The seventh impossible thing

The seventh impossible thing was to get away today. After that, it was just a case of heading south-west.

I don’t really want to talk about the saga of collecting the hire car this morning, except to say that what was originally going to be a 1.5km walk ended up being two there-and-back trips plus a bus ride. I was more than a tad annoyed. Eventually I produced enough documentation to convince them to give me the car (it was easier to get into the $*&#@%$ country!), and so I could finally head off, over an hour-and-a-half behind schedule. This, together with the fact that it’s easier to stay on a motorway than get off it, meant that once I was on my way I just kept driving.

Five hours and 286 miles later and I was going around in circles in the narrow streets of Penzance trying to find the B&B I’d booked. I’d google mapped it but didn’t print this out, and although I could remember roughly where it was (and had an address) it still took a little while to find it. At last I spotted the terrace, and it was nice to park the car, stretch my legs, and appreciate the idea that I am spending the next three nights in the one spot. My room is the one above the doorway.

Quirks of the day

• Today I discovered that miles are much bigger than km. I knew this, in an intellectual sense, but I started to understand the real meaning: 50 miles of road cannot be covered in 30 minutes.
• It’s not a good idea to take the wrong motorway entrance. Yes, I went left instead of right onto the M4, and it was 15 miles before I could turn around.
• I have no idea what speed limits I was supposed to be obeying. I reckon only 40 miles of today’s journey actually had a posted numerical value (e.g., there were some roadworks marked at 50). I did ask and was told that the motorways were 70mph, but I was still being overtaken (and how) … and I have no idea what the limit was on some of the lesser roads.
• My all but non-existent French should have been sufficient to recognise that pomme frites means chips. But why is that the Poms use the French “pomme frites”, and why does pomme frites translate as “French fries”? Should it be Francais Frites?!
• There are single rooms in hotels/B&Bs. In Australia one of the hassles of being a single traveller is that the price of accommodation is based on the room size and not how many people are in it … and virtually all rooms are doubles/twins. Here I have a single room. It ain’t big, but it’s big enough for me, it has a nice view, and it’s cheaper than the other rooms.
• There’s a eucalyptus tree in Penzance. There is a lovely sub-tropical garden about 450m from my B&B (a quarter of a mile (see, it doesn’t sound very far!)) and I went for a walk there early this evening to stretch my legs … and find a cache (well, I needed to have a walk after all that driving, so I checked to see if there was a nearby cache in a nice location … and there was!). I also found the gum tree (and the cache).
• I don’t seem to be feeling particularly jet lagged at the moment. I woke up a few times last night, but managed to get back to sleep, and although my long drive was during the Australian “middle of the night” I didn’t feel like drifting off. I’m zonked now, though!

Well, tomorrow I might be very Scilly.

Today’s final location (approx coords): N 50° 07.000 W 005° 32.100