Tiny Roads and King George

We are so lucky to wake up to beautiful weather on this Sunday morning.  It is Mother's Day here in the UK so getting reservations for brunch was a challenge but we found a place in a seaside town of Beer.  Kay sets the GPS (we call him King George as he has a British accent and is very bossy) and we head off to our lunch.  George has us on these one lane roads that are winding and full of blind curves but Kay handles it like a champ!  We find the village of Beer and it is beautiful..nestled on the cliffs and  down into the cove.  We park and walk around taking in this gorgeous place.  The first time today that it will be easy to go down to the sea but an effort to get back up! We went to lunch and enjoyed the restaurant and the food.  We decided since it was a beautiful day we would drive along the coast to Lyme Regis.  Everyone had the same idea since it was Mother's Day and an unusually warm spring day.  To say it was crowded was an understatement.  We drove through and decide we will come back and spend some time here before we leave Devon.  We head down the coast further and stop at West Bay where Broadchurch is filmed.  It was also very crowded there and with difficulty finding a place to park.  This entire coastline is known as the Jurassic Coast and is a World Heritage Site.  We head on down the road and pass a National Trust Site we had been looking for but pass it before Kay can slow down.  Lots of traffic and motorcycles flying by us in both directions on very tiny roads.   We find a place to turn around and it's a tea room called the Eggcup Tearoom.  We stopped and had our first scones and tea!  Then we went back to the Trust property of Cogden which was a beach along that same Jurassic Coast.  It is fascinating that most of the beaches on this coast are pebbled and have no sand.  We managed to get down to the sea but I wasn't sure I would make it back up!  I did but thought I needed a bed by the time I got back to the car!

Beer

 

Lyme Regis

 

West Bay where Broadchurch is filmed

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This is the third turn....that's Kay way down at the bottom
 

 

Kay wanted to find this house where "Emma" was filmed.  As it turns out this house of Mapperton was in the village of Beaminster in Dorset...the very village where Martin Clunes also lives and has a farm.  By the time we found Mapperton it was almost closing time.  We drove through the property and decided we would come back another time.  We set the GPS to home and King George did a number on us.  He obviously likes the indirect routes as we spent most of the hour trip home from there on single lane roads that were frighteningly narrow.  With high hedgerows on both sides of the road, you can't even see where you are or what's on the other side....or who may be coming at you the other way around the next bend.  We made it home and were both "knackered" but we spent some time at the fence when we got back watching our "cheeky" sheep.

Martin Clunes lives here...we really weren't celebrity stalkers

UK Road Kill....they are everywhere

Mapperton House

This morning (Monday) we were both tired and lazy.  We couldn't decide what to do but it was again another beautiful day.  Kay said she saw that this may be our last day of sun for awhile so we drove to the city of Exmouth.  Again this is on the coast but further toward Cornwall than where we were yesterday.  We decided that we needed to get organized and I needed to bring my iPod so we could do Carpool Karaoke.  We laughed a lot and had fun.  This city is beautiful too.  We first went to the Cliffs of Devon where the trip down to the beach was even steeper than yesterday.  It was a beautiful place though and the English are a hardy bunch...out on the beach with kids in bare feet running around in the water.  It warm but down on the beach it was windy and the air was cold.  There was a cute little restaurant at the top with picture perfect views.  From there we went to the other side of the city where there is an esplanade (boardwalk but made of concrete).  We really enjoyed our day there.  We walked the beach and the walk and got ice cream.  People came there to eat lunch in their cars, walk their dogs or get ice cream and enjoy the scenery.  Then we decided to go to Exeter to see the Cathedral and the Quay.  This is a way bigger city than we thought and it was almost 5 by the time we got there.  Way too much traffic when you are unfamiliar with the roads, so we quickly found our way back to the M5 and headed home.  We stopped at the grocery to get some things and George again took us home on road only a pheasant would use.

We fixed some dinner and are trying to finish up the blogs but the internet after the first day here is just awful...worse than on any ship.  It takes forever to upload anything and if we are both trying to do it, its hopeless.  As a result, the number of pictures posted will be drastically reduced to preserve our sanity.

Another two days in the books...well done us and proper job!