Sunday in Devon

Posted on 2013/01/28 22:32:46 (January 2013).

[Sunday 27th January 2013]
Around midday we headed out to Dawlish. It's just down the road from Dad's new house which is lovely, as it's a place we often went for summer holidays when I was little. I've hardly been back since as a grown-up, so it was really nice to see lots of familiar sights - the park, the black swans, the beach, the railway bridge the waves would crash over in a storm.

We went for a stroll down to the seafront, and then a little wander round the town, with the notion of trying to find a chip shop so we could have the traditional bag of chips by the sea. Of course, it being a Sunday all but the not-so-good looking places were closed, so instead we decided to fall back on the other traditional Devon seaside staple - the pasty. Gay's Creamery was open as usual, and therein we bought pasties which we ate in the park. We followed that with one of their ice creams topped with clotted cream which, tasty though it was, I regretted somewhat afterwards given how huge and heart stoppingly unhealthy it was.

Our return journey was made somewhat more eventful after a passer-by pointed out the car had a flat tyre. I've never actually changed a tyre before - my contribution was pretty much just winding up the jack and holding the wheel in place - so that was educational. As we weren't completely confident the spare had been put on as well as it could be - and there were too many of us to fit in the car anyway (Dad had got the bus on the way there) Chie, Erika and I decided to get the train back.

This turned out to be rather lovely - we often used to use this line when holidaying in Dawlish to get to and from Dawlish Warren - the line goes right by the sea. Erika was actually awake and alert while we were on the train (having been asleep when we wandered along the seafront earlier), and I held her up to take in the view. She seemed genuinely fascinated - it was such a lovely moment. This was her first time to properly see the sea, and I love the fact that it was captured on camera, and was in a place with such a long running family connection - not only are some of my earliest memories of holidays in Dawlish, but I found out on this trip that Vera's parents came her for her honeymoon.

So in a funny sort of way I'm rather glad we had that flat tyre.

Spent the remainder of the afternoon back at Dad's house, and in the early evening Dad and I went for a walk to the neighbouring village of Cockwood to visit the Anchor Inn (where legend has it I got my foot - or perhaps my head - in the railings - sadly or perhaps appropriately the railing have since been removed). It's in a lovely spot, and has an interesting interior, although I think the Bridge remains the star of the weekend as far as pubs go. We also poked our noses in at the other pub in Cockwood - the Ship Inn - which is somewhat more basic but nonetheless still pleasant. I was slightly disappointed - as Dad had forewarned - that none of the pubs we went to this weekend had cider on draught - but they all had some decent local ales.

Headed back after that and were treated to a really dramatic full moon on our walk home - I don't recall ever seeing a moon which was both so clear and so low in the sky (and it also had a sort of orangey pink tint to it). Obviously the picture I took doesn't really do it justice.

Dad made stuffed pancakes for dinner, and I attacked the remainder of the cider we'd bought yesterday with perhaps a little too much fervour - something I came to regret the next morning!

Yoi otenki de yokatta ne

Posted by yoko at 2013/02/01 00:25:33.

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