SWCP Day 0: Houston to Land’s End

“Your flight has been cancelled” is not the text message you want at 6:30 am on one’s day of departure. But it gave us enough time to change our flight to be via Newark, and soon we were heading off to IAH in our Uber.

Day 0 of a trip to England is always the jet lag fight as we find our way to our starting destination like a pair of zombies. This Day 0 brought back memories of last year’s trips: we passed through Reading Station, just like we did when hiking the Thames Path, and our train whizzed by the Bratton White Horse, which we checked out after our canal trip.

Photos from last year that we revisited.

During the five hour direct train to Penzance, time passed slowly, but it gave me time to research the Pirates of Penzance! It was originally a Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera that opened in New York in 1879. A 1983 musical film is based on the same.

After our train arrived in Penzance, a taxi sped us along narrow Cornish lanes for the final thirty minutes of our journey to the last (or first) hotel in England – the Land’s End Hotel. If we’d had the energy, we would have been overjoyed to have completed our initial 27-hour journey. The view from our room’s windows were cool, but the photo of the hotel in our welcome folder was the best.

The beautiful weather was calling, and stretching the legs was an essential part of our jet lag strategy, but we were shocked at the crowds. While a long line of people waited to pay for their photo to be taken in front of the famous sign post, we found Paddington feeling lonely and in a perfect position for a gratis photo. He reminded us that we need to enjoy some marmalade sandwiches (Max?).

We had mixed feelings about the seagulls – glad that I did not need my big lens to photograph one, but a bit worried they’d keep us awake tonight with open windows as the sea breeze rushes through our room.

A juvenile seagull who I was sure was used to stealing food!

We found the essential acorn sign – marking National Trails, and hence the SWCP. It was right outside our bedroom, which is the open window right behind Janet in the photo below. There will be no lengthy hike to get on the trail tomorrow morning!