As We Were Going to St Ives – We Met ….

St Ives CornwallWhile we were in Penzance, we wanted to visit St Ives. It’s an interesting town not far north of Penzance. It used to be a fishing port but is now more of an art community and seaside town. But we’d had a big morning getting around St Michael’s Mount, and were running out of steam. We were also running out of time; this was our last day and opportunity. We were getting wary of parking and narrow streets and big crowds – it was England, Cornwall and Half Term respectively. We decided to drive to St Ives to see what we could see. As we were going to St Ives, we met … a lot of traffic leaving St Ives; and a lot of people going to St Ives. It was a bit of a nightmare and we were getting frazzled. For lack of any real idea where we wanted to be, we ended up driving straight through the town in a random (and frazzled) fashion. 

We regrouped and drove back again, trying to decipher the Park-And-Ride signs while discussing what we wanted to see and whether we wanted to park anywhere. Somehow we ended up in a small car park beside a big beach near the Tate Gallery. It was predictably full, and I thought our chances of a park freeing up were five-eighths of not very much at all. Wyn thought we should wait a while but that proved unnecessary as a group immediately turned up to their car to leave. We had a bit of a sign/wave conversation with them and the park was ours. Except another hopeful car turned up and immediately thought they’d been lucky. 

I was starting to think this wasn’t going so well but the departing folk had a sign conversation with the other lot explaining that we were at the head of the queue. In England that’s the end of the discussion, because generally English people are such a wonderfully polite and considerate lot. The interlopers drove off, probably to cruise St Ives for the reminder of the day in their quest for the Holy Grail, a vacant car park.

Meanwhile we passed by the Tate Gallery and cruised along the beach without actually venturing on the sand. The sand was mostly occupied, but again by very orderly groups all seeming to respect everyone else’s piece of beach. We stopped for a coffee with a nice view over the beach.

Beach at St Ives

Half-Term holiday crowds enjoying one of the St Ives’ beaches

St Ives beach

Google likes making my photos into panoramas, like this one of the beach at St Ives. Click on it for an enlarged view. Where’s Wally?

The beach pictures look a bit gloomy. But it was actually a very pleasant afternoon, and the clouds were more thundery than stormy. It was warm and calm and everyone was making the  most of it. 

We walked on into the town centre, with lots of seaside resort shops and galleries. Come for a wander with us along some of the lovely little lanes of St Ives …

St Ives Cornwall

St Ives Cornwall

St Ives Cornwall

St Ives Cornwall

St Ives Cornwall

St Ives Cornwall

St Ives Cornwall

St Ives is a delightful place and is worth more time than we’d allowed ourselves. However, we were pleased to have persisted and at least gained a glimpse.

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7 Responses to As We Were Going to St Ives – We Met ….

  1. Gay Dornbusch says:

    No wonder parks are hard to get when streets are so narrow. Very pretty tho

    • Ross says:

      Indeed Gay. At least those streets and lanes in St Ives were mostly just for pedestrians. In other places they don’t have any alternatives. And then there’s the streets which are wider so they allow parking and two way traffic but many are not three vehicles wide. We are getting used to road signs which warn us to expect to meet oncoming vehicles in the middle of the road!

  2. Well, that brought memories back, not just of the horrendous time trying to get a park. Though our last visit was in late winter!! So well done you two for doing it in Spring and half term to boot 🙂 Lovely Cornwall, holiday destination for many and very understandable. An enjoyable descriptive story of how you both enjoyed your day by the seaside.

    PS Ross, its a bit annoying having to refill my name etc. every time I come on here. Yes, I do tick the box to save my details. If it concurs on other blogs, I usually don’t return. I know many other bloggers have the same thought. Lack of time for many is often the reason.

    • Ross says:

      Thanks Suzanne. There are times when ignorance is bliss and this road trip was one of them. We’d only have worried if we’d know about the Bank Holiday weekend and Half-Term.

    • Ross says:

      And thanks for the feedback Suzanne on having to re-enter your name etc. – presumably any time you with to make a comment (or is it required for you to read the blog?). I’m not much up on the workings of the wonderful WordPress so am not sure what is going on. Specifically what details are you required to enter each time? I have the blog set so that I have to moderate the first comment from anybody, and after that subsequent comments do not require moderation. But then I don’t think you’re talking about moderation as your comment on this post didn’t require moderation either. And I see you’re commenting from different IP addresses but that doesn’t seem to be an issue as this current comment didn’t need moderation.
      I’m probably administering this blog in a standard non-expert sort of way, and I’m sure that whatever this problem is must be fairly common across many WordPress blogs. Can you please spell out the details you’re having to re-enter which shouldn’t be required and then I can look for an answer either from my Michael or Mr Google. Thanks for pointing this out.

  3. Suz says:

    I just needed to enter name, email and website. Since writing that comment I now don’t have to re enter the details. I think quite a few people are having issues due to the new rules regarding privacy act. So as far as reentering my details it seems okay now!!
    You are more experienced on WP than me Ross 😊

    • Ross says:

      Thanks for the update Suzanne. Here’s hoping that whatever was not right has fixed itself. Let me know if it happens again and I’ll consult my WP sage/son 🙂

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