Having spent the morning on the beach and enjoying lunch in Penzance, we made our way to another border town, like Newlyn, that appears to be part of Penzance but isn't, called Marazion. I was corrected by the bus driver so I'd know how to pronounce it: merraz-EYE-on. Marazion is the launch point for getting to St. Michael's Mount, described by the Lonely Planet guide as an iconic location in the Penzance area because you can see it from so many parts of the city. The mount started out life in around the 8th Century as a Benedictine monastery that monks would also travel to as a pilgrim to begin their journey to the much more challenging Santiago de Compostela that runs through France, Spain, and Portugal. The mount is also a sister facility to the island of the same name in France, but which in French is called Mont-St-Michel. Though the St. Aubyn family eventually bought the island and built a castle there, the monastery was indeed intended to be a pilgrimage type journey, albeit a short one with a bit of a climb to get up the hill, the monks would take a pathway to the island at low tide, which is the only time it is accessible by land. Nowadays, you can take the same walk the monks did all those centuries ago, and I was really hoping to be able to do the walk, which is only about 15 minutes long. Unfortunately, the pandemic prevented that as well. Most museums and attractions now require advance registration, and when I went to book our tickets, all the low-tide options were sold out. In fact, I was lucky we got any tickets at all because it was almost all sold out for the days we were there! So we took a river taxi to the island instead, which, while not my preferred way of getting there, was still a nice mode of transportation because I love boating, and it was also refreshing to have water splashing on me on what turned out to be a fairly hot afternoon.
There are two main parts of the island to see: the castle and the subtropical gardens. The castle is a bit of a climb, as I mentioned, not suitable for anyone with mobility issues. Because we were running late, I wore my regular walking shoes, and I wished I had changed into my hiking shoes because the stones leading up to the castle, though smooth, were somewhat bumpy. But we made it up, and once we were there, the most impressive aspect of it was really the view. The castle itself was a little lacklustre for us because we both have experience travelling in Europe and have seen other castles; it wasn't much different from any of those, but as I always say, you never know until you go. The gardens, however, were as beautiful as promised. You can see the gardens from the castle, looking down, but it's hard to get a sense of how much they rise up the side of the hill. They're not on a flat piece of land, like most gardens. While there was no information provided about it, the proprietor of the place we stayed at said that they have to climb ropes just to attend to some parts of the garden, and once I saw how it's designed, I can believe they probably do have to use ropes at times. I had actually thought all my climbing was over the day when we came back down from the castle, but it sure wasn't! At least the climb through the gardens is gradual enough because you stop on each plain to admire the plants. As I mentioned, the garden is subtropical, so there are a wide variety of succulents, palm-type trees, and various colourful flowers.
The only unfortunate part for me is that none of the plants has a label, so you don't get to learn what they are, but it is otherwise a great place to enjoy. Some of the succulents were huge and showcased the Fibonacci sequence really well. (I've hyperlinked the more detailed explanation, but the brief description is a spiral whose ratio can be described mathematically and is the same ratio in every spiral it appears in; the sequence seems to appear in a lot of natural beings and objects.) I've included an example here, but see what others you can find in the photo album. You'll see them in many succulents, but you also see them in objects like pine cones and in the animal world in creatures like snail shells. And there were also several types of osteospermum, which people also happen to grow a lot of in their gardens in the region. I saw them all over the place, and they come in a multitude of pretty colours; sadly, they are not hardy for my growing zone back in Canada, so I'll have to admire them here while I can.
Anyway, it was a lovely place to spend some time, but we were happy to get back to the guest house to rest up before dinner. As per usual, the photo album is below. I should mention that you can click on any photo to enlarge it, even if you're looking on your phone, whether it's one embedded here in the blog or one from the photo album. And for some photos it might be a good idea to do so because with the way this blog program posts photos, it appears to cut off the top of the Cornish flag, so you'll need proof that I'm not lying! :)
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