Nothing like a few sea views on what is promising to be another boiling hot day in Florence (but last night was quite cool, yay!).
I took the first two photos at Minack Theatre, which is an open-air theatre built in the 1930s (?) into the granite cliffside overlooking Porthcurno Bay, not too far from Land’s End, in Cornwall.
Wikipedia tells me that minack from the Cornish meynek means a st
ony or rocky place. Anyway, the first photo gives a view of Porthcurno beach…the second is a shot of the theatre taken from above. It was a stunning place. And we happened to be there on one of the rare (during our holiday) sunny days, which made it even more perfect…
My third photo, which came out a bit on the dark side (it was late afternoon, and the sun was in the wrong place…or perhaps we were in the wrong place… 😉 ), shows St. Michael’s Mount…yes, similar to Mont St-Michel in Normandy, France…
During low tide you can walk over to the (tidal) island–and in fact, if you look closely, you will be able to see the beginning of 
the causeway–but if the tide is high, as it was when we chose to go there, you have to get there by ferry boat. Or swim. 🙂 We chose the ferry boat (the one we missed can be seen on the left in the photo)…
And, in case you were wondering, this is another National Trust property ;), though the castle, perched on the top of the island, is still the official residence of Baron St Levan…
My last two photos are of Durdle Door and the Man of War Bay. We spent a couple of days near the end of our holiday on the Jurassic Coast (which was completely booked…sigh). What can I say about the Jurassic Coast? 
Stunning, and very relaxing. And even though it rained most of the time, there is always something entertaining to do (National Trust properties, e.g.; hmmm, since I keep mentioning the NT, I suppose I should declare officially that I am in no way affiliated with it!).
Yes, we did look for fossils on the beach at low tide but found none…though Stefano and I did bring home a pile of, er, promising-looking (?) stones… 🙂 Now all we have to do is get a small hammer and open them…carefully…
Durdle Door is a really magical, lovely place. Even the crowds didn’t bother me. We sat on the cliffs above the Door, admiring the views, soaking up the sun rays (vitamin D!) and watching swimmers diving happily off the limestone rocks…
So beautiful…so relaxing…
A few notes of interest: Durdle Door is a natural limestone arch near Lulworth, in Dorset. According to Wikipedia, Durdle is derived from an Old English word ‘thirl’ 
meaning bore or drill. Even though the Door is privately owned, it is open to the public. And in fact I watched (with a bit of apprehension) teenage kids climb all over the first part, the less steep part, of the arch. Eeek…
The last photo, as I mentioned, shows a view of the perfectly-shaped Man of War Bay, which is right next to Durdle Door. I tell ya, if we’d had our bathing suits with us, we’d most certainly have gone for a swim down on that lovely beach…The sea looked absolutely glorious…
Oh well…next time! 🙂
P.S. Since I don’t wish to bore you (and me!) with TOO many photos (I took hundreds), I decided to skip the ones I took in many other places, such as Tintagel Castle, which is associated with the King Arthur legends…in fact, this castle is supposed to be the birthplace of King Arthur…
Wonderful photos of places I know and love well. I am so happy you had a fabulous time in this beautiful part of our country Margaret.
Pothcurno has had other roles. It was the main landing beach for most of the telecommunication cables out of the UK headed for the US and what used to be the British empire. So important during the Second World War that the whole operation of receiving and regenerating all the vital messages involved was transferred to bomb-proof caverns blasted out of the Cornish granite forming the sides of Porthcurno valley. They now house a fascinating telecommications museum. Worth a visit.
The buildings in the valley all belonged to the Cable & Wireless College, where I trained for two years. They are now hotels and holiday apartments.
The Minack theatre in the 1950s was merely a flat ledge near the top of the cliffs. I spent many hours with fellow students moving rocks and generally helping with the landscaping. We also appeared in crowd scenes for various plays – I remember being in the Ides of March scene in Julius Caesar. All amateur and free in those happy days.
Well I was going to get all lyrical about the photos but decided to share this instead…
When I worked in a survey office booking appoints we covered an area where the streets were named after places and Tintagel was became know as the road named after a hair dye as a colleague/friend was pronounced it tint-a-gel! We’ve never let her live it down! ;D
Wonderful pictures! Lisa in Cyprus