Short take: who needs plans? A day in which very little went as planned... and everything worked out fine in the end.
First a coda to yesterday's post: after getting back to the room, hearing singing below, and finding earplugs on the bedside tables, Bonnie and Lidia went down to the main room of the pub to "observe". It turns out that the party was for a choir, and the singing was therefore of high quality -- they were doing Nabucco when Lidia and Bonnie got there. And I was tired enough from the high speed finish to the day that I had no trouble falling asleep even without earplugs!
We awoke to find the sky overcast, and soon a light rain began to fall. I had originally planned to go to visit a nearby mine that offered underground tours, but they changed their opening times in 2013 so as to make this impossible. Lidia, Bonnie, Claudia & Eric therefore decided to go off to look at Godolphin House, a 17th C stately home that used to belong to one of the most important familes in Cornwall. Mel & Jan decided to walk around Porthleven. Franz and Ingrid set off along the Coast Path with the goal of getting to Mullion early and spending the afternoon reading and snoozing (Ingrid had not slept well). And I had some calls and emails and blogging to do.
So 7 of us met back in Porthleven at midday (Godolphin House having been adjudged "interesting and worth the visit"). In the meantime the light rain had stopped, so we picked up some pasties (a local specialty) and set off. A little less than an hour later, at Loe Bar (a natural sand barrier that holds back a large freshwater lake), we stopped for lunch. The pasties were excellent (although Bonnie wouldn't agree -- for some reason she took an instant dislike to them) and while we were eating the sun came out.
The rest of the walk was delightful, and by the time we got to Mullion it was almost hot. However, now another change of plans presented itself. The day before I had received a frantic email from our landlady in Mullion asking me to call her as soon as possible. When I did she apologized profusely -- she had inadvertently double booked... and had no space for us. However, despite only realizing this fact 24 hours before our arrival she had managed, on a Saturday of a bank holiday weekend, no less, to find other accommodation for us. But where? We went to her place to find out.
Jacqui met us there, and between further apologies she ferried us off to the various rooms she had booked for us, together with our luggage, and bunches of flowers for the other landlords who had helped her out. And in the evening, when we got to our table in the Old Inn, we found an array of After Eight mints on the table from her. And the food was excellent, the conversation flowed effortlessly, and a pretty good band played music later on in another area of the pub. An excellent end ot the day. As I said at the outset, who needs plans?
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