samtingbilongmi: The Europe Adventure for Jan & Me

It is time to wrap up our meandering around Europe. As a finale, a few wonderful autumn days in the English country side was not hard to take, even though by now, we were about ready to climb back in that big metal tube, called the Airbus.

Part of the agenda was to see my granddaughter Georgie who lives just south of Bristol. We were looking forward to seeing her and share time together.

We arrived by Condor ferry in Weymouth:

....... and from there travelled mostly through Dorset and Devon to Bristol. I have to say that I always like the England countryside. It is lush and beautiful, even if the weather and lack of sunshine doesn't show it to its best.

Our first stop in Dorset. Thatch roofs add something special!

We chose a route that brought us through Exeter and then over the Dartmoors

....... to a little village by the name of Yelverton:

Yelverton, a good place to relax and to enjoy good company!

Like so many villages in England, it has lots of history and atmosphere. We thoroughly enjoyed spending the evening meal at the local pub and mixed and chatted with the locals. It was a happy night with good food. Our accommodation was equally delightful. The Poms know how to do B&B!

The following day saw us back on the narrow (VERY NARROW!!) roads through Devon. It is just as well we hardly met a vehicle and where we did, there was room to pass. All part of the England experience!

Taking in the sights en route! Love it!

The above view is typical of the countryside. I am glad that churches dominate the landscape. Without them, England simply would not be English!! We were happy to stop over and look inside the church shown in the above pic. A lovely and dignified atmosphere that is well expressed in the following photo:

A look in the tower inidcated that bell ringing is still done here. Oh, how tempting it was to pull one of those bell-ropes!

Our intentions had been to travel to Clovelly, but time beat us. Instead, we found our way to Bideford and enjoyed the northern part of Devon into Somerset towards Bristol.

Hitting the coast!

We found a delightful little town named Lynmouth:

......and found it very much to our liking, including Devonshire Tea in Devon (Where else?!) It was all very fattening and I realised that I would need to do something about my increased weight!

The restaurant was in a delightful setting along a brook, which just gurgled in front of us!

The drive from Lynmouth to Churchill (near Bristol) was very scenic. The autumn colours were outstanding, though the road had Jan freaking out a bit as it traversed along some very steep terrain that she found very uncomfortable.

Once in Churchill, where we would spend the next couple of nights, we tried contacting Georgie and finally got through to her. She asked us where we were and we told her, 'in Churchill'. That seemed to suit her very well and she suggested that we meet in the local pub for some drinks and a meal. 'See you in about 15 minutes', she said!! It turned out that she was about 200 meters from the local pub on one side, and we were the same distance on the other side!! We had no idea and were obviously delighted!!

Jan & Georgie meet for the first time.

We had a most enjoyable day with Georgie and drove around her 'neck' of the woods. She suggested we go to Cheddar (of cheese fame) and spent a great time there, eating a meal, wandering around this intriguing place, joining the many poms who made the best of a (rare) sunny autumn day.

A visit to Wells, in my opinion, was a must. Great city with a beautiful cathedral.

The Bishop's Palace (I think that is what it is) is also worth lots of photos and we all enjoyed it:

One thing I always do when in England is to attend Evensong as often as possible in one of the cathedrals. It is a great experience both spiritually and musically. I hoped we would be in time to attend the Wells' Cathedral Evensong. When we got there, it was already underway and had started early because of a special event, While this meant we could not sit in the choir stalls and experience the service more intimately, we made ourselves comfortable in the main sanctuary and still enjoyed the music, the readings and the atmosphere.

Had a lovely view of the organ and enjoyed its sounds both in singing and in a concluding voluntary.

I loved it - of course! So did Jan & Georgie.

The following day, our worship was a total contrast as we accompanied Georgie to her church in Clevedon. I was glad we had that opportunity and worship with Georgie in her church.

We loved our visit and time with her.

With just a couple of days before our departure, we enjoyed visiting a family from Hobart and drove a little around the Cotswold. Just a bit disappointing, but I guess we were 'over' being tourists and were looking to heading home. Even so, our drive through the Cotswold had special moments as you can see in the following pics:

'Down Ampney', the name also given to a great hymn tune composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Jan at the village pump. It was dry!

These berries caught our eyes. So lovely!

Just one more appointment before heading for Heathrow and that was to catch up in Salibury with one of my High School teachers from way back in 1954! It was a lovely way to finish our trip and further to enjoy our last drive through the beautiful country side in Wiltshire: