Day 36: Rest day in Truro

We wake up refreshed in 8, St Mary’s Street, Truro and head out to buy breakfast. After passing a back street drug deal, we arrive at Bread and Butter only to discover they’re booked up but they suggest their takeaway cafe across the road that also has tables. We have a delicious breakfast there and head back to meet up with Cathy.

Our next job is to visit the Truro Launderette to drop off our walking clothes for an express service wash and then do some toiletry shopping. We head to the cathedral but it is, of course, closed; this time for a wedding fair. Next, it’s off to the Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery. This has recently reopened following a major refurbishment and reorganisation of its over one million exhibits. It has also changed its name, dropping its ‘Royal’ moniker, despite being run by the Royal Institution of Cornwall, founded in 1818.

The organisation of the artefacts encompasses a traditional exhibition case layout and a quietly subversive viewpoint. There are stunning geological displays and cases that children can climb in, labelled as a human exhibit. There is an Egyptian mummy, a John Singer-Sargent painting and a hidden away Barbara Hepworth sculpture. Standard tableaux contain surprising political messages. There’s also a 1980s exhibition room, to make us feel like museum pieces ourselves. It’s all absolutely wonderful, well worth the £10 annual entry fee.

We try the attached cafe for lunch bit it’s really busy, so we set off in search of somewhere quieter. We arrive at The Snug and have a fantastic lunch there. We then tour round the cathedral, even though we can’t go in, and visit Victoria Gardens, originally created to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond jubilee. We sit down opposite a begonia encased bandstand and Rich promptly falls asleep.

It’s soon time to collect our washing and, as we set off down the hill we pass a stream with a superfluous no entry sign. We drop off the clean clothes and shopping then head out again in search of a Cornish cream tea, as we haven’t partaken of a cream tea in Devon or Cornwall so far. Sadly, the tea shops all appear to have closed, so we go to the Cafe Uneeka for tea/coffee and toasted teacakes.

It’s half-time at the rugby World Cup final at Twickenham and the red roses are in the lead, so we pop back to watch the finish of a fantastic match. Congratulations England!