Saturday 8th July 2023
Today we are heading to Lands End, but first Breakfast. As we drove into Penzance yesterday we noticed a Morrisons Store, across the roundabout a Sainsbury Store, and a little further down the road, a Tesco Store, all “big” superstores. As we are in a self catering we have decided to breakfast out, but more, we have three mornings here so will breakfast in all three supermarket cafes and judge each one, see which is the best! Today we will sample Morrisons, so off we headed.
After a really enjoyable, well cooked, hot and well presented breakfast we headed to Lands end, but much to Christine’s disgust I went using the narrow lanes, I was not her favourite person🥶🥶, but my thinking is obvious, we see more of the countryside!!
My my how things have changed since we last visited (different lives!) Lands End, everything is so commercialised, even the “several” car parks had numerous stewards controlling everyone, naturally we paid for them!!! We had a good wander around in the sun though it was a little windy, enjoyed a coffee and ice cream before heading back via the souvenir shops.
Before I go any further I must praise Tyla (my Granddaughter), now a fully qualified physiotherapist, she has given me several exercises and these have improved my mobility no end; thank you Tyla I can now join Christine out and about more.
Discretion being the better part of Valor, we headed back along the main road though I did insist on a detour and visit the small fishing village of “Mousehole” which by definition is down a narrow country lane🤔. After driving down the hill through the narrow streets we arrived at the harbour only to find the two car parks full; the village was full, so regretfully we headed out, and that was not as easy as it sounds due to the “one-way” system around the narrow streets. Eventually SatNav sorted us out and took us along the coast road through Newlyn back to Penzance.
Tonight is the performance we have tickets for so need to eat early, but we got back too early so headed to our “home” for these few days and by coincidence, we were in time to watch the qualifying for the British Grand Prix, win win🤠🤠.
Christine decided tonight we would have fish and chips, not in a restaurant but on a bench on the promenade 😟😟, not my “cup-of-tea”, her only concession to me was to take a knife and fork from our self catering place. Again we looked up the best fish and chip place to go to In Penzance and when we arrived there was a long queue; either good marketing or really good fish and chips.
As “directed” I secured the bench to sit on the sea front and Christine brought over the freshly cooked meal and in-spite of my dislike of eating out of a paper bag in a cardboard box, I did enjoy them; they were delicious, and trip advisor was right.
We now headed to Penlee Park as we had been advised to get there early to secure a good seat; we were early alright, two hours early!!! Worse, the cafe opposite was closed so we only had the Test Match to listen to. We did try the staff entrance and get in early but we got a resounding “no”, but did find out they had a bar inside and also after chatting to the “official”, we managed to get our places reserved, a space for me on the scooter and a chair, the bonus of this meant Christine didn’t have to stand in the queue which started about hall an hour before the gates opened, which was one hour before the performance starts!!
At 1830hrs the gates opened so headed to the bar to stock up with beer and wine before taking up our reserved spaces. It turned out we were probably in the best place looking straight down the access between all the seating. Until the performance at 1930hrs we kept looking up to the heavens worried it may rain as it had been forecasted but so far so good.
This unlikely open air theatre that can accommodate an audience up to 300 is situated in Penlee Park, it is surrounded by thick hedges and the “stage” is a raised lawn area with a small garden wall around it, and the performers “appear” from behind the bushes. The theatre is 75-years old this year and they have a full season of events from music to plays, very versatile. Being an outdoor theatre naturally we knew we were exposed to the elements but what shook us was there was no roof above the performers, in fact the only covered area is the temporary bar!!!!
The Fisherman’s Friends arrived on stage at the appointed time to a rousing reception and then they started, their first song got the audience in the mood and the first hour of their performance just flew by, they were very entertaining and between songs had a few funny stories to tell. After the interval they re-appeared and were full on with the audience, with some members jumping up and down with the music amongst the chairs. . The good news though, several of the group are the originals, and even played their parts in the Fisherman’s Friends films.
A little after 2200hrs we headed back having been thoroughly entertained and we would urge everyone to go and see them perform.