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.
2 J's World of Adventure 