David took Monday and Tuesday off and we had a nice four-day weekend in the "West Country." We spent Saturday night in Exeter and then Sunday and Monday in Penzance (yep, of Pirates fame) near the western tip of Cornwall.
It was a three-hour drive from home to Exeter, which is in the county of Devon. Like Cornwall, Devon is known for its green countryside and delicious cream teas.
As often happens when we head southwest, we passed Stonehenge along the way. It never ceases to amaze us to drive past such a famous historic monument on our way someplace else. It is of course unfortunate that two major highways run right past Stonehenge, but it makes road trips more fun!
As we got closer to Devon, the weather began to improve, which was pretty exciting. Traffic was also nice and light... until it wasn't. We got into quite a traffic jam for maybe 10 miles and it was no fun.
We finally arrived in Exeter around 2:30pm and briefly settled into our B&B before heading out again. It was a nice place and we got a family room for the price of a double, which was cool. The bed was really comfy.
Almost immediately after we set our stuff down, I headed straight for Exeter Cathedral, which was about a 10-minute walk. My guidebook said it closed at 5:00 and I wanted to be sure to have enough time to explore and photograph it all. David moved the car and relaxed for a bit and met me there about 20 minutes later.
Exeter Cathedral is rather unique in its design, with two big Norman (12th-century) towers on either side and a Gothic (14th-century) west front covered in weathered sculptures of kings and other notable people. We never got the blue sky I would hope for photographing the outside, but by dropping by several times throughout the evening, we at least got patches of blue.
But at least I got to take photos of the carved bench-ends, which were also quite cool.
The rest of the evening was very relaxing, just wandering around aimlessly around the city and pondering where to have dinner. Exeter is a nice city but the cathedral is really the only big attraction, so that gave us an unusual opportunity to relax and take our time. But in our wanderings we encountered several interesting sights.
Nice church and a pretty Tudor (16th-century) shop on Cathedral Close, near our snack break table.
In an interesting coincidence, next to the castle was a park in which there was a big stage set up for a performance of Macbeth. We took a walking path up above the stage and enjoyed a great rendition of the song "Bubble, Bubble Toil and Trouble" by the three witches. It had lots of drums and great rhythm and it stuck in our heads.
Cool old stairs near the Roman walls (which we never saw) and the church appropriately named St. Mary Steps.
As we walked past this church, bells were ringing so loudly we couldn't even hear each other by shouting. We thought the bells must be from the cathedral, which was nearby, but when we stopped by later, we learned it was coming from this church. A man was just closing up when we arrived looking hopeful, and he kindly let us in. It turned out to be very interesting - the man explained that only the front half of the building is still a church, and it is mainly used for bell-ringing. In fact, a touring group of bell-ringers had just left! We did not know that there were touring bell-ringers.
The fanciest McDonalds we've ever seen, on the High Street.
Wagamama was part of a nice new area of Exeter, still under development. I was really impressed by it and especially liked the modern apartments above left.
