Weekend Away: Land's End

This morning we got a sleep in... Kind of. The house we're staying in has breakfast included, so we got up for that at 8:30, then got on the road for the day! Our main plan for the day was to go to Land's End, but that was only a few hours away, so it wasn't our whole plan. We headed off without too much in particular planned though.

 

It was proper British weather this morning - grey and just drizzly enough to both ruin my hair and make us wear raincoats. So when we saw the sign for the Eden Project, we thought we'd check it out. It was quite cool (even though it was on the expensive size), with lots of outdoor areas which we intend to explore on a day it isn't raining... But the main attraction, the biomes, are of course covered, so those were cool.

 

One biome is Mediterranean themed (although included plants from Australia, yay!), and the other is a rainforest. Loud to explore, look at, and learn about the environments. They had a Corpse Flower in the rainforest (not currently flowering, but it will in a few weeks) and I even saw pineapples growing on their pineapple tree (bush?). Pineapples in Cornwall, not something I thought I'd see...

 

After the Eden Project, we headed towards Penzance, before realising that we were really close to St Michael's Mount. So we went there, walked along the causeway through the ocean, and checked it out. The gardens were closed due to the weather (although by this point the rain had stopped, and it was almost sunny), and we decided that we'd save the castle for the next visit as well. We just took a few gorgeous photos before heading back to the mainland.

 

A quick stop in Penzance for excellent fish and chips (highly recommend Fraser's), before continuing to Land's End. We drove through Mousehole, a lovely tiny town, but couldn't stop because we couldn't find anywhere to park... And the tide was at it's lowest at that point and not ideal for photos. Our last stop before Land's End was the Merry Maidens stone circle and Tregiffian Burial Chamber. This is a weird thing about England, they're almost blase about some of their history. The battle was literally just on the side of the road, with a little signpost. No parking or fees or anything. And the stone circle was in the middle of what is presumably someone's field. So strange to have such old history and no road signs (we would have missed it if not for GPS) or anything.

 

Then, finally, Land's End! The rain had stayed away, thank goodness, but boy was it windy and quite cold! We looked at the free exhibition, browsed the gift shop (bought a magnet!), checked how far it was to Canberra (11211 miles, in case you were wondering), and took many photos. 

 

By that point we had to return to our part of the country. We drove via another barrow (I can't remember its name), which was very cool, much more obvious with stone ring around it and all. Again though, no signpost leading the way, just a small info sign on the side of a tiny road. Then we went back, past St Ives to dinner... At the same pub as last night. Well, it was just so good!

 

We've also been taking and planning some future trips we'd like to take in the next few months, so here's hoping we can pull them off! And in the meantime, back to London tomorrow.