The World is currently in Falmouth, England, located at the "mouth" of the Fal River where it meets the sea. The weather is overcast and cool. We have had 2 dinners off the ship while here, one was belonging to highly tauted chef, Rick Stein, and we will not make that mistake again. We have been served Winkles, Whelks and Sea Snails, all critters from the local waters. None touched my lips, it was a bit embarrassing. However, Wilf enjoyed his meat pasty (what we in the US would call a turnover). We took a car and driver to a very quaint little seaport 1 hour away, named Fowey (pronounced Foy). I remembered it from a past trip. There is a wonderful little womens clothing boutique there called Ocean 1 where I had some fun.....we discovered it last time around. Our driver told us that this area of Cornwall is very proud of it's Celtic heritage, even wearing kilts to weddings, etc. They have been trying to break free from England and establish their own government for 500 years. They even have their own, rarely spoken language. The area used to be very successful in mining high quality tin, but the cost to get it out of the ground has become prohibitive. It is rumored that China may have interest in purchasing the mines. The Cornish flag has a black field, signifying the dark mines, and a white cross signifying the veins of tin. The miners would each take a pasty into the mine in the morning. Each pasty would have both the main course of meat and vegies and in the same shell, a little further along, was a dessert of some sort. They didn't eat the actual pasty which was full of arsenic from the tin on their hands. They were told to throw the pastry shells on the mine floor for the fairies to eat, who would then guide them to good tin veins. The very southernmost tip of England is called "Land's End", now also the name of a successful US company. People here are apt to call you "lovey" and many sentences either begin or end with the phrase "ya know"....very sweet, really.
