By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises
Our journey began with a westward jaunt of about 350 nautical miles—the equivalent of 400 land miles—down the River Thames and then over to Cornwall and the town of Falmouth.
Cornwall forms the southwestern tip of the mainland of Great Britain. It has a significant maritime history as one of the first ports of call from far away.
We’ve been here many times, but on this visit there was a most unusual sight high up overhead: the sun shone brightly on a place much more used to clouds and drizzle.
We went for a morning hike to Pendennis Castle on the bluff, one of the best-preserved castles built along the coast between 1540 and 1542 by Henry VIII.
It was part of the King’s Device Programme to protect against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire. Its guns and garrison were there to defend the Carrick Roads waterway, a protected anchorage at the mouth of the River Fal.
On the far side of the castle was a set of World War II defensive guns.
From there we walked into town, brightly lit by the sun.
All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.
Falmouth has a pair of dining specialties:
The first is the Cornish Pasty, which was one of the original fast foods. It’s a folded and crimped piece of dough with fillings including “swede”, which some people call turnip but is a yellow turnip or rutabaga. To that is added meat or seafood or just about anything
And it is pronounced PASS-TEE, not PAYS-TEE, which is something completely different.
The other local specialty is Cornish Cream Tea. It does include a cuppa tea, which is just fine.
But it is the accompaniment that is a bit odd, at least to some of us.
A proper Cornish Cream Tea includes a scone slathered with clotted cream and then decorated with a bit of strawberry jam.
Clotted cream is a thick yellow cream made by heating unpasteurized cow’s milk and then leaving the stuff in shallow pans for several hours.
The cream content rises to the surface and forms clots. It has a minimum fat content of 55 percent, so this is not a diet product.
I prefer a pasty and a Diet Coke.
All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.
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