Bridge Inn and Holcombe
Friday 15th April 2022
After breakfast at our hotel in Congresbury, we motored down the M5 towards the Exeter area (stopping off in Taunton for a spot of shopping en route) in time for lunch at the Bridge Inn in Topsham. Then we called in at Dad's for an afternoon tea of home made saffron buns, before heading on to Holcombe, the other side of Dawlish, to check into our little cottage which would be home for the next two nights.
West Country April 2022
John's Pictures

09:11:30
Breakfast at our hotel in Congresbury. Seems like a long time since I'd had a hotel breakfast, and I quite enjoyed it.

09:11:33

09:37:12
Erika in an oversized chair at the hotel.

10:12:15
Mushrooms in the grounds of the hotel.

11:27:50
Randomly a photo of some lichen in the Hobby Craft store in Taunton. We'd mainly stopped here to try and get a replacement wiper blade from the Halfords next door, but living in fairly central London we don't see these kind of out-of-town retail parks very often and found it all oddly fascinating.

13:28:37
A little later on, at the beautiful Bridge Inn in Topsham, where we stopped for lunch.

13:44:24
Our lunch: pasties and sandwiches.

13:44:28
I quite liked the vegan pasty here.

13:48:15

14:12:30
Cheers to the Bridge Inn.

14:17:08

15:25:13
Bluebells and white bluebells (whatever you call those) in Dad's garden.

16:56:52
Erika and Jess the dog.

17:27:14
After our afternoon tea at Dad's house we continued on to Holcombe to check into out cottage. Ours was the one on the right hand side here - unfortunately unthatched.

17:27:33
The thatched cottage opposite ours.

17:29:30
Inside our cottage. It was tiny but suited us very well.

17:29:44
Looking through the back (?) door of the cottage out to the hills beyond.

17:30:38
Erika exploring the cottage.

17:49:27
The cottage garden.

17:49:42

17:52:03

18:30:31
Heading out for a quick walk down to the sea.

18:32:23
Lots of thatch to admire along the way.

18:32:57
This was a particularly nice example I thought.

18:42:02
Down to Holcome Beach, which sadly is a bit of a construction site now.

18:42:05

18:42:41
The view along to the cliffs.

18:43:03

18:44:32
The coastal path follows alongside the railway tracks here.

18:44:42

18:49:52
A great spot for trainspotters!

18:49:59

18:50:01

18:50:03

18:54:01
There's a little ice cream kiosk at Holcome Beach, down at the end of Smuggler's Lane, and here's their little storage cave, which has a very smugglery sort of feel to it.

18:54:43
Bluebells.

18:54:48

19:07:22
Back to near our cottage. We thought we'd try the pub in the village for dinner, but being Good Friday they were completely overwhelmed and couldn't take any more food orders.

20:02:57
So instead we did a run to the Sainsbury's in Dawlish, and while we were away a mist descended.

20:18:55
While dinner was cooking I poppped out to take some photos of tonight's wine along with the thatched cottages.

20:19:14

20:26:49
Final stages of preparation for dinner here - eating very late for us, but we had had a hearty afternoon tea at around 4pm!

20:34:35
The girls at the dinner table.