Day 33: July 23rd

Today was much more beach weather. We walked to the town for another look around and to visit the St Ives Tate Gallery. The beaches definitely looked better, and the tide was in.

The beaches at St Ives are actually pretty nice. There is plenty of sand even at high tide and they are quite long.

The town was packed but that didn’t stop two way traffic wending it’s way around the village.

We discovered there is another beach that is south facing on the other side of the hill. It was pretty popular.

Check the way people claim their bit of beach, with their tent things and plastic fences. Some are completely shut off so they look like little (and not so little) paddocks on the sand.

Just across the road from this beach is the Tate Gallery. It’s a pretty impressive art deco building. Would make a great holiday home 🤪.

The galleries are all on the third floor, which is pretty extensive, and the fourth floor has shop and cafe.

The view from inside is great except that the rubbish bins kind of detract somewhat!

The main exhibition was featuring Moroccan artists and was interesting but not really our thing. There was a Picasso ( Mike’s favourite of the art works) and a Frances Hodgkins, which I also liked. Nothing that made us want to trade any of our paintings 🤗

The “do not touch” exhibit was of a series of these painted silk cloth displays that looked like they’d come from a fabric shop. Reminded me of Pollock and Milne in Hamilton (for those of us of a certain age). Tate galleries always have a “don’t touch” exhibit of rope or chairs or fabric or such like.

As it was sunny we decided to drive over to Penzance to check it out (see if we could see any pirates).
Penzance is a) closed on Sundays; b) under (necessary) reconstruction; and c) dreary.

This makes it look better than it was. Naturally you’d use prime waterfront land for a huge car park! Note the hill in the distance.

It’s the beginning of the school holidays and everything is shut.

The name says it all really. And then it started to rain.

I noticed this funny castle thing over in the distance so thought we’d check it out.

The funny castle thing turned out to be St Michael’s Mount. Only accessible by boat or across the causeway at low tide. It was low tide (obviously). It was also 5pm so it was closed. We walked across anyway and took photos from the gate. It’s a historic place but there were no apparent discounts for oldies or heritage card holders and the castle and grounds would have cost £26 each to visit the castle and grounds. Let’s assume it would have been worth it!