June 3-4, 2013– St. Ives, England, Minack Theatre, Lands End and Truro Church

After waiting out the rainy weather for a few days, we picked what appeared to be a good weather window for a trip to Lands End and the tip of southwestern England. The drive from Bristol to St Ives was just over 3 hours on the M5 one of England’s limited access freeways similar to Interstates in the US except that everyone drives on the wrong side of the road and the passing land is on the right! Our little Volkswagon Golf gets 46 miles/gallon which is good since gas costs almost $6/gallon. Our fist stop was St Ives which is on a small bay with an actual sand beach as opposed to the pebbles we have found on most beaches. The water was crystal clear like water in the Caribbean, but very cold.

   Three views of the bay, water and small town of St Ives. The old streets are very narrow with many steps going down to the dockside. Below, views from the Pub where we stopped for lunch. Elaine had a beef meat pie, chips and peas and I had the traditional “bangers and mash” after which I decided that English sausages were not the best.

      Tribute Ale is a local Cornish Ale.

   See below. For all of you imbibers who have always wanted to know where you could pick up a “Ruby Doobie,” we found the source. Did not go into this shop to find out exactly what a rubydoobie might be.

Next to Rubydoobies is a Fish ‘n Chips Take Away – A door and a counter to order.  Strictly order and take away.

The traditional variety of meat pies. The are like giant meat or vegetable filled empanadas.

Had I not already had lunch, I would definitely have had the “Shellfish Steampot” at the Rum & Crab Shack. I have always heard the Irish song about Molly Malone who sold cockles and mussels from her wheelbarrow, but had never seen a cockle on a menu. Went inside to find out what they were even though I was not hungry. Was told they were similar is size and taste to a clam.

Elaine on the first real sand beach we have found. Note that the temperature was about 64 degrees, but that is considered summer here and people were sunning themselves on the beach. No one in the water swimming.

  

Above, I am holding what is left of an ice cream cone. I was holding it out further just before the picture was taken and a very aggressive seagull flew over my shoulder and knocked of the remainder of the ice cream and half the cone. The people said that the gulls here were very aggressive and that you have to eat with your back to a building. It seems that they will only attack from the rear. The next picture is the narrow and steep streets of the town.

Land’s End is the most westerly tip of England. From there, the next stop is the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. There is no beach as the cliffs here are very steep and drop about 400 feet down to the Ocean. There are hiking trails along the cliffs.

Above, the offshore rocks and lighthouse on the Lands End point. Below is a view of the cliffs along with the sign warning about the dangerous cliffs.

Above is the Lands End Hotel. We would like to have stayed and watched the sun set, but the roads back to our hotel are very narrow and we did not want to drive after dark.

The Minack Theatre is an amphitheater built into the steep cliffs near Lands End. It is used primarily for Shakespearian plays. It is surrounded by beautiful gardens. However, the road in is up a steep hillside. It is open to 2 way traffic but at best is 1 1/2 lanes wide and at points no more than one car width.

The entry sign and views of the theater gardens. Below, a view of the ocean from the theater box office.

The first play every produced at the theater was The Tempest, one of my favorite Shakespearian plays. I would love to see a production of the play in this setting. For those not familiar with the play, it takes place on the ocean side and on ships.

The seating area and the stage of the theater.

Beaches below theater.

  

 

Step going to the theatre seating area.

 

The Badger Inn. When we made reservations for the night we decided to stay at a hotel/pub called “The Badger Inn.” Now ordinarily, I would avoid anything with a Badger name or anything related to Badgers. Being a University of Minnesota Alumni, our archrival school was the Wisconsin Badgers. So, Badgers have never been my favorite creature. But, I held my nose and booked the pub/hotel and it turned out to be great. We were greeted by a Great Dane named “Elvis” who is the official greater for the pub (pictures below). The gardens outside the pub were very nice and warm and pleasant sitting in the sun.

Elaine found the “Puffin Cottage” and immediately wanted to move in.

A small tail station connects the small towns out at the end of the peninsula.

The Badger Inn is located on a tidal basin. At low tide it is mud flats and at high tide the bay fills in. The tidal change averages 30 feet in this area.

Below the views out the dinning room windows of the pub to the garden area.  Both were very pleasant.

Above is Elvis the 8 month old Great Dane who rules the pub. Note that at 8 months he is already up to Elaine’s waist.

Elaine’s first every “Full English Breakfast.” Needless to say, she did not eat it all.

St. Michael’s Mount.

Two years ago when we spent the summer on the continent, we visited Mount St Michele photos of which you will find in the travel blog from that period. St Michele was built on a piece of land that is an island at high tide but with a connecting causeway at low tide. St Michele was and is an operating Abby. The same French Monks that built St Michele, came across the channel and selected a similar site to build the English version. Called Mount St Michael here on the coast, it began as a monastery (if you do not know the difference between a monastery and an abbey, look it up) but was converted to a fortress and is now a castle.

Mount Michael Castle at low tide.

Views of Mount Michael from the mainland.

Before going out, you have to check the time tables. You can walk there on the causeway at low tide, but if the tide comes in, you have to pay to get a boat ride back or wait 8 hours for low tide to return.

The harbor on the island at law tide. Note the boats sitting in the mud. All that changed before we left the island, but more on that later.

A small dingy filled with flowers.

The steep and uneven steps up to the castle. Below are the walls and fortifications from the conversion of the monastery to a castle.

Views from the window of the castle.

The small monastery church still remains and is in use. The dining hall for the monks is the dining room of the castle today.

One of the beautiful rooms in the castle. The furniture is 19th century Chippendale built especially for the castle.

The tide has started to come in and part of the causeway is now under water. The people in the foreground were the last to make it across. The water is very cold, about 48-52 degrees so a quarter mile walk in water that cold would not be fun. Also, the tide is quite strong when it comes in. At high tide, the causeway is 9 feet underwater. So, below we paid for the boat ride back to the mainland.

Truro, England has a distinctive cathedral that has three spires. Not something you see very often. It was a ten and copper mining town at its height and contains many large Victorian homes.

We made it back to Bristol with Edward taking a turn at the wheel. The first time he has driven the rental car. Since we were on the M5 Motorway (Freeway), he did a pretty good job.