Plymouth, UK

Plymouth was wonderful!

For the past four years I've had a running joke with my elder son Mathias. He dances with Birmingham Royal Ballet, the touring royal company in England. Every year the company performs at least once, for a whole week, in Plymouth. I've asked for a "real" Plymouth rock every year. Mathias always said, "But, Mom, Plymouth Rock is in Massachusetts!" To this I've replied, "But, I want a REAL Plymouth rock....from the original Plymouth!" Well, every year Mathias "forgot". So....this year I went to get my own.

Steve booked us into the wonderful Crescent House Bed and Breakfast, right off the Grand Parade that makes up the coastline around the Plymouth harbor. (The price was excellent; the service was perfect; the full English breakfast was more than a person should eat....but we did it anyway!)

So....off we went in search of Plymouth rocks....along the Grand Parade....

....down a flight of concrete stairs....

......to the ROCKS!

Steve took these photos of me....

.....collecting my rocks!

Aren't they beautiful! I used my micron permanent ink pen and wrote "Plymouth Rock" on two of them as gifts for Mathias and Laura-Jane for their stellar performances that week.

Okay.....so this is silly....but I'm not the only one with insane ideas about Plymouth! Steve was super excited that we got to go inside and climb to the top of the old Eddystone lighthouse. This structure is actually known as Smeaton's Tower and was originally built on the rocky site (9 miles off the shoreline) from 1756-59. It was renown for its advanced structural design and was used until 1877 at which time it was, stone by stone, dismantled and rebuilt on the grounds of the Plymouth Hoe....where a small admission is now charged to go inside.

So we....off we went....with Steve singing the sea shanty song called "Keeper of the Eddystone Light"...which he knows (memorized) from the 1960 recording by The Brothers Four. Yes....he knows all the words and can sing the melody in the correct key!

Up the stairs we climbed while Steve sung: "My father was the keeper of the Eddystone light, And he slept with a mermaid one fine night".....

....(continual singing)....."Out of this union there came three, A porpoise and a porgy and the other was me!"

Up even more stairs to the lantern.....with continued singing: Yo ho ho, the wind blows free!

Finally at the top....."Oh, for the life on the rolling sea!" Steve has found all the words on line....including a link to the music and a ring-tone download.....but I just provided the link to one site above!

From the top, we could see our own shadows on the green grass below.

We enjoyed to view back to the area where I found my Plymouth rocks....

...and a view to the city monuments and downtown....

...and to the citadel and the harbor beyond.


We continued in the direction of the harbor....past the Mayflower steps.....

....over the water of a lock.....


....with its gigantic lock doors.....to the Plymouth Aquarium, the best in all of England.

There were jellyfish, baby manta rays, seahorses....

....unique lobsters, sea anemones, camouflaged flounders and sole fish....

...and two octopi that were incredible.

There were mammoth sized tanks fill of colorful fish.

There was also a shark tank....with a walkway underneath....

...and a great viewing area complete with a sunken airplane...

...and we got to see two divers who weren't actually supposed to be in the tank that day....but one of the young marine biologists had dropped his cell phone inside the day before!


In town, we visited St. Andrew's Church where I collected epitaphs and snapped photos of angel images and cemetery sculptures.

The path from the church to one of its exterior building was beautiful......

....just like the Elizabethan Garden in the historic Barbicon district.

We went to the ruins of another church that sat in the middle of a big traffic roundabout.

The juxtaposition of old and new architecture was terrific.

I even did some shopping in Plymouth....something I almost never do. How could I resist a t-shirt from a place called Funky Poppies, a shop dedicated to artistic creations using buttons!

We also took a guided tour with a tasting at the Plymouth Gin distillery!

Okay....so the main reason for coming to Plymouth really wasn't sight-seeing at all....but it is against the theater rules, copyright issues, and the BRB's (Birmingham Royal Ballet) policies to snap photos of the ballet. Let's just say.......the triple bill and Romeo and Juliet were breathtaking. Mathias danced gloriously as Mercutio, sword fighting until a second and a half minute, over the top emoking death scene. Yes, I cried! It was wonderful!