Our Last Day In Penzance,

downstairs to the restaurant,

for our breakfast, I started with some smoked haddock, followed, like Diana with an English fry-up,

as it happened although it was still very windy, it had at least stopped raining, Diana went to town past the purple house to go shopping in town, we wanted to buy some Cornish pasties take home, 

 meanwhile I took myself with both cameras off to Morrab Gardens, 

the garden is famous for it's selection,

of tropical and sub-tropical plants and palms,

also it's bandstand,

which dates back over 100 years,

the cast iron bandstand was donated by local coal merchant J H Bennett, and was opened on 5 August 1905,

the celebration included a grand concert by the Penzance Military Band,  

the bandstand was renovated in 2004,

you never know the next time we are here, there might even be a band playing!

I walked past the magnolia,

looking back towards the road,

a part of the succulent garden,

now above the magnolia,

just a shame the wind took away so many petals,

I am not sure of the significance of the cannon, maybe a trophy of a war?

the fountain in one of the ponds,

I made my way back downhill,

looking back towards the bandstand,

I had just finished photographing,

when Diana arrived, after loading up the car we were away,

for a slight detour, to Bodmin, we were going to visit the famous Jamaica Inn, about 50 miles from Penzance,

Jamaica Inn was built in 1750 as a coaching inn, it is estimated that half the brandy and a quarter of all tea being smuggled into the UK was landed along the Cornish and Devon coasts,

 Jamaica Inn was remote and isolated so it was the ideal stopping place on the way to Devon and beyond, in 1778 the Inn was extended to include a coach house, stables and a tack room, creating the L-shaped main part of the building as it is today, we had a coffee,

bought a few bits and pieces, then had a walk outside,

time for a pose,

or two! if you have time it has a great restaurant and is steeped in history from the time of smuggling and customs men, back into the car for the 240 mile run back to Beckenham,

it started raining, again! but at least we had the occasional rainbow to look at,

we made good time to Stonehenge, then it all went mustang, we left the Jamaica Inn at 12.00 midday, we arrived home some 8 hours later! we passed every traffic incident and set of roadworks you could think of, stop start traffic on the motorways for mile after mile, just a blessing we did not have an electric only car! the good news was that we made the complete trip all 640 miles of it on just one tank of fuel, and according to the trip meter thing, still had enough left for another 60 miles! anyway before arriving home I put £50 worth of fuel in the tank, which gives us just over a half a tank full for our next trip out, 

arriving home for our evening meal, what else? a genuine Cornish pastie, and nice it was too, one from Poirot, one from New Tricks and we were off to bed.