On to Newquay, like England’s Santa Cruz, with lots of surfing (please see Mick’s boogie boarding post). Not the most southern southwestern tip, but close enough to say we were there. Overall, Cornwall is a beautiful and lush area with spectacular beaches that go for miles with tidal influences that we never witness in California. We stayed three days in Newquay with a day trip down to Perranporth to walk a beach recommended by our friend Susan (she and her husband, Ian, are handling our mail while we are away). Sue and Ian lived and owned a business there 30 years ago and Sue told us it was the most beautiful beach she’d ever seen. I’d have to agree that it’s pretty amazing.
Our last night, we stayed a night in the Hotel California. It’s kind of a funky hotel built from a large older grand home in the seventies with a bowling alley, an outdoor pool which needed some work and was not open, a beautiful indoor pool and sauna, a squash court, a table tennis room and a pool table. Cathy would go on about its funkiness and the work it needed, but I loved the place even though the double room I booked happened to be two twin beds. His majesty, King Mick, was not about to relinquish his bed so Cathy and I shared a twin. The hotel was located on the southern side of Newquay and overlooked the River Gannel, a river that forms an amazing tidal estuary before meeting the Celtic Sea. We walked the river-beach at low tide for a least a half mile towards the sea and later that evening observed high tide, where paddle boarders actually floated by us at the hotel with no river-beach to be seen. All so beautiful!
Now we head to the airport for a short ride on a small plane, much to Mick’s pleasure, up to Dublin where we start a twelve-day roundabout of Southern Ireland…
