More from St. Ives

More pictures from St. Ives, Cornwall.

View from the Coastal Trail south of town

Low tide

Seawall, low tide

Seawall, low tide, looking toward the lifeboat station.

Beach mini golf seems to lack giant dinosaurs and general kitsch. 

Looking back toward town from one of the four beaches in St. Ives

The 19th century baronial manse on the hill above town, now a hotel

The gardens at the above mentioned hotel.

Nautical flowerpot

St. Ives at dusk.

Sunset illuminating the church on the island

Evening fog

Evening street scene

St. Ives, Part 1

We spent about a week at the seaside town of St. Ives, Cornwall. Here's the first round of photos from St. Ives.

Looking across the roofs from the front door of our apartment.

View from our beachfront balcony, looking to the Island (which really isn't).

We spent a great deal of time just walking around St. Ives on the steep cobblestone streets.

St. Ives has four different beaches.We were staying in The Piazza on Porthmeor Beach.

View of Porthmeor Beach from the Island

Looking back to the harbor from the Island.

The Island has an old stone seaman's chapel on it that was built sometime in the distant past. Most things in England seem to have a distinct history, but this one was vague. There's a trail along the base of the Island, and this was taken from the trail. 

Dogs were everywhere in England, and seem much more accepted in public places (pubs, restaurants, etc.) than in the U.S.  Here's a frolicking poodle in the harbor at low tide.

More people with dogs at low tide.

Gardens at Tregenna Castle, which is a large 19th century house converted to an inn on the hill above St. Ives.

Tregenna Castle Inn. "Please do keep on the grass"

Barrie uphill on one of our many walks.

The local Anglican church.

Someone in St. Ives is becoming very, very good at all-net shots.

Practice court without a backboard.

Gardens looking out over the town. Note the palms.

Parking is expensive. St. Ives has become a resort town with limited real estate.  You can buy a parking place that comes with a locked parking guard pole. 

More gardens.

Another garden, this one with colored fishing net floats.

Sunset from our apartment balcony.

Widecombe-in-the-Moor

Meanwhile, after our trip to Haytor we drove to Widecombe-in-the-Moor, home of the church of St. Pancras, also known as the "Cathedral of the Moors."  Built in the 14th century, the church still functions as an active parish, complete with a parish history organization. Widecombe hosts an annual fair that is not only the subject of a famous folk song of the same name, but also an annual event with its own website.  Here's a brief record of our trip to this lovely little town.

Where we were, and where we were heading.

St. Pancras from the village green.

Another view of the church spire, as well as one of the surrounding buildings.

View of the moors from the village green.

The church spire.

The chapel itself, which is somewhat dwarfed by the huge spire. The entrance is the door at the end of the walkway.

An Easter monument inside the church.

A tribute to the Queen inside the church.

Inside the church, with the steam pipes running beside the pews.

We visited two churches during our visit, and each one had a border collie prayer pillow.

The back of the church and graveyard.

A very mossy bench in the graveyard.

We stopped by this rock wall on the moor as we headed back to Bovey Tracey, and then....

...I turned around and this classic British car zipped by.

Next stop, the Cornish seaside village of St. Ives.

Dartmoor

Some photos from our trip to Bovey Tracey and Dartmoor England.

We spent two nights in the village of Bovey Tracey, Devon, in an inn named the Cromwell Arms. Built in the 17th century, it was a great place to stay with an excellent bar. I spent a few hours one evening drinking local Devon cask ale and talking with a local, who lamented the demise of the true English pub. Our room came with a free English breakfast, including a vegetarian option of said breakfast. While the eggs were wonderfully fresh (the chickens were kept on site), we didn't even try the beans n' toast. The first two pictures below show the front of the inn on Saturday morning when the farmers' market was in session.

We bought some excellent cheese from this vendor, a sharp cheddar and an award-wining sun-dried tomato (pronounced ta-mah-to) and herb cheddar.

Here are some various street scenes in Bovey Tracey, including the local variation of KFC (note that they also sell kebabs).

This is the rear of the Cromwell Arms. Our room was the last one on the left on the top floor. The chicken coop is behind me.

My father was a picture framer, and while I'm pretty sure he never uttered the word "bespoke," it sure seems like a great professional slogan. Methinks someone had best trademark this slogan soon!

Call box? Tardis?

A street view with yon hillside.

The view from our room.

A house flying the Union Jack.

We stopped by the local heritage center and discovered more about Oliver Cromwell's legacy in the area. He fought a major battle against the Royalist forces near Bovey Tracey and this display had a few Cromwellian artifacts (note the Cromwell death mask) as well as photos of a local Civil War reenactment, complete with Roundheads and Caviliers. The local guide said that many locals still have strong feelings about the Civil War. I replied that it was the same way in Virginia.

And to add a bit of levity after a dose of Cromwellian history (remember that Irish and Scottish Catholic genocide stuff?), next door to the heritage society was a shop that made giant dinosaurs and figures, including the big Buddha beside Barrie.

And three more street scenes from Bovey Tracey, including an interesting planter and some English road signage:

We spent a day exploring Dartmoor National Park, heading over to Haytor Rocks and walking up to the tor. The next two photos show the walk up the tor, aka Haytor Rocks.

We spent some hanging out around Haytor Rocks, enjoying a picnic of a vegetable and cheese pasty, enjoying the view, watching the rock climbers, and trying to stay out of the blustery and rather chilly wind. The rest of these photos were taken near Haytor Rocks. Our next stop was Widecombe-in-the-Moor, which I'll document in the next blog post.