St Ives is famous for its art galleries, Tate gallery, Cornish pasties, seafood and the beautiful coastline and beaches. I was not disappointed by any of those attractions!
We had a classic St Ives day: full English breakfast at the B&B/ short walk to the harbor and up a little hill to enjoy the view/ being rained on/ checking out art at the TATE/ walk up to the famous church on the peninsula/ wine back at the B&B while watching a bit of rugby and chilling out/ a bit of "end of season sale" shopping in the pretty town center/ more walking on the beaches/ Seafood dinner at the Ocean Grill (booking ahead is absolutely essential at any restaurant, especially on the weekend!)/ Sitting on the beach and listening to the waves and enjoying the stars....
The perfect day!
P.S. go out on the sea wall of the harbor when fisher boats come in with their catch - you might be lucky and see a little friendly seal.
gallery/St_Ives
On a Friday evening we jumped onto a train in Devon (where we currently live) to go further south west - to the famous artist's town of St Ives.
It is unbelievable how looong England is! I mean, we live about 4 hours south west of London, and St Ives is another 3,5 hours from us! We had a direct train to St Earth (when you book in advance you can get really cheap deals- check www.thetrainline.com). Unfortunately our train was delayed by 20 min, so we missed our connection to St Ives. Those towns are only 20 min apart from each other, but there was no train for another hour after we arrived. Since we were hungry and feeling a bit chilly on this late September evening, we decided to take a taxi. Of course it would have been foolish to do this by ourselves....there is a budget to stay within! So, we asked another couple who were obviously stuck like us, to share a cab. This way the 9 pounds ride was divided by four, and well worth it.
Anyway... so, we arrived at our B&B we had booked in advance (no hostel this weekend, as it was our first wedding anniversary weekend and we wanted something a bit more fancy!), only to find out that St Ives' water system had broken down: no tab water, showers etc!
Well, what else is there to do then, but to head down town in order to eat a famous Cornish Pastie on the beach. The stars and the moon were beautiful and it was very peaceful as the stupid seagulls are not around in the dark, trying to steal your food.
When we got back to the B&B to get some sleep, the water was working again, but it was brown as mud! No showers for us....