Penzance sans pirates.

Mon 20th June

The dream of Vera-on a Penzance beach.

        This was our first exploration day with the first stop being Argoos in Penzance followed by a little peruse round the town.We were disappointed on both counts as the Argoos store informed us that they didn't have the camera in store even although its website had said it did the day before.So it was a hunt for a cafe with wifi which appeared by the name of Rosie's Tearoom.Over a coffee and a couple of Bakewell tarts a new one was ordered from Argoos in Bodmin which was about forty miles away so Lady Watson's reunitement with a camera had to be delayed by another day.

       She took her mind of her cold turkey by perusing the shops mainly the ones of the charity type and lo and behold found some bargains to cheer herself up.Apart from that Penzance doesn't offer much just the same named stores you find throughout Britain.

       Shopping was all done by lunchtime so we headed towards St Ives just as the sun came out meaning it was going to be busy and I wasn't disappointed.

      St Ives is  a town size version of Mousehole with its abundance of narrow streets so much so that you park your car on the outskirts and have the choice between walking into town or jumping on a minibus.We walked into town but decided that we were going to bus it back.

The tide comes in pretty quick

The long and winding road.

       We toddled off down the hill into town to be greeted by hundreds of daytrippers out to enjoy the sunshine.

Seagull chick with it's own paddling pool.

Typical English seaside town complete with wall to wall chip shops.

Pick a boat any boat.

Boat trips,fishing trips,surfing lessons and many such pastimes were being advertised very vocally.There were plenty of eateries and pubs on offer to wet our whistle but when I turned round to ask what her poison would be Lady Watson had vanished to which I thought-maybe she's been collared by the press gang-nah they wouldn't be that stupid.Also knowing that nobody would be brave enough to mug her I decided to head for the Sloop Inn which is featured in the Raise the Titanic film for a pint of foaming ale to wait her appearance.

Time for a top up.

                                 

Just how I like my pubs.

  The Sloop Inn looks the typical English seaside pub from the outside with satellite football and cheap lager being advertised but inside it still looks like it did for hundreds of years.A pint of Dartmoor jail ale was requested and I sat waiting for some word from Lady Watson.Another good thing about very old pubs is that they never usually have a phone signal and this one didn't let me down.The good times came to an end when she finally tracked me down.She must have got in touch with the local coven.She had been sidetracked by an antique and memorabilia sale in the local guildhall.She had acquired some trinkets and said there was nothing that would take my fancy.Funny thing is that she had her fingers crossed when she told me that.

This is were Lady Watson disappeared albeit not for long.

                           We headed for the local bus-stop to be packed in like sardines for the journey back up to the car park.Home was headed for as the remainder of the salad had to be consumed this time supplemented by chips from Mousehole's local chippy