Exeter, Reddaway's Cider and Teignmouth

Posted on 2013/08/09 22:38:53 (August 2013).

[Monday 5th August 2013]
Dad and Janie needed to go to the post office in Exeter, which was handy as it gave us the opportunity to do some shopping. You wouldn't believe it looking at our bags, but we'd actually tried to pack fairly sparingly for our 5 nights away in Devon, and as a result found we were short of a few baby things. Oh and we forgot the electric bit of our electric toothbrush.

Also, the weather was looking surprisingly inclement, and after all the hot weather I'd come away from London without a jacket. I'd wanted a new tweed jacket for some time anyway, and it seemed like a good opportunity to buy one in a different part of the country for a change. A quick Google search for "tweed Exeter" had suggested Lugets was the place to go, and after just a few minutes of browsing I very efficiently came away with a new jacket, made by a company called Magee, in a fairly light green/brown tweed with a sort of purplish blue and red overcheck.

We had lunch at a cafe on top of an organic food shop in Exeter, whose name escapes me, and then eventually headed back to the house for a bit, where we later on had a cream tea. Of course.

In the early evening we headed out in the direction of Teignmouth, by way of Lower Rixdale Farm - home of Reddaway's Cider. This was one of the highlights of the holiday for me - a chance to see a real farmhouse cider producer. It was a superbly small scale operation - no swanky farm shop, barely any signs at all, we just knocked on the door of the farmhouse, and John Reddaway took us round the corner to the cider cellar. There was a fantastic atmosphere in the cellar - reminiscent of the warehouse where whisky matures - and that was no coincidence as several of the barrels were in fact former whisky barrels. We tried the cider on the spot - it was delicious - and came away with 8 litres of the stuff, for an incredibly cheap £14. Really fantastic.

From there we headed on to Teignmouth for an early evening stroll along the beach with its distinctive red sands, and a quick drink at the Ship Inn, before heading back to the house for dinner.

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