The French Riviera

After a summer spent bundled up in Ireland and England, it was finally time to get away to the sun and the sand. Our destination: the French Riviera on the Southeastern coast.

Friday, September 11th - Marseilles & Nice

In order to save on the flights, we arrived in Marseilles, which is not officially in the Riviera, but is a couple of hours west. It is the second largest city in France, and we thought it would have a few things for us to do. It was probably a bad omen when we had to find an extra travel book when our Rick Steves' France and Lonely Planet Western Europe didn't cover the city.

Needless to say, we could have lived without Marseilles. We went into the city and saw a few of the major sites - marina, fish market, and a few other forgettable sites. After about an hour, we realized our mistake and headed to the train station to catch a ride to Nice.

We arrived in Nice in the late afternoon, checked into the hotel, and headed out through the town and down to the beach. Nice is a pretty good sized town, and has over a mile of beach front. Unfortunately, that beach is made very rocky, so it isn't the most comfortable. There are several bars on the beach that thrive off charging €15 for a chair, but it seemed like most of the cheapskates, including us, just accepted the pain of the rocks.

We spent about an hour on the beach before our dinner bells started to ring, we decided to have a walk along the main promenade and through the town. Much to our chagrin, we very shortly came across a sandy section of beach - it seemed like they had basically shipped in a bunch of sand and dropped it on top of the rocks. We really wished we had seen that an hour earlier, but we were able to take advantage later in the weekend. We were really confused because there were tons of people laying on the rocks right next to the sandy section, and we could figure out why they didn't move over 50 feet to the comfortable stuff. Maybe the French don't feel pain? Something to look into...

Anyway, after walking along the beachfront and through some of the little shopping neighborhoods, we headed off to dinner. The cuisine here is more Italian than French (lots of pastas, not any snails). The Italian border is only a few miles away, and this section of the country actually used to belong to Italy. Back in the time of Napoleon, Italy was restructuring its provinces and gave the region the choice of what it wanted to be. With the popularity of the French emperor, they went French, but they have kept a lot of the Italian heritage, including the food.

Saturday, September 12th - Antibes

Antibes is another small town nearby - about 20 minutes by train from Nice. This is known as one of the best places in the region for the beach, as it is not quite as big and packed with tourists as other places like Cannes, but it is still a good size town with long, white sand beaches.

It is also home to some ridiculous yachts. The French Riviera is home to some of the richest people in the world. All of the towns have marinas full of the most outrageous boats you've ever seen. This is one of the mid sized ones in Antibes:

The owners of a lot of these boats live far away (like London), so they don't get to use them all the time. As such, a side business of yacht rental exists in the area. One the size of the one above could be yours for the low, low price of $30,000 per week (captain and crew included). We saw lots of yachts during our time in the area, but the largest concentration was here in Antibes, including one so big that it couldn't fit in the marina and had to dock out in the sea. Don't worry, though, the owner could still get to town quickly and easily in the helicopter that was sitting on the boat!!

Antibes was incredibly relaxing and really just great. We literally did nothing here other than sit on the beach. We slept in, had a late breakfast, caught a mid-morning train, went straight to the beach, and didn't leave until dinner time. Jenna was in heaven, I dealt with it. Not exactly my ideal vacation, but it was relaxing to just sit and read, nap, and people watch, and I was able to break it up with the occasional trip to grab lunch or drinks.

For dinner we headed into the town, just away from the beach, and had some more great Italian food in the cellar of a nice little restaurant. The place was cool as the basement seemed like it was a cave cut out of the rocks. it also didn't hurt that the food was really good - pizza for Aaron and pesto for Jenna. Yum!! It was a perfect end to this very relaxing day.

Sunday, September 13th - Nice, Monaco, and Villefranche

We didn't have a ton to do on Sunday, so we headed to the beach in Nice first thing. We grabbed the small patch of sand mentioned above, and hung out until lunch time. For lunch we went to the town's market square to grab some Socca. This is a local specialty, made by only one place, and people literally line up to get it. It is basically a crepe, but made out of chickpeas and quite a bit thicker than the crepes you'd find elsewhere in France. We heard that they do run out, so we go there at 12:15 (early lunch for Europe) and waited. Lucky we got there when we did, because after 45 minutes, we got the very last portion. We even ended up having to share, since they couldn't give us the 2 portions we'd ordered. It was pretty good, but to be honest we probably wouldn't eat it again, especially considering the trouble you have to go through.

After lunch we went off to visit Nice's Russian Cathedral. Back in the 1800s, Nice was the spot for European aristocrats to take their holidays, and it was very popular with the Russians trying to get away from the terrible weather. Since they would spend months at a time here, they needed a place to worship, so an Orthodox church was built. It was very interesting to see, as of course it is very different from the standard cathedral you see everywhere else.

After checking out the church, we hopped on the train to Monaco. This you'll probably know as the home to the most famous and extravagant casino in the world - the Monte Carlo. Monaco itself is actually its own separate country - the 2nd smallest in the world next to the Vatican. 800 years ago a man snuck into the town, killed of the ruling family, and established himself Prince of the small region. Today, his great, great, great........great grandson is the prince, making it the oldest surviving ruling family in the world.

Monaco is a world of excess. The marina was outrageous - boats bigger than my college dorm and our current flat. There are 30,000 residents, but only 1/3 are real natives - the rest have just moved there for the tax breaks (0% income tax). The per capita income is also the highest in the world. It was really just kind of ridiculous. Parked in front of the casino (mind you in the middle of a Sunday afternoon), we saw a Lamborghini, and Aston Martin, 2 Bentley's and 7 Ferraris. There were also several Mercedes and other nice cars that we could never dream to own, but paled in comparison to their neighbors. This is definitely the land of the haves, and the have yachts!!

We spent about 30 seconds in the actual casino. It was really disappointing, because they charge a €10 cover charge to even get in the door. We didn't have any money to lose, so we didn't want to gamble, but we did want to see the casino floor. We were unwilling to pay a cover to enter, though, so we peeked our heads in as much as possible and then turned around and left. Guess the cover charge works, because it kept at least 2 people out that day who didn't belong.

Overall, we weren't super impressed with Monaco. Yes, it was very nice, and the boats and casino and everything were something to see. It was also nice to check yet another country off the list. But in all, unless you plan to actually go and gamble, there isn't really much to see or do, so we left filling pretty unfulfilled. Maybe some day when we're rich and famous we'll dock our yacht next to the Lady Moura, valet our Rolls at the front, and spend an evening rolling the dice, but until that day comes, I don't see us making it back to Monaco.

When we left it was about time for dinner, so we headed to another nearby town - Villefranche Sur Mer. We had a little walk along the beach here before going into town to eat. We ended up at an overpriced touristy place, but the food was decent and there really aren't any restaurants other than that anyway. The dinner was so-so, but after dinner was great. The town has a small footpath leading along the water, through part of the town, and past the marina. It was a beautiful evening and a very romantic walk, made even better by the gelato that we picked up before we started. A wonderful way to end the day and a huge pick-me-up from the downer of Monaco.

Monday, September 14th - More Nice

The last day of our trip was literally spent doing nothing again. We got up late and headed to the sandy section of Nice's beach. We stayed there all day, had a picnic lunch, read, slept, etc. It was a great way to end the vacation. It was a full day at the beach - our flight wasn't until late in the evening - but I really don't have anything to say about the day other than that we spent it in the sun.

In all this was a great vacation. Somehow this post has turned out to be pretty long, but it really felt like we didn't do a single thing while we were there. And to be honest, that was wonderful.

Milan & Lake Como

On our long trip through Italy at the beginning of the summer, we had to pass on one of the major cities, Milan. It is in the northwest part of the country and was a bit out of our way. Also, we'd heard that it wasn't the best place to visit anyway. We had heard, however, that it was near the Italian lake district, which was supposed to be amazing, and Jenna really wanted to go. So, we ended up planning a trip for the beginning of September, the first weekend after the "end of the busy summer travel" to try and cut back on the number of annoying tourists we'd have to deal with.

Friday, September 4th

We arrived in Milan at around 10am, but due to the distance of the airport to the city, and some issues figuring out the logistics for getting around, we pretty much had to head straight out to a 1:30 appointment (after grabbing pizza of course!). We had tickets to see The Last Supper, which is in a church away from the main part of the city.

The Last Supper is a fresco painting (if you've been reading, paint mixed into the plaster of a wall/ceiling), and was done by the leader of the Ninja Turtles - Leonardo. They only allow a few people in at a time, and you have to get your reservations several months in advance. It is gigantic and very impressive. We've seen recreations and photos before, but the real deal is something else. There are no photos allowed, but we snuck this one, which actually turned out really well.

Leonardo had used an experimental technique, which caused the painting to start to deteriorate within a few years. Now, several hundreds of years later, it is actually in pretty bad shape, as a lot of the colors are fading or parts seem to be breaking away. Andrew's (far right)face is pretty much gone. There were hints, though, of its former glory, where you could see what the colors had looked like, and we stood in awe for about 20 minutes imagining how it would have looked then.

This alone really made the trip to Milan worth while. After we left, though, we headed to the center of town for the icing on the cake.

That is a picture of the Duomo, Milan's cathedral, which is one of the largest in Europe. We walked around the square a little and took in this church, which was really impressive. It was built completely out of pink marble from a nearby quarry, and has literally thousands of statues, both inside and out. Each of those little spires that you see in the picture has a unique statue on top, plus then there are more scattered all over.

They built the Duomo with politics in mind. They spent a ton of money to make it really big in order to make Rome (to the south) happy. Apparently the Catholic church showed a little more love to those who were willing to show their devotion by opening their pocket books. In order to get some support from the Germans and Austrians to the north, though, they shunned the "popular" Italian architecture of the time, like that used at the Vatican, and instead went with a Gothic theme, which was more popular in northern Europe.

After spending some time learning all of this and taking in the main square, we headed through the Galleria, a small, very upscale shopping area, to the Teatro alla Scala, which is Milan's opera house. From the outside, it isn't much to talk about, but the inside is incredible - one of the most elaborate buildings we've seen that wasn't a palace. This is probably the most famous opera house in the world, and most major operas throughout history have played here. They had a little museum with original scripts, playbills, costumes, and some other interesting random things like letters written by a young Mozart. I'm sure this would have been really interesting to opera fans, but what made us love it was that we got to see them practice. They have a couple of the luxury boxes open for tour, so that you can see down into the actual hall, which was amazing. The picture below is from the website, through, as they were rehearsing for a performance when we visited. We got to watch for about 10 minutes before they kicked us out, and it was really interesting. Made us want to go see an opera!!

After the opera, we headed back through the Galleria enjoying an excellent Gelato, and decided to tour the Duomo. We started with the roof, which was originally built to have people go up there - with stairs leading all the way to the top and several little spots to stop and sit and take in the art that they've put all over the building. Luckily, they've recently also installed an elevator that takes you most of the way up!! By the time we got up there, it was sunny and warm and we really enjoyed just being on top of the world.

We also went on a walk through the inside of the church, which aside from being full of hundreds of more statues, was not much different from the standard European cathedral.

After leaving, we headed back to the train station to make our way to Varenna, a small town on Lake Como, which is where we spent the rest of the weekend. After about an hour on the train we got to our hotel at about 9:00. We were pretty hungry and decided to eat in the hotel restaurant, which was on a nice patio. It was dark so we didn't get any view, but the food was really good...just one more reason to love Italy!

Saturday, September 5th

So this is what we woke up to.

Amazing.

This is Lake Como - in the Italian Alps just across the border from Switzerland. There are a few other lakes near by that make up the Italian Lake District, but this is supposed to be the best and most accessible. It is also the home of George Clooney when he's not working in LA. He was actually there while we were, but we didn't see him - guess we don't hang out in the same type of places.

We didn't do too much. As our friend Rick Steves says - this is a place to lower your heart rate. We had a walk through the town of Varenna, which was very nice. We stopped in the small grocery store and picked up some fruit and sundry picnic goods and headed to the town's "beach". Basically, one of the bar/restaurants in town had a big patio area next to the lake, and decided the best use would be to cover it in gravelly sand and rent out beach chairs. It doesn't really have access to the water, but since the lake is fed by the Alps, it is freezing water anyway, so that was not a huge problem. The sun was shining, though, and that was enough for Jenna, so we spent most of the afternoon there.

By mid-afternoon, we were really starting to regret the fact that we forgot our sunscreen, so to prevent further baking, we decided to go back to the hotel for the afternoon. They were supposed to have a nice patio with some umbrellas and we thought it would be nice to sit out and read. Boy were we in for a nice surprise. The hotel (Eremo Gaudio, if you're planning a trip), was at one point a monastery up on the side of the mountain. The reception and about 1/2 the rooms (including ours) sit below the original monastery nearer to the lake. A short funicular ride up the mountain takes you to the actual monastery, though, where the other rooms are. This is where the amazing rooftop patio was, and we literally could not believe it. The commanding view from up here was spectacular, and the building itself was just amazing. What a spot for the monks to come for worship. It is no surprise that they picked this place. As we stood up there and took in the majesty of the lake and mountains and everything else, all we could do was thank God for the beauty of His creation, and the many blessings He's given us that allow us to enjoy them!!

After a quick clean-up in the hotel, we headed off to dinner at a small local place with nice patio seating. Again, we enjoyed some great Italian food. While waiting for my calzone to cook, we saw a feat of feats. The guy next to us ate an enormous calzone (literally 12 inches across). This alone had me so stuffed I could barely walk out of the place. For dessert, though, he went ahead and ate a full pizza. The crust is pretty thin, but still, it was the same size of a US medium, and he downed it all like a champ. He wasn't overweight or anything - just a normal middle aged guy who ate in one sitting what could easily fed both Jenna and I for 4 meals. Needless to say, we were both extremely impressed!

After dinner we had a nice stroll through the town trying to find a suggested place for dessert. We never did end up finding the place, but it was okay because the town and lake were nice in the evening, and we probably didn't really need the dessert anyway.

Sunday, September 6th

Sunday was another day spent on the lake, and again, we didn't do too much (which was perfect). Our plan was to spend the day on one of the lake's main towns - Bellagio. We caught a mid-morning ferry the mile or so across the water to this town. It is quite a bit bigger than where we stayed, and has a lot more shops and tourists. It was a Sunday morning, so a lot of stuff was closed, but we still enjoyed walking through the town and peeking in the windows. Later in the afternoon some of the shops did open up and we were able to stop in and see lots of stuff we wished we could afford to buy. Many mental notes made of things to purchase when we return some day.

We headed through the town and out to a small park on the lake. We hung out in the park for a while and enjoyed the beautiful weather and scenery. We then went and had another great lunch at a restaurant near the park with great water views.

As we had to get back to Milan for our flight, and the trains don't run too often on Sundays, we had to leave Bellagio fairly early. We spent a little more time in the park before we headed back, though, and just had a really relaxing time there.

After a ferry back to Varenna and a goodbye to our hotel (we had to grab the luggage), we headed off for a 4:00 train to Milan. Fortunately, this gave us just enough time to make it back to the city center for a few final views and pictures of the Duomo, and what sadly may have been our last Italian gelato for a while.

This ended up being a wonderful trip. We really did almost nothing, but it was so enjoyable to just take in the amazing scenery and relax - something that we hear some people do when they go on vacation.

Counting our Blessings

The day we left for Cornwall (August 29th) was the official one year anniversary of our arrival in the UK.

What a year.

Looking back, it is amazing the things we've been able to see and do, and the experience has already proven to be one of a lifetime, and we still have several months to go! With that in mind, we just wanted to take a second to reflect on the many blessings we've been given (at least those related to this travel experience).

First, just some general reflections:

We still cannot get over the fact that we are here. It feels at times like we're just on a long vacation. Sure I have to work, but it mostly feels like a minor annoyance in between travelling. Five years ago if you'd have asked us where we wanted to travel before we died, we would have listed London, Paris, a few places in Italy, and probably a few other places around the globe. It is like a dream that now, at less than 30 years old, we've been able to see all of our major European destinations, as well as many more places - several of which we didn't even know existed!

They say that a picture says 1,000 words. Although we've taken literally thousands of pictures (see stats below), even they cannot describe what it is like to stand on top of the Eiffel Tower, ski (fall) down the Swiss Alps, stand in St. Peter's Square, hear evensong sung in Westminster Cathedral, or taste the perfect Italian gelato. The opportunity to see and do these things has been something we really could never have dreamed of, and in our prayers we remember to thank God for the blessing of being able to experience in one year what most people are unable to do in a lifetime. This is also another reason that if you're reading this, you should consider making use of our air mattress while it is located in London, and come over to experience some of these things for yourself. We're currently taking reservations through February 2010!!

In case you're counting, here are a few statistics:

1. We'd both travelled a bit in the US before this adventure, but not much outside of. I'd been to Canada and Mexico. Jenna had been there and also to Argentina, Paraguay and possibly Brazil (if you count lay-overs). The first time either of us had been to Europe was the day we stepped off the plane to move here. In the 12 months that followed, we've travelled to 18 different countries (if you count the Vatican, Wales, and N. Ireland as countries, which we do), and we've also taken 6 separate trips to major destinations in England.

2. We currently have more trips either booked or in the works that would take us to an additional 4 countries (look forward to posts on Monaco, Prague, Scotland, and hopefully Morocco, along with travels to a few "return" countries like Italy, France, Spain and others). There is a chance that we'll be able to extend my assignment by a few months, and if that happens we'll hopefully add an additional 6 countries (although I won't name those in case the extension doesn't go through, so you don't get disappointed). If all goes exactly to plan, that would mean a total of 28 countries. Amazing.

3. Since our arrival, we have taken 3,988 "keeper" pictures (not counting the one's we deleted). Luckily we've come after the invention of the digital camera, saving us having to deal with over 100 rolls of film!

4. It has been a bit of a roller coaster, but after 363 days (at least it didn't take a year), Jenna did get a job in the healthcare field. Check back later for a full post detailing that adventure.

5. Thanks to the beauty of public transportation, I've been able to read 21 novels, mostly on the trains.

6. London is one of the most diverse cities in the world. I've worked directly with people born in 13 different countries. In my 3 years in Dallas I'd worked with people from 2.

7. Thanks to the inefficiencies of the UK Nursing and Midwifery Counsel, Jenna has had time to read an infinite number of novels - on sunny days from the park, on cloudy days from the living room.

8. We have seen 6 shows: Jersey Boys, STOMP!, 3 Days of Rain, Mamma Mia, Oliver!, and Wicked. We have several more that we want to see before we leave!

9. We've written 58 blog posts (just more than 1 per week), of which I think only our parents have really read all of, and I'm not even sure they've read them all! If you're a loyal reader, you've probably noticed that over time they've gotten longer and more detailed, including a bunch of stuff like names of hotels that you don't care about at all. Sorry for that, but at some point along the way, we decided to write this blog more as a memory book for ourselves rather than an adventure story for our readers. We plan to make it into a book when we return, so that we can go back and show it off to our friends, family, and future children (if they are reading this...Hi Kids!!)

And lastly, a short list of our favorites so far:

Favorite meal:
Jenna - Pesto Lasagne, Vernazza, Italy
Aaron - Seafood Ravioli, Rio Maggiore, Italy

Favorite city:
Jenna - Toss up between Varenna, Italy (Lake Como), Venice, Italy and Amalfi, Italy
Aaron - Rome, Italy

Favorite church:

Both - La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

Favorite castle:

Both - Pena Palace in Sintra, Portugal

Favorite London site:
Both - Tower of London

Favorite London food:
Jenna - Indian Food (one thing that will be sorely missed)
Aaron - Lunches at Borough Market

Favorite overall trip

Both: Hands down, Italy/Mediterranean Cruise

Cornwall

Cornwall is an English county in the far southwest corner of the country. For some reason involving the "jet stream" that we don't understand, it is the warmest part of the country, and the coast has some nice beaches. Thanks to the August Bank Holiday, we had a 3 day weekend, so we'd planned for several months to spend it sitting on the beach and taking in some of the sites.

Sadly, this turned out to be probably the worst possible weekend for us to go. They say that the August Bank Holiday weekend is the official end to summer. In London, it went out with a bang - giving the city dwellers a weekend of sun and warmth. In Cornwall, we were not so lucky. The warmest it ever got was around 65, and the sun barely ever popped through the clouds. We didn't really have any rain, which was good, and we were able to still make the most of the trip by seeing the sites, but it was far from Jenna's dream beach vacation.

Saturday, August 29th

On the one year anniversary of our arrival in the UK (see an upcoming post), we set off for Cornwall. We took a train from our place to Exeter, which is just to the east of where we were staying, and we picked up a car there. Since it is a little far, we thought it would be better to split up our time on the road, as the train is much more relaxing, and this turned out to be a good decision. Also, not sure if we've mentioned this before, but gas is outrageous over here. Remember when everyone was up in arms about gas nearing $4/gallon in the States a while back? We paid $6.50/gallon this weekend. No wonder the Hummer never really caught on here!!

The weather on Saturday was supposed to be warmer and sunnier than any other day, so we went straight to our hotel in Newquay, which was close to the beach, dropped off our bags, and headed out. We were not very lucky here. The beach was nice enough, and they were actually having a big beach rugby tournament which was interesting to see, but the weather just refused to cooperate. We spent about 2 hours on the beach, and the whole time it was windy and mostly cold, and the the sun never really made an appearance for more than a few minutes at a time.

We left the beach a little depressed and walked around the town. Newquay is known as a bit of a party town, and is big with the surfers (something that we didn't really know when we booked out hotel - no wander it was so cheap). The main part of town was full of a few restaurants and a ton of surf shops, and really wasn't that impressive to us. The best part - the Mexican Cantina where the Traditional Mexican Sampler was made up of BBQ ribs, chicken wings, and potato skins. Needless to say we passed.

In the evening we headed off to Tintagel Castle, in a town a few miles from Newquay. This was really cool. This is supposedly the site of King Arthur's castle. There is no written record of Arthur, but based on the strong oral history, they think that he probably did exist in some form. Since most of the oral history is from this region, and it is in an area known as Camelford (similar to Camelot), they think this must have been where he reigned.

The castle that sits on the site is completely ruined, and even they are not the ruins from Arthur's day. Another castle was built up in the 1200's several hundred years after Arthur, but there are remains of the foundations of some houses, a chapel, and a few other things that date from his time. It was interesting to walk around the area, see the ruins of the newer castle and the older homes, and just think of the round table (which probably didn't really exist, but we can dream!).

Afterward it was getting pretty late, so we headed back to Newquay for a delicious Indian dinner before calling it a night.

Sunday, August 30th

Sunday was our day to see the sites of Cornwall. Our first stop was Penzance (as in "the pirates of"). This town is supposed to have some great views over the sea. Unfortunately, the fog was so thick that we couldn't see more than a few hundred feet. We wandered around the town, found an amazing bookshop, and were very disappointed with the Sprinkles Cupcake Shop (nothing like the one in Dallas).

We moved on to the town of Porthcurno, which has become a tourist destination on account of its Minack theatre. A local woman loved theatre and basically sunk her life into building this place. They've built an open air theatre, complete with stage and stadium seating, directly into the the rocks overlooking the cliffs. The stage is very simple, and for most shows the only set is the waves crashing in the background. Again, it was very unfortunate that it was so foggy in the morning. The view we had was pretty good, but I'm sure it would have been amazing if the sky were clear.

Next we moved on the the biggest tourist trap in England - Land's End. This is the furthest west that you can go in England, and it is known as the last/first thing that sailors saw as they left for/returned from the New World. They have turned the place into a gaudy trap filled with every shop imaginable that can claim that it is the first and last (including the First and Last Royal Mail post office box, with a big sign saying it was not in use). You can even pay $20 to get your picture with a sign post showing the mileage to your home (if memory serves, about 4400 miles to Dallas). There are supposed to be some nice views from the point, looking out to sea over some cliffs, that make this madhouse worth while. Of course with the fog, we could hear the waves crashing but couldn't see a thing, and spent 5 very disappointed minutes here before we left.

Our last stop of the day was St Ives. This is another big-time beach town, and is known as an artist colony. There were a ton of small galleries lining the streets, and we had a nice walk through town down to the beach, peeking in at the different art work - mostly beach themed. As we got into town, we were lucky as the fog finally cleared and the sun started to peek through. We sat on the boardwalk for quite a while and watched all the people playing on the beach as the tide went out. After hanging out for a while, we had one of the area's famous cream teas - a pot of tea and 2 scones with clotted cream and jam. They were delicious.

After spending a few more minutes watching the people on the beach, we took off back to Newquay. It was still fairly early, and after the scones we weren't hungry for dinner, so we decided to waste the evening at the cinema. Jenna had read the book The Time Traveller's Wife, and it had just come out over here and she really wanted to see it. Turns out that movies in Cornwall are a lot cheaper than London, which was a nice surprise. The movie wasn't bad either, but based on the reaction of everyone in the theater, reading the book first (or having your wife summarize it) probably would have helped.

Monday, August 31st

Devon is a county just east of Cornwall, and home to Dartmoor, a national park and outdoorsy "moor" area, and where we planned to spend out last day on a scenic multi-stop drive. A moor is a type of landscape that is common in parts of England and Ireland, but is hard to describe. Just look at the pictures for an idea.

There isn't a ton to say about this. We walked around a few little towns, which was nice (but not quite as quaint as the Cotswolds). In the afternoon we did enjoy another cream tea and good conversation with the owner of the small tea room. We also spent a lot of time stopping along the roads to take in the scenery, climb some rock formations, and pet the wild horses. They aren't technically wild - they are owned by somebody - but there are no fences to keep them in, and so you'll see them just roaming by the side of the road. We've seen this in other parts of the country with sheep, but they aren't nearly as interesting. Plus, you can tell that these horses have been well taken care of by other tourists. At one point we parked the car and as soon as they saw us they came up looking for food!! A little weird, but they did just let you come up and pet them, which Jenna loved (and I kinda liked as well).

Yes, that horse did eat her button.  And yes, this is the same horse scratching its rear-end on somebody's car.

We finished the drive a little earlier than expected, so we had some extra time and decided to head back to Exeter (where we would later catch the train home) to see some sites there. They have a big cathedral that is supposed to be nice. Of course, we arrived 10 minutes after they closed up. They were supposed to have a nightly Evensong service that we thought we could attend, but apparently that got cancelled due to the bank holiday. The town looked really nice, but had definitely taken the day off. The only things that were open were a few pubs and coffee shops (and even most of those were closed). We wandered around for a while, grabbed dinner at the only acceptable place that was open - Subway - and hopped on the train back to London.