For the Bank Holiday weekend August 23rd-26th (Sat-Tues) we rented a car and took our first road trip in the UK to the region of Devon located in southwestern England. We actually picked up the car from the airport at the same time Mom and Kayla left to fly back home to the US. Brian was the driver and was a pro at driving not on the "wrong" side but the "other" side of the road by the end of the trip. Although he definitely steered clear of parallel parking, no blame there!
After a 4 1/2- 5 hour drive we arrived in the evening where we were staying in Torquay, Devon. It was a neat marina town along the water. Although it was fairly busy due to the holiday weekend it felt great to be out of the city for awhile!
This region is known for good seafood that is brought in off the water fresh daily. We found a delicious restaurant for dinner with a great view too...
The next morning we set out driving to explore the area. I should mention there was some hassle at the rental agency when we picked up the car. Being that I'm a former Branch Manager for Enterprise I tried to cut them some slack in the beginning but after waiting almost an hour and a half I quickly lost patience! It's a long story but in the end we were upgraded into an SUV. This actually made many of the tiny one way roads like in the picture below even more difficult to get through. There was lots of backing up and moving over into tiny spots along the way to let cars pass and even then you could feel the brush hitting the side of the car!
Eventually we made our way to a trail to take a walk and see the coast...
Did I mention it's basically one giant cow pasture?! We were very careful to watch where we stepped if you know what I mean... These cows definitely have it made with the view!
It's hard to tell in the pictures but the water was a beautiful turquoise blue, so pretty along the cliffs...
Wild blackberries were growing everywhere...
After our hike we drove to the beach below. We had lunch at an outdoor restaurant where we watched everyone hanging out at the beach. Kids were swimming in the water, they did have wet suits on but as you can imagine the water wasn't too warm!
Next we drove to check out Plymouth, England which is also along the coast and is where the Mayflower left from in the 1600's with the Pilgrims that set sail to America.
That night we had dinner and then ended up finding a huge arcade which was packed (mainly with adults as well as kids). We went in to play a little and before you know it a couple hours had gone by. Our favorite was this ski ball sized version of bowling!
The next morning we drove to the region of England known as Cornwall. We drove for about 2 1/2 hours from where we were staying. Our destination was Lizard Point which is the southernmost point in England. Here is the Google map shot from when we were there...
Once we arrived we walked down a short path to the coast.
It is really beautiful in this part of England!
We walked down a steep hill to get a view from alongside the water...
Some interesting vegetation in the area...
On the path back to the car...
After some lunch we drove to Kynance Beach. This turned out to be my favorite place we went in Cornwall and there were more spectacular views...
Before we left the sun even came out making the water even prettier!
On the way back we stopped at a cute little farmhouse on the side of the road to buy some local Cornish Honey :)
The next morning we took off and drove about 2 hours to Cheddar, England on the way back to London. We drove through the Cheddar Gorge and even saw some goats...
Cheddar is the birthplace of farmhouse cheddar cheese way back in 1870 and we toured The Original Cheese Company which was really interesting.
On the left is where the milk is heated up to begin with
and on the right is once it is formed in blocks.
Then it is put on shelves to mature...
After multiple weeks or months depending on the type then it is cut and packaged. After this part of the tour we got to taste many different kinds and we bought some to bring home!
Also in Cheddar we found the Holly House Tea Rooms so of course we stopped for cream tea (scones and a pot of tea)
From here we made our way back to London. It was a very successful and fun first UK road trip and we look forward to doing some more soon!
