July 25, 2023 - Falmouth, Cornwall, England

 Saturday morning July 22, we left Poachers Inn and headed towards the port town of Plymouth, Devon, England.  We are learning to use, and better understand, how locals describe where they are located.  In the US, we tend to just identify the city, and state if needed.  For example, we say we are from Gainesville, Florida.  In the UK, they identify the ceremonial county first, in contrast to the cities or metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England used for local government. When people asked us where we were going next, we would say Plymouth, which is a city, and they would say, "Oh, Devon is nice."  Plymouth is in the ceremonial county of Devon.  It's very confusing.  

If you think that is confusing, listen to this podcast describing the distinctions between the UK, Britain, British Isles, England, Wales, Scotland, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The city of Falmouth, where we will be for the next 5 days, is in the ceremonial county of Cornwall, where Cornish things are from. We hope to use Falmouth as a base for exploring some of the small coastal towns in southwest England, including Lands End.  

I got sidetracked describing ceremonial counties, and meant to give a brief description of our ride from Poachers Inn in Piddletrenthide, Dorchester, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, to Plymouth.  It was a tough ride of only 150 miles, but it took us over 4 hours.  The weather was nasty, upper 50s temp, rainy the entire time, very windy and lots of traffic.  By the time we got to Plymouth, we were both soaked, exhausted and didn't do a whole lot the 3 days we were there.  We had a nice Airbnb, except for the plumbing system which forced water out of the sink and shower drain when we flushed the toilet, and sounded like a 747 coming in to land.

Today, we rode in beautiful weather - mid-60s, mostly sunny, no wind and little traffic - from Plymouth to Falmouth in Cornwall.  Our Airbnb is really nice, small, but nice, with a view of the bay and estuary called Carrick Roads.  Carrick Roads is fed by the River Fal, namesake of Falmouth.  Falmouth has a permanent population of about 25,000.  

On 2 October 1836 HMS Beagle anchored at Falmouth at the end of her noted survey voyage around the world. That evening, Charles Darwin left the ship and took the Mail coach to his family home at The Mount, Shrewsbury.  Between 1943 and 1944, Falmouth was a base for American troops preparing for the D-Day invasions.  Falmouth is famous for its harbour. Together with Carrick Roads, it forms the third deepest natural harbour in the world, and the deepest in Western Europe.

Carrick Roads in Falmouth

Carrick Roads in Falmouth

Downtown Falmouth

I couldn't resist taking this photo of Sooz scounging through the topcase, with an actually nice looking McDonald's in Plymouth's open pedestrian area.

The Leviathan by Brian Fell at Plymouth, near the Mayflower Steps and Museum

We took this fine selfie standing on the Mayflower Steps from which the Pilgrim Fathers are believed to have finally left England aboard the Mayflower on 6 September 1620, before crossing the Atlantic Ocean to settle in North America. The traditional site of their disembarkation in North America is Plymouth Rock.

Entrance to Mayflower Museum

It was interesting learning about American history as described in the UK.  We learned some new things also, like the Mayflower initially left port with another ship, but the other ship had to turn back.

Sooz, The Thinker, while having a nice dinner in downtown Plymouth

Apparently, zebras are a thing in downtown Plymouth

Looking down at the GS after we arrived in Plymouth.  I eventually went down and covered her up and put her to bed, but she was still wet for several days.