Westwards ho, from St Austell to St Ives - except we didn't go quite that far, getting off a stop early at Carbis Bay to check in at our next home-from-home, Boskerris Hotel. As the name suggests, it's a full-blown hotel but not particularly huge, 15 rooms in all. As befitting our honeymoony status, we stayed in the Celebration suite, a lovely big room looking out onto the bay with king size bed and a corner bath for two (in which we came close to boiling ourselves alive, but never mind that). The bath robes and slippers from The White Company were a treat to swan about it, and the Bose iPod dock was a handy extra. The feeling of luxury was more subtle than our previous stopping point, more conventionally hotel-like but still special and thoroughly swish - the only complaint being that the walls could have been thicker, having been awoken at 2am the first night by the sound of the occupant of the neighbouring room being sick in their bathroom. Bwurgh! That aside, our stay was glorious, the whole hotel full of nice touches, a much more individual and genuine experience than staying in some behemoth Hilton, such as the giant map of Cornwall along one wall complete with notes on the best places to visit, eat, suppliers of their food, or the chalkboard with the days weather and any events happening that day locally.
We'd got to the hotel by midday, an earlier check-in than usually allowed but the staff were extremely accommodating (as they were throughout our stay) so we were able to drop our luggage off in the room and head out for lunch. Now, initially we'd planned to go to the Bean Inn, a completely vegetarian restaurant in Carbis Bay, until we found out it was only open in the evenings. Scuppered, we decided to walk over to St Ives instead along the coastal footpath, especially as it didn't look all that far on the map. And indeed it wouldn't be, as the crow flies, but the map didn't show the startlingly steep climbs and dips the path takes. A bit of a shock for my leg at first, though I think the stretching actually did it some good, and the path was a very pleasant walk that we ended up taking quite a few times over our two days there as we bounced between Carbis Bay and its larger neighbour. The gloomy weather that had drizzled over Eden had given way to glorious sunshine and warmth, ideal summer holiday weather that didn't let up until the end of the honeymoon, bringing out gorgeous shades of turquoise and aquamarine from the sea and making suncream essential. As we entered St Ives at Porthminster Beach, we saw the sun had brought out lots of people (it was half term holiday in England that week) complete with a boggling number of men with great bellies perched on top of too-tight swimming trunks and a conspicuous amount of chunky jewellery, the beach a sea of pale skin turning scarlet. You could almost hear the sizzling.
Not the best of first impressions, but things quickly picked up nicely at the beachfront Porthminster Cafe. We saved eating in the restaurant there until our last day at Carbis Bay, opting for a lunchtime chippy from their take-away on the same premises. I went for the fish and chips, pictured right, and oh my golly. Since tasting an absolutely knockout fish supper in Stromness last year, fish & chips elsewhere has tasted bland and pointless, so I was delighted to have found another awesome fish supper on the opposite side of the UK. Look at that beauty! A battered coating that crunched like a good 'un yet didn't overpower the fish like they often do, the fish itself fresh and juicy, with good tasty chips and a wee portion of tartare sauce to go with it, all served up in a biodegradable box with little wooden cutlery. Seaside perfection.
Things then took a turn for the goddamn worse as we went for a post-lunch stroll through St Ives. By rights I should've loved it, street after winding street of lovely old buildings, the sound of the sea, sun beating down. But instead I loathed it for one very simple reason: cars. The amount of traffic moving through the town was staggering, far far more than it can realistically take, and if ever there was a case for shutting roads off to cars then St Ives on a sunny day is it. The tipping point came when, waiting to cross a road, a large car roared past just a few inches from my feet - I believe my exact words to my wife were "FUCK THIS SHIT." Never have I felt so unwelcome as a pedestrian or so at risk of getting clonked by huge SUVs stuffed to the ceiling with holiday bumf storming down tiny streets designed for a horse & carriage, and this pretty much soured St Ives for me for the rest of our time there - I was very grateful we were staying outwith the town itself, in the far more chilled-out Carbis Bay.
Still, there were a few quality moments to be had in St Ives. Firstly, the aforementioned Porthminster Cafe, where we had a delicious lunch before heading on to our next stop on the honeymoon. Secondly, Tate St Ives - sort of. See, I'm used to Tate galleries being free, so paying over £5 for entry didn't sound too good, especially when the examples I've seen of the work inside have been, well, not to my taste. So while the Missus paid her moneys and looked around, I hotfooted up to the cafe - quite busy inside, but the outdoor area was empty, folk being put off by the wind. Wimps! Choppiness aside, it was glorious sitting out there with the late-morning sun blazing down, so much so that I did my first drawing in sodding months whilst supping on an ice tea and enjoying a carrot cake, finding St Ives far more enjoyable at a distance. Thirdly, and the only way I could be led back into St Ives after that first disastrous experience, was the fortuitous happening of the annual CAMRA Kernow St Ives beer festival, where I made my merry way after Tate St Ives while my recently betrothed braved the throng-packed streets. As I was still taking painkillers for my leg, I restricted myself to 3 half-pints and deliberately chose some lighter local libations out of the 70-odd available - Keltek's 4K Mild (4.0%), Lizard's Kernow Gold (3.7%) and Skinner's Ginger Tosser (3.8%), thankfully not served by a redhead. This left me pleasantly merry for the rest of the day, and I still treasure my souvenir glass beer mug. Now, if I could just go there again sans painkillers...
On the whole though, Carbis Bay was where it was at for us. Ambling along the coastal paths was a pleasure, though rather exhausting in the sunshine, the beach certainly less packed than St Ives. The cream tea at Boskerris Hotel was a stunner, the scones that much lighter than any we'd had before, served warm and savoured while sat on the terrace looking out to the sea, a view inspiring enough to have me breaking out the watercolour pencils again, while my recently-betrothed looked lovely knitting in the sunshine. Despite the close proximity of St Ives and the multitude of restaurants there, we had dinner both nights at Boskerris Hotel - we didn't even know there was a restaurant there until we checked in (there's no mention on the website), but the menu sounded promising and the results were superb. On the first night I had the catch of the day (can't remember what it was, certainly not a fish I'd come across before, but damn tasty) pan-fried with caramelised fennel, a recipe I need to get the hang of, with cherry tomatoes and new potatoes, and an eminently nomable sticky toffee pudding for dessert. The next night I went for Cornish lamb cutlets with a splendid mash potato, sugar snap peas & roasted root veg, and for dessert (not shown above) a trio of Roskilly's excellent ice creams. Their dedication to locally-sourced nosh was all over the menu, the fish caught daily from St Ives, and the freshness was there in every bite - I couldn't have asked for better.
Next stop: Perranuthnoe...
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