shift. We sat in the second seat so could watch the driver struggle with the sharp turns and the hills on the narrow roads. I might make a brief comment about the guide and driver. Both Peter, the guide, and Jonathan, the driver, were dressed like gentlemen, both with white shirts and ties. Both had lots to tell us about Cornwall and both had keen senses of humor that kept us laughing. Peter told us that we would be making a crossing on a ferry to St. Mawes with normal people, implying of course that we, well…. The day was filled with a lot of fun and humor.
We boarded the ferry for the crossing to St. Mawes across the River Fal estuary. We had about 40 minutes there while the driver had to make the hour long drive across a bridge to meet us at St. Mawes. From there we made the short drive to the best preserved of Henry VIII’s coastal artillery castles for a brief tour using the hand held guide devices. Across the estuary on the Falmouth side, is another fortress but it’s not as well preserved. We were told there needed to be one on each side to protect the estuary since, at the time, given the width of the estuary, cannonballs didn’t have enough reach to protect both sides of the river.
Our next stop was, for me, the most picturesque of the entire excursion. We were taken to St. Just in Roseland to see the lovely church there. We had to walk down an incline to the church where the church bell was tolling noon, past an old cemetery (except there were also some new graves as recent as 2010) with beautiful gardens and shrubs including some semi-tropical trees. It was along the water and the guide told us to imagine that the tide was in as we happened to be there when the tide was out.
A short distance away, we had lunch at Smuggler’s Cottage, near the small, but historically important village of Tolverne which played a role in the history of World War II. From Tolverne, American troops were dispatched across the English Channel to participate in the D-Day Invasion on Omaha Beach. General Eisenhower visited Tolverne to address the troops and we even saw a chair at the restaurant which he had sat in when he visited there at the time. We were treated to a traditional Cornish lunch of a Cornish pasty. For those unfamiliar with a pasty, it was used by tin miners and other workers as part of their lunch each day. It was a pastry filled with beef, sliced potato, turnip, and onion. The crust would be folded to form a sort of handle which workers with dirty hands could use to eat their lunch and then throw away the crust handle. But we ate ours on plates with knives and forks unlike the workers of the 19th century.
Our final unique event was to take a very short ferry on what was called the King Harry “Floating Bridge”. It was a short ferry ride that would save an hour’s drive time, but is one of only five chain ferries in England. Once on the other side of the Fal River, it was only a short drive back to the ship. We decided that this was one of our best and most unique shore excursions. But before reboarding the ship, Barb decided she wanted to stop at a nearby Spar (small grocery store). After we returned through security, one of the security guards asked if we would like to see a nice view of the ship. He took us around to the other side which gave us a great view of both the ship as well as boats in Falmouth Harbor. Then he asked if we wanted to see something else. We didn’t know what he had for us to see; it turned out to be a mother duck and some baby ducklings nesting behind a building. Then we boarded the ship and noticed a lot of activity on a nearby military ship. We were told it was a movie shoot for a Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie film in progress. Unfortunately, Barb’s binoculars didn’t reveal our famous neighbors!
As we sailed from Falmouth, the rains that had fortunately stayed away during the day came with a fury, complete with dense fog that obscured what otherwise might have been a beautiful sailaway from Falmouth.
Chuck
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