Roadtrip

Recently me and the other half hit the South West for a few days for a roadtrip...

We saw a documentary about the singer Donovan and he raved on about how cool and inspiring St Ives was when he was a young man and it had a very good review from my mum so I decided it had to be my next destination! Its a fair few miles to drive so a bit of a commitment but we arrived on a Monday at 4ish and stayed til Thursday afternoon so worth the effort..

We started in St Ives and were very pleased to happen upon an open mic night full of locals jamming to classic tunes (and a poet who everybody quickly tired of and talked over!) - what a great start to our little holiday, full of cider and cheered by friendly locals... we just about stumbled our way back to the hotel... the next day, after a short walk on Porthminster Beach we enjoyed breakfast overlooking the sea which warmed my soul, a city girl I may be but I was brought up by the river so water really does it for me haha

We went to have a look at the Tate St Ives and the exhibitions were closed for a refurb (of all the days in the year! ruined!) but we were able to have a peek thru doors and watch surfers on Porthmeor Beach from the roof terrace cafe... We made our way back thru the lovely cobbled streets and bought some postcards and fudge then headed off for Land's End and Sennen Cove...

Sennen Cove was a bit windy but beautiful blue and turquoise sea.. fabulous! It didn't occur to me that it was the Atlantic Ocean, but it is! How exotic! Then we stopped off at Land's End Aiport for a cuppa and the skinny on how to fly to the Scilly Isles the following day... The Airbus holds 8 passengers and is that small! We booked in... (more on this later!)

Then we had a look at Land's End, took a trip to Porthcurno Beach and the Minack Theatre and a quick half in a pub at Logan's Rock... for WOW factor definitely recommend Minack Theatre, they have shows from May to Sept too so I'll be going back! A theatre built into a cliff, just beggars belief how they managed it! It's featured in a film too, Love Story, altho they abandoned filming there when the weather got too bad and recreated it in a studio!

Then we found a place to stay in Sennen and ate dinner at the First and Last Inn in England! It had a smugglers tunnel on display and a gruesome story about an old landlady who got left on a pole on the beach and left to drown for being a part of a smuggler's ring! charming!

We flew to Scilly and the man totally bricked it! he isn't a traveller bless him and the plane was so small he clenched his fists the entire 15 minute journey... i did feel for him but i thought his refusal to fly home to the mainland a little over the top, it was only 15 minutes for goodness sake! so we had to swap our ticket for the 2 and a half hour ferry back instead! and i am no sea-woman! haha luckily for him i didn't chunder...

while in Scilly we saw St Agnes and walked almost the entire island! imagine living someplace so small you could walk the circumference of in a few hours... blows my tiny mind! Lol we had a Cornish pasty (well he did, i had a soup thing, very nice too) and a bit of local tipple and then headed back to St Mary's for a few hours before returning to the mainland... we stopped in to say hi to the man who runs Radio Scilly and he gave us all the gossip about the island's differing personalities, very interesting! he also said he only occasionally misses the mainland for a curry but they get them choppered in when there's a big group! how glam is that! curry by helicopter! brilliant!

our ferry arrived at Penzance and our car was at Land's End carpark.. so we eventually got home to our B&B but only had time to repeat visit First & Last for tea which was fine as the other punters (locals and tourists) in there provided lovely company as well as the food being fabulous...

then it was already time to head home again but on the way north we popped into Tintagel to spy their castle and picked up some mead! it is like a very strong honey wine - omg! not good! lol we also discovered a place called Boscastle up the way and popped into their Witchcraft Museum, very interesting! and my boyf bought a wand... gawd help us!

and that's it.. the roadtrip deets in full! a fab week and totally recommend if you haven't been :)

you can see some pics of my trip here