Back from Holiday

David and I went away on Sunday last week and returned on Friday evening, leaving the weekend clear for washing, shopping and other catch up bits before this week.

Our trip to St Ives was a slightly soggy one, being a lot of drizzle but we did have things to see on the way, like the tiny Launceston Steam Railway then on to Cowslip Workshops, who have a really wonderful restaurant.  The restaurant was serving Sunday lunches, but we resisted temptation and had quiches with salad, which was really yummy.

The small engine used to pull 2 open carriages

Cowslip workshop (the cream building) and the shop (to the left)

Baby birds nested just above the door of the shop

 The guest house we stayed at overlooked Porthmeor beach in St Ives, a lovely sandy stretch in front of the Tate gallery.  It was nice to watch out of our window at different times of the day.  Our first day was a foggy one with sea mist creeping in and out for most of the day, but we explored the town.  Our second day started off foggy so drove into Penzance, but then the fog cleared and we had 2 days of really wonderful sunny weather.

This was the view from our guest house.

We  had a visit to the Minack Theatre, not far from Penzance, built into the cliffs which provides a spectacular backdrop to plays held there.  There wasn't a play today, so we had time to have a wander and look at the lovely gardens there too.  There was a bonus of seeing a group of dolphins (albeit far away but the nearest I've got to seeing real dolphins).

View of the theatre across the bay

The concrete sets have the names of plays on the backs

Had to take a pic of David

Seats going up the hillside

And David took a photo of me

From the idyllic setting of the Minack, we went on to Sennen Cove just over a mile along the coastpath to Land's End.  Land's End itself is very tacky with touristy shops and touristy prices, but as we were that close, it had to be done.

On our way back to St Ives, David took me to Botallick Mines, the remains of tin mines that cling to the edge of the cliff.  Again another lovely place and very peaceful too.

More pics tomorrow as we took rather a lot!