The sun was shining brightly today as we took a bus tour around the Cornish coast, taking in the sights of St Ives, the Cornish moors, tin mining relics and ending up in Lands End before returning to Penzance and then back to Penryn for the night. We had the good fortune to be accompanied by a third cousin of mine (Charles, or Chas) who I had “met” through Facebook last year, and who acted as our tour guide. Chas has lived in this area for all his life, and was a font of information about all sorts of things we saw along the way – certainly more informative than the traditional guidebook 🙂

While in St Ives we were treated to a genuine Cornish Pasty, and had a coffee at the Tate Gallery, enjoying fine views across the harbour. At Lands End we avoided the gaudy “theme park” that has been developed at the end of the road, and instead walked along the public track to the “First and Last Refreshment House” which is located at the actual western-most point of the Cornish coast.

Back in Penryn we were treated to a traditional light tea including Cornish scones and clotted cream and some traditional saffron cake. Another very full day, and we’ve only just begun!

Photos in this post (click to view full size)…

Top – a vista of St Ives in the sunlight

Left top – Penryn harbour in the early morning sun

Left bottom – our group at the refreshment house at Lands End

More photos on my Flickr photostream.