Where: St. Ives, England
When: May 6, 2013
With: Dave
St. Ives confirmed why I love this country. It was completely different than anything I'd ever imagine to find in England, and was the icing on the Cornwall cake for our trip.
The first awesome thing about it: the transportation. When we wanted to get to St. Ives from Penzance, the cab fares quoted were ridiculous. We didn't have the rental car anymore, and we were gritting our teeth about embarking on the process of hailing our expensive ride. Suddenly, I noticed a bus stop. In a very quick minute, we recognized that there was a bus to take us from Penzance to St. Ives, that it was arriving immediately, and that we should get on it. After a very quick and winded conversation with the bus driver, suddenly we had two round trip bus tickets for the day and it cost us a quarter of the price of the one-way cab fare.
What made all of this better was the fact that it was not only a double decker bus (I already love that this is a common mode of British transportation), but that it was an open top. Suddenly, there we were, riding through the rolling green countryside of Cornwall on public transportation with the wind in our hair and the sun on our face. It was amazing!
Throughout our drive, not knowing the exact bus route, there were several stops that made us ask "Is this where we get off?" "No?" "This?" "Noo?". Every time, we convinced ourselves that we'd "know" when it was time to get off. Well, we couldn't have predicted better as suddenly the bus took a turn, the buildings opened up, and there we were on the Mediterranean in some Greek village rather than England. And that's the moment we knew why everyone says you must go to St. Ives.
We hopped off the bus at the last stop and were beside ourselves with excitement. We scambled through the windy streets towards the shore line and were greeted with the sights and sounds of a quintessential seaside resort. A main road wound along the harbor and was lined with endless shops that make you happy in your soul: ice cream stands, beach shops, crab shacks, and fish & chips. All familiar and be achy, but with an English comfort to them.
After our stroll, we decided to start imbibing in the festivities. Our first stop was at the local pub on the edge of the beach called the Sloop Inn (established only 700 years ago). We enjoyed a couple of pints of Cornish ale in the sunshine while imagining what pirate life must have been like years ago.
When: May 6, 2013
With: Dave
St. Ives confirmed why I love this country. It was completely different than anything I'd ever imagine to find in England, and was the icing on the Cornwall cake for our trip.
The first awesome thing about it: the transportation. When we wanted to get to St. Ives from Penzance, the cab fares quoted were ridiculous. We didn't have the rental car anymore, and we were gritting our teeth about embarking on the process of hailing our expensive ride. Suddenly, I noticed a bus stop. In a very quick minute, we recognized that there was a bus to take us from Penzance to St. Ives, that it was arriving immediately, and that we should get on it. After a very quick and winded conversation with the bus driver, suddenly we had two round trip bus tickets for the day and it cost us a quarter of the price of the one-way cab fare.
What made all of this better was the fact that it was not only a double decker bus (I already love that this is a common mode of British transportation), but that it was an open top. Suddenly, there we were, riding through the rolling green countryside of Cornwall on public transportation with the wind in our hair and the sun on our face. It was amazing!
Throughout our drive, not knowing the exact bus route, there were several stops that made us ask "Is this where we get off?" "No?" "This?" "Noo?". Every time, we convinced ourselves that we'd "know" when it was time to get off. Well, we couldn't have predicted better as suddenly the bus took a turn, the buildings opened up, and there we were on the Mediterranean in some Greek village rather than England. And that's the moment we knew why everyone says you must go to St. Ives.
We hopped off the bus at the last stop and were beside ourselves with excitement. We scambled through the windy streets towards the shore line and were greeted with the sights and sounds of a quintessential seaside resort. A main road wound along the harbor and was lined with endless shops that make you happy in your soul: ice cream stands, beach shops, crab shacks, and fish & chips. All familiar and be achy, but with an English comfort to them.
We strolled along the water, just getting the lay of the land. Locals were laid out on the beach as if it was a hot summer's day.
On the pier at the other end of the town, fisherman were hard at work with the catch of the day.
After our stroll, we decided to start imbibing in the festivities. Our first stop was at the local pub on the edge of the beach called the Sloop Inn (established only 700 years ago). We enjoyed a couple of pints of Cornish ale in the sunshine while imagining what pirate life must have been like years ago.
Then the food began. How could we not have fish & chips? All anyone has told us is that they aren't as good anywhere else as they are at the seaside. So we proceeded to have the greatest fish & chips of our lives. It really was amazing.
After the snack, we ended up back at the Sloop sharing a table with three men from Liverpool who were on an annual vacation they'd been taking for the last 25 years. Everyone was so friendly and just happy to be out in the sunshine on holiday drinking some ale. We had a blast with them.
For dinner, we decided to try a crab shack. It made us both laugh when the waiter asked if we knew how to eat crab. Haha, you have no idea what just hit you. We ordered the biggest guy on the menu along with two local brews and dug into a great oceanfront meal.
Crabby before:
Crabby after:
Looking at the picture above, I can't fathom what better way we could have ended our trip in such a great town as St. Ives was. It was like a little slice of the Mediterranean right here in England. We took our full bellies back to Penzance and boarded the sleeper train back to London very happy and very content with our whole weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment