Day 13 was just me and the bro shopping in Torquay, so I fast forwarded to day 14: Dawlish.
Today
was our last day in Devon, England. Tomorrow we drive four hours to
my aunt's house in Maidenhead, about forty-five minutes from London.
Yay for long journeys packed into a car with six suitcases and two
small children. (I love them, really.)
We
started off the day with a trip to Teignmouth. It's a little
beachside fishing village similar to Torquay, but much more quaint
and quiet. My mum, brother, and I left the children at the play park
with my aunt and uncle, and ventured into the little town. It was
narrow streets lined with towering, multi-coloured buildings: the
usual format of a little shop underneath a small flat. The shops
consisted of tourist stops overflowing with beach floaties and other
summer holiday paraphernalia, little kitshy houseware stores, coffee
shops, and miscellaneous shops needed for the locals.
We passed up the newly opened Costa for a local coffee joint, and glad we were that we did. The baristas were friendly and one of their daughters hovered around her mother as she finished her shift. The lattes tey whipped up were scorching hot and perfectly milky. When I told her that I came in to support the small business as opposed to the chain Costa, she beamed and handed me an extra ginger snap biscuit to have with my latte, a British tradition I have thoroughly enjoyed.
After
Teignmouth, we drove to Dawlish, a very cute and quaint village along
a gently flowing river. We raced leaves down the river as we made our
way to the central town by the beach. There, we had our traditional
devon cream with clotted ice creams (with a flake), and my brother
and I ventured across the river to play in the arcade and look in the
shops. I discovered my absolute favourite shop from Devon, Ten Green
Bottles. It's a vintage, hand-made-esque homeware store, with tiny
tables set up with china teacups and saucers along the side. They
sold every little thingy-ma-bob item you could ever need for making a
house a home: chabby-chic distressed picture frames, decorative
drawer knobs, throw pillows decorated with applique bunting, tiny
stuffed birds, fabric bunting strips, and other affordable and
adorable decorative items. I picked out a garland spelling out "home"
in gingham fabric decorated with little bows. I'm going to hang it in
my "home" in Paris, hopefully it will make it feel more
like a home.
Ducks being daring at the top of the waterfall!
Baby chickies!
Just look at all that clotted cream. *cough*diabetes*cough*
Ten Green Bottles, my new fave homewares and gift store!
After
ice cream and shopping, we stopped by the beach before heading home
and out for dinner. The beach was magestically beautiful, the
seafront lined qith the token multi-coloured houses, seagulls
mid-flight against the cloudy blue sky, cliffs framing the view with
jagged red rocks and emerald green fields. My brother and I walked
along a rocky pier protruding into the wavy waters, admiring the view
and snapping pictures, my brother taking a liking to my camera.
Dinner
was wonderful, a lovely vegetarian curry with naan and a pompadom and
nachos I shared with Bryn, and the most delicious pint of lager
shandy. Dessert was a toffee apple crumble with custard, and Bryn
ordered the Big Candymania. It definitely was big: it arrived in a
huge goblet and contained ridiculous amounts of chocolate bars,
cookies, chocolate, and ice cream. I felt bad for not sharing it with
him, but the sight of it made me queasy. He didn't struggle too badly
to finish it though, oh to be a fifteen-year-old boy.
Overall,
Devon has been wonderful. Beaches, shopping, and spending time with
family, not to mention extraneous amounts of food and puddings
(desserts), make for an amazing seaside holiday. I look forward to
Maidenhead, London, and Paris.
Love
always,
Coral
No comments:
Post a Comment