Tag: devon

Day 4 – Monday 13th 2024- Par to Exeter – Cornish Staycation

Published on by 2jsworldofadventureLeave a comment

After 3 magnificent days of dawn to dusk sunshine we got up today to find the weather forecast, for once, was correct…drat…. It was chilly and pouring it down with very heavy rain….. but it’s ok because our Entertainments Manager – John ( I am the planner, booker and driver and Dad is the navigator!!), had it all under control. He decided that today was a good day to take the train through to Exeter and back via a stop at Plymouth. It’s a great sightseeing trip even in the rain and it kept us warm and dry.
We took the car to Par station… lazy yes!, as it’s only 0.5 miles away from where we are staying. However it was definitely the dryer option. I dropped John and Dad at the station and went in search of somewhere to park…. Rather crazy most of the parking spaces are ‘Staff Only’ and the little carpark at the end of the road is also ‘Staff Only’ … that leaves a couple of disabled parking bays and 8 bays for rail users!!! (There are 3 times more than that for Staff!!). Every available bay was full except of course the staff and disabled bays which were totally empty …. Rant over!!!… so I drove out and parked behind another rail user in the road behind the pub, I then followed him down the footpath to the station… so I did manage not to drown !!! John had purchased the tickets at about £24 each and his was around £16 with a rail card … day returns were cheaper than Rover tickets on this occasion.
We took the slower stopping train to Plymouth. There were some lovely views albeit through the rain splattered window.

We were a few minutes late getting into Plymouth but the connecting train to Exeter was being held. So we dodged the rain and boarded it. The next part of our journey is fairly spectacular, even through the wet train windows. From Teignmouth along to Dawlish the train runs parallel to the sea front. We were fortunate that the tide was in and the spray was splashing over the sea wall … lovely sight.

On arriving in Exeter Dad and I bolted for Starbucks.. a coffee was required… pleased to say we both gave it a 8/10 … so very acceptable.

We stopped about an hour at St David’s Station, Exeter, before retracing our train rides back to Par. Somewhere around Lostwithiel it finally stopped raining, but most the beautiful scenery had been passed. It was nice to get off the train and all of us walk in the dry back up to the car. The good thing about renting a house is that tonight we are staying in. Supper will be lasagne with fresh spinach, followed by Ginger pudding, which was kindly given to us for our trip by a good friend in Dads village. We will probably play Rummikub, and try to get our own back on Dad who won both hands last night, and watch quizzes on the TV and look forward to more exciting adventures tomorrow.

Day 2 – Saturday 11th 2024 – Arriving in Cornwall

Published on by 2jsworldofadventure2 Comments

We woke up in The Premier Inn Frome after all of us having a hot and sweaty night……don’t start me off about the legislation which prevents hotels from having windows which open to let air in…..grrrrr….anyway at 8.30 John had walked to Gregg’s Bakery and purchased 3 ‘bacon butties’ and we were all sat in our room eating them and drinking coffee……we don’t go to restaurants for breakfasts when we have a long drive ahead of us…we prefer a light bite and off we go.

We decided to stick to the ‘A’ roads as much as possible and only use the M5 to scoot around the edge of Exeter. It was a very scenic drive…we took the road towards Glastonbury before branching of to Bruton, small town famous for its Private Schools. It has two longstanding secondary schools- Kings School founded in 1519 and Sexey’s School founded in 1889. The later was named after Hugh Sexey who was born locally and attended Bruton Grammar School and was Royal Auditor to both Queen Elisabeth I and King James I. We off course passed the usual crude jokes with regard to the name of the school !!!. On entering the town one is struck by the splendour of St Mary’s Church which dominates the centre of the town.

Following this town we joined the A303 into Devon, and went on the infamous Honiton bypass. We then detoured off the A30 ……Devon and Cornwall don’t have motorways traversing their counties but the A30 is of a motorway standard in all ways except name.

Our detour took us into the village of Ottery St. Mary. Here we visited the garden centre. It’s well know to Dad who often visits it when staying with my sister who lives in Devon. We had a nice coffee and stretched our legs, before carrying on.

As we left the village a long convoy of assorted cars in all shapes and sizes.

We continued on through some typically Cornish lanes….very narrow, with passing spaces and high banked sides…the banks at this time of years are filled with beautiful wild flowers……so a very picturesque trip.

We stopped in Liskeard to pick up a picnic lunch and sat at the station to eat it. The station is always a pleasant place to be….the mainline trains arrive on the two main platforms with the branch line train to Looe departing from platform 3 which is at right angles and across the road from the main lines.
After lunch we continued to Par. We picked up the keys of the house from a prearranged point and found it easily enough (might have been easier if I hadn’t mixed up my 6 & 9 !!!!). The house is very nice, it could easily sleep 6 …..it consists of a lounge, dinning room, well equipped Kitchen, 2 bedrooms with King Size beds and one with twin beds and two bathrooms, a conservatory and a garden. I booked it through http://www.sykescottages.co.uk. This is a company we have often used to book holiday accommodation . It was £800 for the week. The welcome pack was very nice. We had arranged for a Tesco food and household goods delivery an hour after our arrival. So we are now all set for a very comfortable week.