Author: Anthony

At the end of the M4, very seventies but does a good breakfast.

Not sure what it is about the prosperous Wiltshire town, but Marlborough, where the kids and I have stopped off on our way to Ireland, is proving hard to buy pizza in. Ask (where we are now) has sat us down on the condition we eat up and get out within 55 minutes. Pizza Express didn’t even manage that – astonishingly they had run out of food.

I picked up three bottles of local beer when I was down in St Ives and I’ve just been sampling them in front of England v. Brazil. The Brazil of the bunch was One and All from the Carn Brea Brewery (near Camborne), which was a really rich and flavoursome bitter without being too heavy. The beer equivalent of England was Cornish Blonde by Skinners of Truro, a great blonde with a good finish (as it were). Finally, bringing up the rear was An Gof bitter by the Lizard brewery of St Keverne. Not awful, but not great, and the smoked malt it’s made with didn’t add much.

Via Porthcurno, which hasn’t changed a bit in the 20 years since I was there last, and Cape Cornwall, the thinking man’s Lands End, we made St Ives for dinner. Coast restaurant, on a first floor overlooking the harbour, provided very tasty, filling food for not much money, and with friendly service. Even now, at nine o’clock, St Ives is packed with visitors. Travel tip: park at St Erth and take one of the regular trains up the branch line to St Ives.

Even if the weather’s cold, it’s lovely to be in Cornwall again. We began with a good lunch at the Renaissance cafe bar. We chose it for the view over the harbour (it’s in the Wharfside shopping centre in Penzance) but the food – mussels and a lamb and mint burger – were really fresh and well prepared.