Summer Holiday Part One

The summer was in full swing, and before I knew it, it was time for a week off from work. Me and James had planned a week away in Devon & Cornwall and to make the most of the good weather we were having. He was working in Exeter on the Friday while I was working a night shift to move the store around for sale launch. So I worked a night shift on the Thursday night, from 6pm overnight until 8am to get everything moved into place and then priced. Moving stuff is great, but pricing stuff is mind numbing and it just gets so boring so quickly. I finished work, had a couple of hours sleep at home before jumping on the train from Southampton to Exeter. I sort of dozed through most of the journey, but perked up at Crewkerne where I saw this fun little building at the end of the platform. Not sure what it was for, but it look interesting. Would make a perfect little tea shop!

The train ride took about three hours in total, and I was glad to get off and stretch my legs. James picked me up from Exeter St David's train station, and we drove up to the university where we staying for a couple of nights. Its such a brilliant idea, while all the students have gone home for the summer holidays why not rent the halls out? It was basic but fine, and it was much cheaper than a lot of the hotels about, so well worth looking out for if you're needing some affordable accommodation in the summer.

Most of  the day had passed by this point, so we wandered down to the old wharfs at Exeter Quayside to find ourselves something to eat. Its a really fun and bustling area full of bars and restaurants with lots of food options to choose from.

I ended up with a 16 inch pizza with my favourite toppings, Tuna, garlic & red onion. Absolutely bliss. And as you can see here, it took up most of the table!

The next morning we started to explore, and wandered up along the river embankment, where we came across a gaggle of friends waiting to say hello (and of course, to eat the bird food they seemed to know we had with us)

We also passed through this subway which was covered in bold and fun graffiti, as well as a giant stitch on the wall! This sort of graffiti I love, its expressive, looks good and gives you a chance to admire the skill of making it. I know that probably sounds very elitist in terms of art, but I want to connect with it in a way, same way as how you connect with a good piece of art in gallery. Its expression, it tells a story, and most of it, it makes you feel or think in a certain way.

We were headed to the old Medieval Exe Bridge. You'd be forgiven for wandering where the water went, it actually flows to the south of the Bridge now, and is has survived two of it's replacements!

Work started on building the bridge in 1190, making it perhaps on of the oldest remaining bridges in England. It has this beautiful charm to it from the reddish stone that a lot of older Exeter is built with. There's the remains of a bell tower in the middle of it, and the remains of the bridge are now situated in a nice little park. I would just avoid going into the arches underneath, there was a couple of homeless people and a lot of rubbish and needles scattered about. But what remains gives you an idea of how great and expansive a bridge this was when it was built.

We then grabbed a spot of lunch, before heading to the Cathedral, which will come in the next post. But before that, enjoy a picture of our very tasty seafood sharing platter we had for lunch!

(I won't tell you about the bit where I nearly choked on a fish bone, I'll let you use your imagination for that!)