at the beginning of may we went to torquay for a six night stay – it took just under five hours to get there by train(s) .
in the evening we had a walk along the waters’ edge and around to the harbour.
fizz popp at torquay harbour
on the first morning, thursday, we caught a train to teignmouth; my human was trying to remember whether it was pronounced teen-muth or tyne-muth – it turns out it’s tin-muth! (too much ego).
after looking in some shops, we went down a road marked ‘beach’ and found teignmouth back beach – with boats, and buildings close to the water’s edge.
womble-ling free
we then went round to the main beach and esplanade.
junior was looking for a sea monster near the ness, the green lumpy rock*
*technical term
looking for nessy
after a walk on the pier we made our way back to the high street & popped into a cafe for lunch and a hot chocolate, and bought some cake on the way out…
yummy choccy hot choc with chocolate on top
after lunch we got the train to dawlish, just a few minutes up the track. junior thought it was time to try his cake.
carrot cake with a gingery tone – very nice!
the last couple of times we’d been to dawlish (on a previous holibobs) were in the evening, so we got to look in a few shops before following the river down to the beach…
famous black swans of dawlish
catching the sun
life’s a beach
then it was back into town. we saw some wildlife at the mini golf and watched some lawn bowls before catching the train home.
you’re having a gir-rarfe
on friday we bought an all day bus ticket (only £4.50). the first desination was totnes which was a 45 minute journey with about 96 stops, but we were on the top deck right at the front and had a wonderful view of the countryside.
we had a walk by the river, up the high street (i’d forgotten how hilly it was – in fact i don’t think it was hilly the last time we came!) , looked in some shops and round an interesting car boot-y/antique-y market and after having some lunch went back down the new hill to the bus stop.
down by the river
anyone for a little blue budgie?
the next destination was dartmouth, another 45 minute trip. there’s not very much to do in dartmouth, but it’s very nice down by the water and it also contains my human’s favourite clothes shop – she only spent half as much* as she did last year!
*more cake
we met a new friend
kingswear from dartmouth
on the ferry from dartsmouth to kingswear
we stopped by the train station and went into a wagon museum – it wasn’t a museum of wagons, but a wagon with a (small) museum in it! our favourite exhibit was the popp-sized ‘rocket’.
a token in out machine* *technical term
a little mini loco
waiting for the bus
we got to the bus stop early – at least we thought it was early but the human had looked at the wrong timetable – luckily the bus to paignton was running late! phew! another bus took us back to torquay.
on saturday we went to newton abbot, mainly because there was a pizza cafe where you could have a small pizza and have room for pudding – and what a pudding! 11/10
scrummy yummy brownie with blueberry ice cream
we went back to the hotel for a short rest before catching the bus firstly to paignton…
paignton harbour
along the beach
…then later to brixham. the human had a paddle in the sea at the breakwater (steep pebbly) beach, then slowly and painfully made her way back to where we were sitting.
as we were right next to the breakwater it was deemed a good idea (silly human) to walk to the lighthouse.
half a mile? yikes!
view from the breakwater
we’ve made it to the lighthouse!
on sunday we caught the train to plymouth – it was a special pirate weekend so it was crowded around the quay.
view from restaurant
big boaty
plymouth lighthouse, as you can probably see
in contrast to the last time we visited – rain rain and more rain – it was a very warm bright day, but there was a fresh breeze so there was a lot of sitting on the hoe (that’s the green area where the lighthouse is, not a garden implement!) looking out to sea. my naturally pasty* human was, of course, covered (nearly) head to toe – she’s not silly. when she took her sandals off back at the hotel, she had a big red itchy sunburnt triangle on each foot where the sandals didn’t cover – silly human!
*pasty (rhymes with pastry) not pasty as in pastry – i hope that’s cleared that up…
later we popped over the road to play on torquay beach.
cute bear
two popps
colourful pots
on monday we were going to catch the ferry over to brixham, but due to choppy seas, had to get the bus.
early elevensies
after the early ice cream we walked past the smelly fish market along the coastal path
we tried – and failed – to make a daisy chain, it ended up being a bucket bouquet.
lazy daisy fizz popp
we went back to torquay in the afternoon and cutting a long story short – involving bagels – after going back to the hotel, shops, back to paignton; we decided we might as well carry on to brixham for a final time.
we took the road up to a seating area, seeing a different view of the town.
a curved house
as we were walking back to the bus station, the church clock struck eight, followed by the bells chiming out ‘abide with me’ – the author of the song was a priest at the church.
on tuesday we travelled to bristol to stay the night to break the journey up, but first we had time to have a final walk round torquay and stop by a cafe for hot chocolate and cake – you can’t tell by the photo, but it was an enormous slice!
it was (almost) bigger than my belly!
we weren’t catching the train home until 6.30pm so on wednesday, we had plenty of time to look round.
colourful balloons
can you see me?
the only other two times that we’ve been to bristol have been day trips to see the shaun the sheep sculptures in 2015 and wallace and gromit last year – we even saw a gromit on a boat*!
*ticks off gromit no. 20
a late gromit
so despite not getting home ’til nearly 9pm we’re glad we broke the journey up and had an ‘extra’ holi-day.
my human bought advance train tickets plus got a third off using the two together railcard. she worked out that if she’d bought the tickets at the stations, and without a railcard – home to torquay; torquay to bristol; bristol to home – it would have cost nearly five times as much!! enough to cover ALL trains, buses & ferries, both hotels and even our cakes and ice creams!!
another fun-packed holibobs! hurrah!
until next time, tootle pip!
