Holiday Day Seven - A B/D Slasher's Guide to Libraries

[byslantedlight]

In all his days Doyle had never seen anything like St. Michael's Mount. He'd seen it from a distance, of course, every time he and Bodie had occasion to go to Penzance. But up close it was a stunning natural feature, its tree-covered slopes topped by a majestic castle built on the site of an ancient priory. Once upon a time it had been part of the land they said, but sea levels had risen and now it was only connected by a causeway to the village of Marazion, and accessible only at low tide.

St Michael's Mount today (well, yesterday, cos I'm writing this tomorrow... *g*) which I've always wanted to visit somehow - it seemed like such a romantic place, and now it's got the added attraction of featuring in A Birdwatcher's Guide to Cornish Ghosts II (but I can only find Bodie's story about the bed, I still can't find the lads visiting there to ask questions...help!) We walked over the sand and over the causeway and up the very steep and stony path to the castle itself - and joined the other five million people who'd decided to do that today. I have every intention of coming back in the wintertime when it's quiet and peaceful! But...

...it was still rather fab, especially looking out and down...

And I want this room in my house...

... because it would be fab to have bookshelves lining my room, and a fire, and games and... lovely...

This dining room is still used as a dining room sometimes, and I would like this roof to wander on when I needed to get outside... *g*


Off to Penzance after that, where we had homity pie all around, followed by coffee (or tea!) and cake - I had chocolate and stem ginger pave, but there was also citrus tart and double espresso cake on our table... briefly... *g* Then we went to find one of my favourite places:

The Morab Library, which feels like a library still, rather than an "information centre" of some kind that's all buzzing with computers and text messages - there are books on shelves and tables, and a general sense of hush and it's all about books... (and a newspaper archive and a photographic room too) I so want to move down south so that I can join... They have copies of Arabian Nights printed in 1703 just sitting on shelves to be read, and... just... *sighs happily*

Plus the theology section was the scene of some rather interesting Bodie-action in the first part of Birdwatchers, and of course the library is where the lads first see each other *sighs happily again*


We wandered back through town past The Dolphin (where Bodie and Doyle went for lunch after doing what they did after buying the black French silk knickers *g*) and past the Egyptian House which was nearly opposite the hotel where Doyle was first staying when he got to Penzance...

...and we found another old bookshop too, which was excellent, and also had old old newspapers, and I might have bought one from 1909 and one from 1910 cos they were fab and fairly reasonably priced... *g*

And then home to CornishCat's, where we had to say goodbye at last, and head back north - though it was Devon we were heading back north to, and we did detour back to Bodmin Gaol to buy look once again at the History of Bodmin Gaol book they had there... It's so cool being able to go into the gaol at nine o'clock at night to look at books! (Well okay, you're really going into the restaurant/bar, but the girl opened the giftshop for us too, which is actually down in the gaol itself... *g*

And then all our extra bags to unpack and repack and off to bed to sleep perchance to dream of the lads... (though I didn't, actually - shame!)