England #4 - We head towards Exeter in The England Chronicles - May 2017

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, we had so many places we wanted to see in Cornwall that it would take us, oh, six months to even see a fraction of them. For our first full day, we decided we’d either go to Port Isaac (home of Doc Martin!) or to Exeter. Exeter is in Devon, about an hour from Bodmin. We’d gone past Exeter the previous day, on the way from Heathrow to Bodmin, but hadn’t had time to stop. And I’ve wanted to visit Exeter on every trip we’ve made to England, because my dad was stationed there during WW2. Just the fact that he was in WW2 is kind of shocking, since he joined the Navy when he was barely 15. (Oddly he was in an infantry section of the Navy, and was rarely on a ship). He was only in Exeter for a month or two, then was sent on to Scotland and after that on to France, but he’s asked if I’d be near Exeter every time we go, and this time we were going to be fairly close, so I wanted to see it. It’s also quite historic and has a huge medieval cathedral so that’s a big draw too. Since it was a chilly and rainyish day, we decided on Exeter that day, and Port Isaac when the weather was nicer.

But, naturally, first we had to have a bit of draaaama!

We stopped by the main building at the resort on our way out, where the lobby was, to use the wireless. Because, oddly, our cabin didn’t have it - you had to go to the main building. Which was pretty annoying - I don’t know what’s up with that, the timeshare canal boat we stayed in was the same. They say they have wireless, then you find out it’s only at the main building. So we took a few minutes to get online before leaving, then set off. I stopped for gas in Bodmin, and at that point Kim realized.... she didn’t have her purse.

OMG. It was immediate flashback to the last trip, and the Lost Passport Disaster!!!! And it was, seriously, all I could do to NOT say, “ARE.YOU.FUCKING.KIDDING ME?!?!?!?”

Because although I was trying really really hard to be patient and reassuring (“Of course you just left it at the lobby! It’s not gone!!!”), it did occur to me that if it was really lost and we were going to have a repeat of The Lost Passport Disaster, I would have to kill her. Because poor Kim is a fantastic friend and great traveling companion, but … she is really careless. Or, not careless as much as oblivious. She doesn’t pay attention to what she’s doing. And she was carrying both her purse and a camera bag, when she doesn’t usually carry two things around. As I told her, I can’t carry two things around, or I’ll let go of one and lose it - that’s why I use a bag that I can get everything plus my camera in.

Anyhow, she’d definitely had it when we stopped by the main building’s desk so I kept reassuring her it HAD to be there. If it had been a services stop I would have been panicking too, but Lakeview was a nice resort and I seriously doubted anyone who found her purse would have made off with it. And to make a long story short, of course it was still there - she called the desk and they went over to where we’d been sitting and there it was in the floor beside her chair. (Oh, as an aside, she did not have her passport in her purse - but she did of course have her money and credit cards in it. So it wouldn’t have been quite as bad as Passport Disaster, but it would still have been pretty bad.)

SO we had to drive all the way back to the resort (not that far but we were trying to get the day started) and we ended up just staying and having breakfast at their little restaurant since by then we were quite ready for something to eat (as we’d just arrived the night before, we didn’t have breakfast supplies in our cabin yet) and we REALLY REALLY needed coffee. And a little calm-down time. Actually this was the only time we had a real breakfast the entire time - and we both got a Full English with veggie sausages, and it was delicious, so that worked out well. Otherwise we’d have just gotten something much less tasty at Costa or Starbucks. As an amusing aside,the cook came out and was questioning me about the veggie sausages because he liked them but wasn’t sure they were a good substitute for real meat sausage. I had to admit I was not a very good tester … I thought they were great but I don’t actually like sausage. So they probably were not a good substitute!

Anyhow, that was an exciting way to start the day. AAGGHH!! But FINALLY we were really off, headed to Exeter. We went the same way we’d arrived the previous day, across the Bodmin Moor and right by the Jamaica Inn. (LOL- if you click on that link, you’ll hear the creaking of their sign blowing slowly in the wind… which REALLY startled me until I figured out where that noise was coming from). Daphne DuMaurier based her novel by the same name here, after staying in the inn herself. It’s 300 years old and supposed to be quite haunted. We stopped in and checked out the gift shop, which was fun.

It was quite touristy, of course - Squire Bassat would talk to you and tell you all about the Inn’s murderous smuggling days if you pressed the button. At least I assume that’s what he’d tell you about - I didn’t actually press the button.

This is a bit of the Bodmin Moor- not quite as wild and remote as Dartmoor, but awfully pretty.

We stocked up on the really important things at the Jamacia Inn- Cornish Black Label wine, Tintagel Brewery Real Ale, some chocolaty liquor stuff similar to Baileys, a couple of Jamacia Inn shotglasses, and some fancy soaps. Oh, and I got a pair of reading glasses as I’d already managed to lose one pair. But I can keep up with MY stuff, thanks so much!!

Both the beer and the wine were delicious - as was the Baileys-like stuff I neglected to get a picture of.

And now it’s time to go home (YES, I’m writing at work – it is SO SLOW), so I will have to continue this later. And actually get us to Exeter. At least I’m doing this way faster than I did the other trips.

Last updated January 05, 2018