England « The Trials and Tribulations of a Twentysomething Traveller

Posts filed under 'England'

Delightfully Devon

Well it wouldn’t be England if it didn’t rain at least once…luckily I was on the bus from Telford to Exeter when it happened. I found my way to Camelot (Tim’s place) after a few phones and directions from the locals. I had an action packed weekend that included a visit to Okehampton Castle, shopping in the main street, the valley walk (with my tour guide Ben) – during which I got to see Dartmoor, some Dartmoor ponies, the local Air Training Corps building and break in my blue raincoat. I had the good fortune of experiencing an Australian BBQ during which they use a flat metal sheet over an open fire instead of our northamerican gas grills. It was good to see Tim again after out trip 2 years ago to New Zealand and we were able to catch up again. Agatha Chritie’s estate outside of Torquay with memorabilia is being completed and opened to the public in 2009…so I may be back. But in the meantime Devon and specifically Okehampton is a nice little corner of the world that I am glad to have visited!

: Awww soooo cute…

: Some ruins…

: At the end of the rainbow…

Add comment June 17, 2007

Fabulous Family!

I had a wonderful week with my relatives in Telford. There was a lot of good food and fun. I also got to do some excursions in the area. We had a nice day in Blists Hill – a victorian era town with everything from the chemists to the school with people dressed in costumes to match. For anyone in Calgary it is like Heritage Park but bigger. I spent a wonderful day shopping in the near by town of Shrewsbury. We hit all the shops and also checked out the nice Tudor architecture. Last but not least, I spent a day at the Royal Air Force museum in Cosford, of particular interest to me was the new Cold War exhibit (it wasn’t just planes, but a lot of information and memorabilia from that time period and some of it was in Russian!). It really felt like I had a typical week in the life of a British family, because in addition to these excursions I did more day to day activities, like watching my cousin play in a football (soccer) tournaments, going to the local parish church (I even got an intro lesson on the organ), going to a belly dancing class and of course a night in a traditional English pub (on karaoke night! ) Lots of love to all my relatives in Telford. Thanks for a wonderful week!!!