Penzance!

Consipicuosly lacking in pirates, I must say. I only saw one. And he was a sign board for a curio shop. I also saw a life size mannequin of either a Cornish smuggler/bandit or some type of officer of the law creeping along the roofline of one of the local free houses. These two professions sound as though they would be diametrically opposed, and they are, but the context clues available in the image were not enough to provided me with a conclusive answer. He was dressed like a pilgrim, if you were observing said pilgrim during the throes of an especially colorful acid-derived freakout. And he had a pistol, one of those cool late 17th century ones that have flared muzzles like teeny-tiny blunderbusses. It was painted in typical gun colors.

The picture above is of 'The Egyptian House' and is actually one of things really wanted to see in Penzance. And I walked right by it COMPLETELY without seeing it. Which is difficult to do. The building stands out. In fact, what caught my eye was a rather non-descript building across the way. "Oooooooh!" I said. "A flea market! I'll come back after I've found The Egyptian House..." Fast forward about ten minutes. "Well I don't know where that House is... Guess I'll check out that flea market now." I'm a dorkwad.

And I frolicked a bit in the sea, which was very nice, but I was glad to come home to a good wash up and de-salination. It was very pretty out today, really, not a single cloud in the sky- just some errant contrails. It's a bit of a train journey, especially if you pick up the London-Penzance sleeper, as I did. You spend an hour just sitting at the platform in Plymouth. Which is time that could be better used frolicking in the sea!

I'm heading out to Amsterdam on Tuesday, and should be back mid-afternoon on Friday, so I'll try to update with pictures of the trip then. But I may not do it until much later. There is a slight chance I may be 'tired' after some 13 hours of bus travel. I'm just throwing it out there as a possibility. But for now, I've posted a handful of new photos at my Photobucket gallery. Hopefully that should tide you over until I come back with photos of a distinctly Dutch variety. TTYL, TTFN.