On our last full day (Monday July 23rd) in Cornwall, it rained freakishly hard for most of the day. So the pictures are terrible, but we had a really fun and memorable time anyway. And we were very lucky not to be affected by the terrible flooding all around Britain, either on vacation or back at home, so we couldn't complain too much.
After our Full English breakfast at the Penzance B&B (which was served only in the small window of 8:00-8:30), we hopped in the car and set off for a drive around the coast of Cornwall.
On the Road
Our first stop was at another ancient stone circle, called the Merry Maidens. We drove past it the first time because the sign was not immediately helpful...
Translation: Public footpath to Merry Maidens.
The visit was a complete bust as far as pictures are concerned, as the torrential rain started up shortly before our arrival. It was a nice little stone circle, very perfectly shaped and seemed to us like a good place for a UFO landing (we've been watching X-Files reruns lately). This was the best I could do picture-wise:
From there we continued southwest along the coast towards Land's End. Alongside the road throughout the peninsula are ruined engine houses from the many mines that used to be here (copper, I think).
A Picasso-like view of an engine house from inside the car and a Dodge Ram sighting, woo hoo! (I have a Dodge Ram back home in the States and they are understandably rare in the UK.)
Minnack Theatre
Our next stop was chosen by David and it was quite cool. It's called the Minnack Theatre and was built in 1932 by a well-to-do lady from the Oxford area who relocated to Cornwall.
It's an outdoor theatre patterned after those in ancient Greece and it overlooks the beautiful Cornish coastline with its blue, blue water. On a sunny day I bet you could mistake it for Greece.
View from above the theatre down to the stage.
Views from down near the stage.
The seats and stage are all made of stone and beautifully carved with Celtic designs, making it look more ancient than it is. The seat backs are inscribed with all the performances that have been held here since it opened in 1932.
View over the ocean and a great-looking beach from beside the theatre.
Back on the road, the next sight of interest was Land's End, the westernmost tip of England. It was not at all exciting, and is taken up by a cheesy tourist trap called something like "The Land's End Experience" and an overpriced parking lot.
St. Ives
After another hour or so of windy, narrow roads with beautiful scenery, we arrived at our main destination for the day, St. Ives. It's a fairly small fishing town that has become one of Cornwall's most popular tourist destinations. It's also known for its art galleries and even has a local branch of London's Tate Modern museum.
We really liked St. Ives - it was what we had hoped Penzance would look like. The town encircles a lovely fishing harbor on three sides and the streets are lined with Cornish pasty shops, ice cream stands, shops and galleries. It would be really beautiful in the sunshine!
St. Ives Harbor at high tide, when we arrived.
St. Ives Harbor at low ride, when we left.
Cornish pasties and Cornish ice cream everywhere you look.
Apparently these handy little meals, made of a pastry shell with hot filling of meat and potatoes, developed as part of the Cornish mining industry. The miners would hold the pasty (rhymes with "patsy" not "pastry") by the large crust to eat it, and then throw away the crust because the copper on their hands would have poisoned them. Clever.
While exploring the city we popped in the parish church with no expectations, and it turned out to be old and quite beautiful.
The church was built in the early 1400s and is dedicated to St. Ia, a 5th-century female missionary from Wales or Ireland. Legend has it she sailed to Cornwall on a leaf.
I especially liked the font (15th century) - it's made of a sparkly granite and has great carvings of angels (on top) and demons (on the bottom, symbolically vanquished by baptism).
Before we left we had a good late lunch at a pizza restaurant on the main street along the harbor. I had been planning to have a Cornish cream tea at some point while we were in St. Ives, but in the end I decided I'd rather have my cream with bread pudding than a scone, and didn't really need the tea. :)
Bread pudding with Cornish clotted cream.
We were plenty worn out by the time David expertly maneuvered the car through the very narrow streets of St. Ives back to the highway, and fortunately the drive back to Penzance was only about 30 minutes.
Tuesday we drove straight back to Oxford from Penzance, which took around five hours. And wouldn't you know it, the sun shone beautifully the whole way.
