Coming home to Exeter

Boarding the ferry to cross the harbour at Teignmouth. It was cold, as you can see, but a pretty harbour.
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Day 1 – Paris to Exeter

We left our Paris Hotel with plenty of time to spare, as we had to negotiate 3 or 4 trains to get to the Eurostar that would take us to London. We found the information very confusing, but managed to fluke the right trains on the underground that got us to Gare du Nord station via many flights of steps that we lugged Kathy’s suitcase up and down! It was farewell to Paris, and unlike the crossing from Italy to France, we had to go through “customs”. I got a taste of a new culture ahead when the English Customs man looked at my passport, asked a few questions and declared that “New Zealand is a beautiful country”. I was quite taken aback after this statement and a “welcome” to the UK.

Breakfast at Gare du Nord, Paris before boarding the Eurostar for London
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The Eurostar train was similar to the TGV and our second class seats were pretty similar to the first class ones on earlier trains. We covered the distance in no time (cruising at 260km/hr) and spent 20 minutes going through the “Chunnel”. The train did not slow on the English side and before we knew it we were at Waterloo Station.

Purchasing our tickets to Exeter was an experience. After a couple of abortive attempts to purchase tickets at the vending machines, Kathy queued for tickets and the ticket man was SO helpful. He not only sorted everything out, but he assisted with Kathy getting a “Rail Card” that saved us £20 on the tickets to Exeter. When Kathy was profuse in her thanks at this level of service and kindness we had become unaccustomed to, his response was one of surprise, as if it was no big deal.. The change from France was dramatic and continued for most other customer service experiences we had. Fantastic and so refreshing!

Lunch outside the Exeter Cathedral.
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The ride to Exeter was much further than I had realized and took 3.5 hours. We took in the English countryside and we were so pleased to see Kathy’s Uncle Marcus and Hazel at the Exeter station, who took us back to their place for a lovely evening meal.

Day 2 – Exeter

The next day we spent relaxing and took a walk in to the Exeter town. It noticeably different from when we were here in 2001. The town was truly buzzing and lots of sales on. Kathy enjoyed spending time in Marks and Spencers and we both purchased some clothes on sale. I took a “Red Coat Tour” of “Medieval Exeter”, which I found very interesting, tracing local history from Saxon times until the middle ages. That evening, Marcus and Hazel took us for a drive to Exmouth; it was a lovely evening and Kathy saw a number of places that she remembered from her childhood. We also had a lovely walk along Exmouth beach and took the attached photo there.

Evening stroll along the beach at Exmouth
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Day 3 – Exeter

The highlight of Day 3 was meeting Shannon, who had come down on the train from London by herself. It was so lovely to see her on the platform, so brown with a Greek suntan and we spent some time just catching up on her adventures since we had said goodbye in Ancona some 2 weeks earlier. In the evening, we had a lovely meal with her at Auntie Edith’s place and also caught up with Kathy’s cousins David andAndrew. Edith reminded us so much of Kathy’s mum and we added a few stories to the “Bell family anecdotes”. Kathy also had a phone conversation there with her Uncle James.

After dinner at Auntie Edith's with Andrew.
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Day 4 – Hemyock, Orchard Portman, Shoreditch

Uncle Marcus very kindly lent us his car for the day and we took off up towards Taunton to look out for evidence of my ancestors who lived here. It was great leaving Exeter to see the names of Clyst St Mary, Clyst Honiton and even a new one for us, the Ashclyst Forest. This forest was so like what I imagine Robin Hood country was like and many of the roads we travelled on that morning were surrounded and sometimes covered by huge oak trees and other greenery. It was really beautiful. We traveled some real back roads (true one laners) and found Hemyock. As it was lunch time by now, we called in a the “local” and had a real English pub lunch. Kathy and Shannon shared a stilton ploughmans, washed down with local cider! The pub was pretty old and I hit my head on low beams more than once! The church yard was right next door and we mooched over there to discover two “Clist” graves dating from the late 1800’s there. We also visited Hemyock Castle, which was right behind the church. This was very interesting, as we were the only visitors there probably for the month and it was great to mooch about there and see how it used to have a moat and all.

Ashclyst Forest. Didn't know our ancestors had a forest. Maybe there is a castle too!!
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We went on to Orchard Portman and found the graves of my Great Grandparents and also my Great Great Grandparents. We just happened to find someone at the church doing the lawns (it is in the middle of nowhere) and she kindly gave us a full tour of this ancient church and even took us to the top of the bell tower. We scratched our name in the lead roof for the next Clist visitor to find! It was fantastic to find this strong evidence of my ancestors and to be in the place they no doubt worshipped in. Just across the fields from this was the house my Grandfather left from (the Smithy) to come to New Zealand. We had seen this before, but now we were absolutely certain this was the one. A quick drive home on the M5 was also an experience. Everything over here is still in mph and on the motorway, everyone CRUISES at 80mph.

In the stocks at Hemyock Castle..
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In the evening we shared a lovely Indian meal with Marcus and Hazel. A great end to a great day!

Day 5 – Belmont & Dartmoor

Sunday morning, we went with Marcus and Hazel to Belmont Chapel. It is a very large, thriving church and it was great to see where they attend and get a taste of church life there.

After a quick “cuppa” we set off for Dartmoor with Marcus and Hazel. The Moors were always somewhere I had wanted to visit and it certainly is a unique place. First stop was a rocky outcrop over the Moor called Haytor. Kathy, Shannon and I climbed to the top. It was a lovely day and just the right amount of breeze and sunshine. Great views from the top and looking down on the moors seeing the wild horses that were mingling with day trippers and cars. From there we traveled on to Widdecombe on the Moor, where we had a Cider and also sat in Uncle Tom Cobley’s chair. When we first went into this old shoppe, there was a “person” absolutely still with eyes closed sitting in the chair. Hazel was convinced it was a wax figure and was about to sit on his knee, when an eye flickered!! She sat on his knee anyway for good measure!!

View from the top of the bell tower at the church at Orchard Portman.
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Whiddicombe on the Moor is such a archetypical English village.  It was great to just mooch about and see what was there, including the ancient church, that had a touching poem on the wall about when the church was struck by lightning in the 1600's and several people were killed who were inside at a church service at the time.

It was great to see all the people out for the afternoon on the moor, with so many cars with people sitting beside them having a cuppa on their picnic chairs.  Everyone seemed to be really enjoying the lovely day and the beautiful surroundings.  The picture attached taken at the Two Bridges captures this a bit.

Shannon & I outside the Orchard Portman church
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We went on from the Moor to a little village not far off the road that Hazel and Marcus had taken Mike and Bella to (Lustleigh).  It had some lovely thatched roof cottages, which I had wanted to capture.

We finished off a great day with a huge meal with Marcus and Hazel at the Carvery.  It was a great end to a great day.

Day 6 - Teignmouth

We popped down to Teignmouth on the coast on the train and it was a lovely train ride via such iconic places as Dawlish on the coast.  There were one or two showers about, but we had a lovely time there and caught up with Kathy's Auntie Molley.  It was great to see Auntie Molly again and her apartment right on the beach at Teignmouth was just as wonderful as I had remembered from our last visit.  We also went across the harbour on a boat to the town on the other side of the inlet and strolled around there with Stephanie (Auntie Molly's daughter) and Martin before returning for a lovely dinner.  We then managed to also catch up with Stephanie's brother Roger and his family, who also live in Teignmouth.  It was great for me to meet another one of the cousins and their family.  We had a great time with them talking about foreign holidays amongst other things.

Rocky outcrop (Haytor) on Dartmoor that we climbed.
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Day 7 - Macbeth

Our last night in Exeter was also celebrated with another tradition - we went to the Rougemount Castle for a Shakespearian Play.  We saw an excellent rendition of Macbeth with Marcus and Hazel and thoroughly enjoyed our evening.  It rounded off really nicely our time in Exeter.

All of Kathy's family have been so warm and welcoming of us and we have such great memories again of our time in the South of England.  We both have some strong connections down here.  I am sure we will be back...  We do love so many of these people so deeply now that we know them a bit better.