After a full morning of exploring Dartmoor, we drove on into Plymouth. This tiny port from which Drake, Raleigh, the Pilgrim Fathers, Cook and Darwin all set sail on pioneering voyages has now grown to a substantial city, much of it boldly rebuilt after wartime bombing. After checking in to our hotel, we set out for the oldest section of the city of Plymouth, passing by the very modern-looking home of the National Marine Aquarium and crossing over the pedestrian bridge over the lock at Sutton Harbour. We approached the Mayflower Stone and Steps on the opposite side, the spot where the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for the New World in 1620. 

After booking our tickets for a harbor cruise with Tamar Cruising, we stopped to stare out at Plymouth Sound and the wide ocean beyond, imagining the fear and excitement the Pilgrims must have felt on that fateful day they set sail almost 400 years ago. We enjoyed seeing the Sutton Harbour lock in action, watching the sailboats return from sea. A group of rowdy boys further entertained us as we waited for our boat. We laughed at their antics as they jumped off the gangplank to the ships’ docks into water barely deep enough to cover their heads, as it was low tide. 

Our harbor tour was entertaining and enlightening, taking us past Charles II’s Royal Citadel (which was built to guard the harbor in the 1660s) the Hoe, and Plymouth’s dockyards where warships have been built since the Napoleonic Wars. Mount Edcumbe Park lay at the opposite end of Plymouth Sound, offering us splendid views of its gardens. 

On our return, we set out on a walk through Old Plymouth, or the Barbican, as it is known in town. Old Plymouth clusters around the Hoe, the famous patch of turf on which Sir Francis Drake is said to have calmly finished his game of bowls as the Spanish Armada approached the port in 1588. Today the Hoe is a pleasant park and parade ground surrounded by memorials to naval men, including Drake himself. I particularly enjoyed strolling through the oldest surviving streets of the Barbican, imagining what life would have been like there in the early 19^th century as the port bustled with business from the Royal Navy as they struggled to control the waters of the English Channel and maintain the blockade against France and Napoleon. 

For dinner, we stopped at a fish and chips shop and took our cones to the harbor to sit on benches and enjoy sunset over the sound. We found the traditional English fare only mildly tasty, but the seagulls circling us certainly enjoyed the remaining morsels we threw to them. Upon returning to the hotel, we wound down the evening by watching a cricket match on TV, finding the sport far more interesting then many Americans give it credit for. Of course, it may have helped that I knew what was going on because I’d been taught how to play the game years ago.