Journey to my second home, England vol. 4

Finally, I am heading to the westernmost tip of England.

I had wanted to go to Land’s End so badly. I was so full of anticipation that I could not sleep well the night before, but I woke up early in the morning and had a good breakfast. My excitement reached the highest level.

We checked out at 9:00. We arrived at Marazion, on the shore of Mount’s Bay in Cornwall, at 11:00 a.m. That’s the closest point to St. Michels Mount. It was high tide at that time, but the tide turned low about 2:30 pm, and we walked over the causway to St. Michaels Mount. (You can cross by boat at high tide or in case of rain.) After a 20-minute walk, we arrived at the island, where we strolled around the castle, chapel, and gardens which were built in the 12th century. The island is said to be the English version of Mont Saint-Michel because it was similar to Mont Saint-Michel in France. It was once a monastery, then a castle, then a royal retreat. The castle is now occupied by the fourth generation of the castle’s owners. The garden is elegant with beautiful flowers. Inside the castle, each room had a different atmosphere, and the wallpaper, chandeliers, and furnishings were wonderful. Outside, we could see the wild sea and glimpse how hard life was in the castle. After a leisurely stroll, we crossed the ocean again to the parking lot. From there, it took 20 minutes to drive to Land’s End!

I was absolutely speechless. I slowly strolled back to the ocean, listening to the sound of the waves, and just zoned out for a while. I didn’t need any words while I was there.

After a luxurious time, we went to the Penzance Hotel. It was a really classic hotel. Kettle, cups and saucers, candy boxes, beds, etc. were all lovely. There was a grand piano in the sitting room, along with many books, and a comfortable sofa. The restaurant was a homey space. When we asked for beer around 4:00 p.m. before they were open for dinner, they warmly said, “Sure.” Then, around 4:30 pm, the manager asked us if he could vacuum the room since dinner time started at 5 pm. (Of course, I said yes) and we had nice beer while listening to the loud sound of the vacuum cleaner. The food was excellent. The taste, quality and price were good.

The next day we went to St. Ibis -> Boldak (the setting of Netflix’s “Gentleman”) -> Sennen Cove. At Boldak we had scones and tea while looking at the ocean. It was the most luxurious afternoon tea with the ocean breeze.

In the afternoon, we went to the Minick Theater, an open-air stone theater built on a steep cliff. This theater is still in use today. It is said to be the most spectacular theater in the world. Miss Rowena Cade, a theater enthusiast, conceived the idea of turning the cliff overlooking her garden into a theater, and Rowena, gardeners and local people carried the stones by hand and built it. It is still being maintained today by various people. The performance of the night was a circus.

The next day we went to Torquay.

This is another interesting town. It is a seaside town known as the English Riviera. Naturally, the fish is delicious! And it is also the birthplace of Agatha Christie. Tor Abbey had a garden with rare and highly toxic plants from Agatha Christie’s novels.

I was also impressed by the Baby Comb Model Village, which was a miniature city that has been elaborately built! Big Ben and the Statue of Liberty were there too. It was a great way to understand the life of the British people and their culture. And they are still building new buildings. I wonder how much it will expand. If you take your time, you can spend half a day here. If you want, you could spend a whole day with a cup of tea.

Then we went to a village called Cockington. This place is a living museum. Like Shirakawa-go in Japan. I felt like I was back in time. We had a tea time there. We ate scones with chutney and cream cheese, it was a novel way to eat them. It was very refreshing. The flapjacks (oats bar) were also delicious.

It was time to go back to Manchester, so we moved a little north.

We went to the Cotswolds. Bourton-on-the-Water was a full of tourists! There were many Japanese, too. After an hour’s stay, we moved to Stow-on-the-Wold. I wanted to see the antique shops there. We saw a lot of shops and enjoyed the displays. I bought a few antique items that I liked. It was a very good shopping trip. Here we took a break at Huffkin’s Tea Room. We were a little tired, so we had scones, lemon drizzle cake, and Victorian sandwiches. All of them went well with milk tea and I forgot my fatigue.

After that, we walked around the town of Upper Slaughter and visited an old church.

The honey-colored buildings in Cotswolds were lovely.

The last stop in the Cotswolds was the English lavender fields in Snowshell. We happened to see it on the BBC on the morning news and took a quick drive there. The hills were all lavender. When we got out of the car, the smell was unmistakable. There was white and red lavenders too. After taking pictures, we had tea time in the lavender field. I had lavender tea and lavender flapjacks. It was really delicious. I bought lavender honeys, lavender tea and lavender cookies as gifts.

From there, we headed further north. Only one more day left in our long trip to England. We had to go back to Manchester