No trip to the farthest part of the Cornwall peninsula would be complete without a visit to St Ives. It has a beautiful, wide, sandy beach, great sea views, pretty shops and galleries, national art galleries and collections and eateries of all kinds.
Right at the very end of Cornwall, just to the north of Lands End, lies The Tin Coast a seven mile stretch of coast with a rich mining history. It’s part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, inscribed in 2006, UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Whilst at Penzance, staying at The Second Floor Flat at The Egyptian House on Chapel Street, I chose to read from the Library Lucinda Lambton’s ‘An Album of Curious Houses’ . I wasn’t surprised to see The Egyptian House featured. It’s certainly a curiosity amongst the other buildings of Chapel Street.
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The next day, before heading off on the train to Penzance, I spent the morning walking round the bay again. I had been intrigued by a small white building, on what turned out to be a headland, on the opposite side of the bay.
You can just about see it on the green hump in the middle of the picture
From the moment I first arrived in Newquay two Sundays ago I was mesmerised by the view. I’d booked a week’s stay in Penzance (Monday to Monday) but flew down from Leeds on the Sunday before staying the night at Fistral Beach. I’d never visited Newquay before. I certainly saw it at its best with this beautiful weather. I stayed overnight again the following Monday – same place, same views. On both occasions my timings meant that I had over 24 hours for each stay and plenty of time to investigate the cliff paths and seafoods and ice creams on offer.
Adderstone is the name of my friend’s cottage in Northumberland. It’s situated just off the A1 on the road to the coast at Bamburgh. I’m just home from a brief stay and I must say that, despite flurries of snow at lunchtime today and a shower yesterday morning, we had better weather than I’ve had on multiple visits to this part of the country in previous years and which were always in late June or early July.
After a day of orientation in Ystad we began our walk along the Osterlen Way; a footpath along the southern coast of Sweden. Our section, which would take us 4 days of walking to cover the distance from Ystad to Kivik. Kivik is beyond Simrishamn. As with all my previous walking holidays we walked from hotel/B&B to hotel/B&B and our luggage was transported for us. The holiday is part of Macs Adventure‘s huge portfolio. Unlike with ATG we had no manager to meet us at the beginning and end and be at the end of the phone line in case of difficulties. Macs provide you with a local phone number and contact but you never actually meet that person. The walk notes are not as detailed as in the booklet supplied by ATG but were more or less sufficient for our needs. In a couple of places we found incorrect or contradictory advice between the notes and the map supplied but we managed to find the correct route (or at least a route that worked) for ourselves. I should say though that help and advice from the office in Glasgow, by telephone or by email, was very efficient, friendly and helpful. Continue reading
From what I saw on our visit to the southern end of the island of Bornholm it is in total contrast from the north and the dramatic situation of Hammershus. Here are sand dunes and pine woods and sandy beaches and paths. Also, here, for us, the sun shone!
The Coast South of Hammershus, 1870, by Holger Drachmann (1846-1908)
Hammershus, 1849, by Anton Edvard Kieldrup (1827-1869)
At the Art Museum we saw several paintings of Hammershus Castle. The dramatic castle ruins have attracted artists and visitors for centuries. So, the next stop on our first day’s tour itinerary was to drive to the very northern tip of the island to see the castle for ourselves.
When we arrived on Rügen the first place we stopped at was Bergen. It’s about as central as you can get and one of the bigger towns. We were lucky to decide on the first cafe we came to and found it to be old-fashioned and characterful. Cafe Meyer
miladysboudoir 