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Exceeding all expectations we had sunshine again today! We decided to make the most of it and headed over to National Trust St Michael's Mount. It's only a short drive away from the cottage, and is accessed from the town of Marazion. The tide times are a bit useless this time of year with low tide early in the morning and late in the afternoon / evening so the causeway wasn't an option for crossing, so we made our way by boat. As the weather was so nice, the water was very calm making for an easy crossing, plus it saved our legs a bit for the climb on the otherside. We were taken across by one of the island residents who pointed out his bathroom window in the cottages that sit at the bottom of the the rock on which the castle sits.

The climb up follows a winding path of uneven cobbles and stepped rock sections, and was no easy feat. It took a little while, but we all got there in the end. There are some terrific views from the top of the boats ferrying people below and the surrounding coast. We had a bit of a sit in the sunshine on the rocks just outside the castle entrance and Dani managed to spot a seal in the sea below! After a bit of a rest, we headed into the castle to wander around the historic rooms, it was all very insteresting, and although there was a steady stream of people, it wasn't exactly busy.   

Feeling quite hungry on the journey back down, we headed for the cafe where we had some tasty toasted sandwiches followed a little laster by ice-cream. We dropped by Tesco on the way back for a few essentials (clotted cream and scones) before heading back to the cottage for a bit of rest and relaxation. Splendid! 

After another busy term, we've eventually hit Easter. We're actually half way through the break at this point and have alredy spent the last week decorating the stairs and landing before coming away to Cornwall with mum. The weather this spring has been less than impressive so far with the "Beast from the East" weather just a few short weeks ago dumping snow everywhere. On the plus side it did reward us with a snow day, although in our case it was actually a "frozen pipe day", with the water pipes frozen leading to a lack of water across the school site. With all this in mind we weren't suprised to see the weather reports for this week predicting cloudy days and light rain. We arrived yesterday to Brook Cottage, our home for the week. It's in Carpis Bay which is just a short distance out of St Ives and is very nicely appointed with 3 bedrooms, a fully equiped kitchen and a games room including darts, table football and a table tennis table. Even better there was a welcome basket when we arrived with lots of essentials including tea bags, coffee, milk, some biscuits, a box of celebrations and a bottle of wine! 

Today, we had a wander around St. Ives. The weather was amazing with bright sunshine and blue skies. St. Ives looked as beautiful as usual in the sunshine with clear blue water and sandy beaches. We stopped for some lunch in Olives Tea Room where I had my first Cornish cream tea of the week. Dani had some coffee cake whilst mum had a quiche and salad. It was all very tasty and we left feeling very full up.

We finished off the day heading for Godrevy National Trust car park in Gwithian, but unfortunately arrived to find it full with the top car park seemingly closed. We found a place to park a little further along the road and headed up the path to look out to sea, there were no seals sadly but still quite a view. 

Here's hoping the weather continues a bit longer ...  

. . . when I say some, I mean us! There was helpfully a train strike in Italy on Friday, unfortunately the very day we were headed for Venice - Fortunately the Strike ended at 5 in the evening so it wasn't too late to get here. Since the last update we have been to Florence where we saw Michalangelo's David, the Duomo and had a walk along the Arno River. We also enjoyed a lazy day at the campsite in Tuscany which mostly consisted of slothing about for the day eating ice cream and sitting in the sun.

Venice is splendid and the weather has been awesome none stop sunshine the whole time we have been in Italy - touch wood! We'll stick some more photos up at the next place with any luck - they have free internet!We're heading to Slovenia (ljubljana) for a couple of nights so will try and fit in some more updates then! Hope everyones well! Ciao!