Coastal Walk: St Ives

on friday i arrived at St Ives after a long journey by train leaving Exeter early in the morning. here i reached the south-westernmost part of England. Cornwell, home of the genuine Cornish pasty. as if anything else would not be called Cornish. in fact everything is Cornish there. Cornish Coffee, Cornish shoes Cornish everything. Faride, my sweet friend from Mexico told me that she wanted to visit Cornwall and buy some Cornish pasty for her dad. the story is that according to the rumour this pasty is very popular in Mexico thanks to English seamen who once docked in a small Mexican port village. In this village people started baking these pasties and this is the village where Faride's dad was born.
St Ives is a beautiful town with great beaches. but when i arrived i was more interested in the big 'WALK'. along the coast some 6 miles, up and down. u'll see why am i saying up and down.
looking back at the town.

the path was not everywhere as well maintained as here. in fact at places it was quite hardcore. i enjoyed it a lot, of course!! :)

just like in a film. it was stunning, i wish i had had more time and less package on my back. it was a real uninhabited beach!!! a pearl. pearl harbor :)

that's a funny story. no comment

beautiful. here was i climbing up and down...


this looked mega-giga funny. i was walking along the coast, everywhere sea, stunning cliffs, beautiful flowers and little streams and then suddenly a few separated squares showed up in front of me with cows eating inside. it's not extraordinary in England at all, maybe it is not extraordinary in normal means, only for me. it was a bit surreal. or what. :)

rocks


in certain parts of the UK you have to be very careful if you start tracking. if you don't make it on time to get the final destination, you can find yourself in the middle of nowhere with no public transport, no civilization in the near, and maybe even with no mobile network coverage. that's why after 6 miles i had to turn back so that i could catch the last bus back to St Ives. the (so-called) bus stopped in front of a hotel (there was nothing else in a big distance).
this is the greatest bus stop in the world (fine Cornish ale, yummie):

Rollin' on trains

As i already mentioned, i loved traveling by train in the UK. It's not like in Hungary. the first and most obious difference is the quality and frequency (!) of services and the cleannes of coaches. and what i liked the most: it's the athmosphere that pervades the railway in England, the place where it was born. the legendary Great Western Railway is still runnig services, near Birmingham I've seen a steam locomotive that was fuelled with coal. here we are:


but to be honest, this time i wanted to present the pictures i took during my journey from Exeter to St Ives in Cornwall. i don't have to tell you that it was amazing. Cornwall is one of the most popular holiday place
i like this one. lonely tree.

a bay near Exeter.

this is one my favourite pics. one of the many favourites :)

this place was called Red Cliff. i wonder why

this is Cornwall county already.

and this is the famous Royal Albert Bridge. This bridge was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. I don't know if any of you have heard about his name, but he made a huge contribution to the developing of railway in England and thus, to the English economy and its role as a world-power. His numerous bridges are still stunning and he created the Great Western Railway that aimed at stretching railway towards Bath, Bristol and Exeter.
'Brunel's solo engineering feats started with bridges — the Royal Albert Bridge spanning the River Tamar at Saltash near Plymouth...'
'The Royal Albert Bridge was designed in 1855 for the Cornwall Railway Company, after Parliament rejected his original plan for a train ferry across the Hamoaze — the estuary of the tidal Tamar, Tavy and Lynher. The bridge consists of two main spans of 455 ft (139 m), 100 ft (30 m) above mean high spring tide, plus 17 much shorter approach spans. Opened by Prince Albert on 2 May 1859, it was completed in the year of Brunel's death.'
source: Wikipedia.org

Bath, Exeter

After three nights in Cardiff i moved on (i think on Thursday) to Bath first. I'm not sure if I have told u already but i enjoyed traveling by train so much. not like in hungary. i guess because it is so much better organised, the services are a lot more frequent and coaches are nicer, cleaner and quieter. i think these are enough to explain the difference...
it wasn't different on my way to Bath. in general anywhere i was traveling the landscape was beautiful.
Bath is a small town in the western part of England. Everyone I spoke to said it was such a lovely town that i had to see it. well, it is nice indeed. but to be honest i wasn't that much fascinated. okay, nice, old buildings, Roman Bath, Cathedral, River Avon, Pulteney Bridge, all nice, but...
maybe i hadn't had enough time to explore eveything.
Bath is famous for its Roman baths. i wonder where it got its name:) in England this is the only source of thermal water.
if they knew that in hungary thermal water is coming even from taps and half of hungary is full of Roman ruins - much nicer than the ones in Bath... But i didn't want to spoil those people's enthusiasm... :)
and the other source of its fame is that Jane Austin lived there for quite a long time. i saw her house. - she lived in at least three houses there, then she left the town because it was, and still is, one of the most expensive ones in England, thanks to its wealthy residents and to its undoubtedly beautiful location.

to be honest, now as i flicked through the pics again, i like it much better :)
those building are very nice just like River Avon

to start off let's see the cathedral and the Roman Bath:


and the same subjects from inside the Bath. lots of Roman ruins.

I wonder if they are healing with mineral water :)


and the famous Pulteney Bridge on Avon. as far as i know there's only one more bridge like this i Florence: built in with shops and cafes and other things. or at least it is most often compared to it. since i've seen both of them i can understand this. both are nice and they have a special athmosphere. though Ponte Vecchio Bridge, as it is named, is a bigger architectural attraction and has a bubblier life in my opinion (the difference is competely understandable if we think of an English gentleman and an Italian gigolo)


the Roman Bath again and a square


still on the same day i moved on to Exeter - i booked accomodation there. when i arrived there it was already quite dark and i had to walk a bit to the youth hostel. despite this i managed to have a look at the town and i must say it is nice. it's a pity i didn't have more time.
now as I'm putting down these thoughts and presenting some photos i realized that half of my pics are about bridges and cathedrals... anyway, i like them. i also realized that i'm in love with water. all my tour was somehow connected to water (seas, lakes, waterfalls, etc.). not surprising in Britain anyway :)
all in all, here's a bridge from Exeter:

and the Two Towers. not from the Lord of the Rings... i took the photo the next morning while walking to the railway station, from where i headed for St Ives

i remember in Exeter i had a good chat with two ladies from London and a backpacker from Canada i think. it was a long day.