Coastal Walk in Cornwall

[Remember, any picture can be enlarged by clicking on it.]

I arrived yesterday at my newest destination - Penzance! I took a train down from Cardiff - here is a self portrait on the train:

There are a lot of things I want to do here in Cornwall, but today I decided to just do some exploring and get the lay of the land. The place I am staying is just a few minutes from the sea, so I walked down this morning, and walked along a promenade.

I decided to start walking and see if I could reach the tip of that peninsula, so I started walking down the promenade. Here's a few pictures from that walk:

After a couple miles, I came to another town:

CUTEST TOWN NAME EVER. Apparently it's pronounced "Muzzle".  It's a little fishing town just a little ways from Penzance. Since it was around 1:00 PM, my plan was to find somewhere to eat lunch, ideally either fish and chips or a Cornish pasty. However, most of the town was shut down - I think because there aren't many tourists around. I wandered through a fish market but there was no COOKED fish. I have a plan to return someday (by which I mean, one of the next several), and purchase some raw fish and bring it home and cook it. There was so much fish there! I wish I had a real kitchen instead of this hostel kitchen. I am afraid to use the oven because I don't know Celsius.

One thing I was surprised by was how many flowers are in bloom, given that it's November. But there were flowers everywhere! The climate here is very different from the rest of England - as you can see from the palm trees in the pictures. Here are some of my favorite flowers that I encountered:

I also encountered a few exciting other things on my walk.

At one point, I was walking down along a sea wall, and I suddenly saw something quite large moving in the water. At first I thought it was a beaver, but then I realized it was even bigger!! Soon I saw that it was a seal!! We were separated by a lot of rocks, but he swam along next to me for quite a while. He'd dive under the water and then reemerge. The picture is not great but it was the best I could do:

This cat really wanted me to let him into his house. He was very friendly and couldn't understand why I wouldn't open the door for him.

This is the mast of one of the ships in the harbor at Newlyn. (Between Penzance and Mousehole.) I thought the variety of flags was interesting. I think I've managed to identify all the flags, but I wonder why this ship has this particular variety. From top to bottom, I think the flags are: The royal standard of Scotland, the Scottish flag, the "Red Ensign", the American flag, and the Irish flag. An interesting ship to have in England!

Overall, it was a really enjoyable walk. I have exciting plans for the next few days! The weather started out rainy today but then became just cloudy so hopefully it won't be too rainy from here on out. It's Guy Fawkes Day today so there has been a continuous stream of fireworks outside, and there is a bonfire down in Penzance which I might go to if it's not raining.