Not too shabby.
I know Cornwall from two books: Over Sea, Under Stone (of which I remember little except that I really liked it), and Swallows and Amazons (same). You may take this as evidence that I had no particular mental image of Cornwall. Turns out it looks like this:
Apparently nameless land mass
Tregenna Hill
A side street
The harbor
St. Ives is a very quaint little town. It has a couple of beaches, and maybe more -- we only found the second one by accident when we discovered there was another whole half of the town, where all the people are, which solved the mystery of why it was so dead on our side. There are also a lot of shops, which is not true of all towns (see future post on Scotland), and spoiled us a bit.
I attempted to eat local food, which involved a Cornish pasty (greasy), Cornish ice cream (not significantly different from the non-Cornish variety), Cornish cheddar (I would live on that stuff if I could), and some nice Cornish ale (pictured below).
Oops, now that I look at it, that's too bubbly to be ale. So it's probably my picture of Strongbow, decidedly non-local cider, which we had at this rather adorable pub.
Here is the Cornish ale, Tribute, which we had on the night we managed to stay up past eight o'clock.
That was the same night we discovered that there was another half of the town, and that those bulbs hanging over the main streets actually go on if you stay up late enough. Today's travel tip: never underestimate the power of jet lag. In fact, I am still not right yet, which is why this is so not funny. Let's cross our fingers for next time.
5 comments:
that looks just like "Over Sea, Under Stone" should look! lovely pictures, Simon!
You are at least one up on me. My only cornwallian experience is from the Sherlock Holmes story: "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot." If I recall correctly, it does not include very much about local scenery.
The dories all stacked up against each other look so quintessentially maritime, just what you could expect in a harbor.
I obviously need to read those books! I've never made it to Cornwall because I always get distracted and enchanted in Devon by Exeter. I know this makes me a freak of nature, but I LOVE Exeter. These pictures made me smile. Now I know what to think about when I hear poems about St. Ives.
Say, I don't suppose that, as you were going to St. Ives, you met a man with 7 wives...?
No, I suppose that would be unlikely with polygamy laws and such.
No, but I did get a postcard with that rhyme on it. Haven't worked it out mathematically yet. Probably won't ever. After all, as you point out, polygamy is now illegal, and that pretty much renders the whole puzzle obsolete in my book.
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