England Buries Their Queen and I Get the Royal Treatment

September 19, 2022

Sennen Cove to Porthcurno

• 7.84 miles

• 1309ft Elevation Gain

• 3.17hrs

A day of mourning here in England as they (we) say goodbye to Queen Elizabeth.

All I wanted to do was sit in a warm room and watch the coverage.

Her death has brought out so many emotions… I was born in England and lived here until I was 12. My mom, my nan, and that whole side of the family is English. The Queen’s death has really affected me, it’s brought back so many old and buried memories.

I remember my Nan’s house with a photo of the queen at the top of the stairs and images of her everywhere including on tea cup service,a commemorative plate, on stamps, on my Nan’s bank book (and her bookie’s book) and the sound of “God Save the Queen,” playing on the TV as the BBC ended its daily programs and my nan standing at attention while it played. Her daughter, my mom, had played piano for the Queen at a recital and her son, my uncle had received his MBE from the Queen.

So many memories. 

But like any good Brit, I picked myself up by the bootstraps and took off to continue my walk along its glorious South West Coast Path. I mean, the Queen loved her walkies so it was time to get a move on.

A couple of star attractions of the Path awaited me today – Land’s End and the Minack Theatre.

Land’s End is the most westerly point of mainland England and I had been warned to be prepared for the throngs of tourists but – it was empty. EMPTY!

The only people here at the furthest spot from the funeral ceremonies were fellow tourists, perhaps some anti-royalists and a couple of families with young children. 

I had to wait several minutes for a fellow traveler to come by to take my photo at this landmark photo op. 

Photo secured – I set off again. 

The trail continued atop the cliffs and afforded me a stunning view of a rock arch called the Armed Knight.

A beautiful, and uneventful day of walking to the village of Porthcurno home of the famed open-air Minack Theatre, which like everything else today was closed due to the Queen’s funeral services.

It was only then, as I was checking into my bnb for the night I asked, “what’s open for dinner?” to which the lady of the house looked at me like I had six heads .

“Thare ain’t nuttin’ opened tonight my lovely, on account of it being a National holiday for the Queen”

“Yeah, but c’mon, not everybody is closed” 

“Yes my lovely, you won’t be finding anything opened until tomorrow“

“Uhhhh, so like nothing nothing? I’ve not eaten since this morning-or had a cuppa”

Lucky for me, the lady of the house called another lady of the house who would cook me up a fresh steak and mushroom pasty, a starter cheese plate AND a split of Chardonnay all for £18!!!!

On this of all days, I was being treated like royalty and ate like a Queen!