Rounds, Ciderology and Fords

Yesterday was a leisurely day for us.  It had rained really hard on Friday night and there were still lingering showers when we got up.  We needed to do laundry and couldn't really decide what we wanted to do.  It was obvious it was going to be a somewhat wet day so we decided to do something closer to home.  We decided to go see A la Ronde which is a National Trust Property near Exmouth that is a 16 sided house that was built by two sisters.  The house has beautiful views of the sea but other than that, I think the sisters were a bit looney.  The doors inside the first level were purposely made very narrow going from one room to another.  This was supposedly because the sisters were afraid the French were going to invade (Exmouth is on the English Channel) and if the soldiers came to the house, they (the sisters) would be able to escape through the narrow doors.  What were they thinking...the house is round?  They also had an affinity towards seashells and the entire upper level (which is no longer accessible to the public while they are trying to restore it) is covered in seashells...walls and ceiling.  The people working for the trust are all very nice and they gave us a few places we could stop to eat on our way home.  Oops, I forgot the first part going to this house.  You must go up this one lane road with hedgerows....not much different that the others right?  Wrong!  This one had no turnouts and we had to back up all the way to the road we turned off to let the others pass!  We had to do this three times...it got to the point that we thought we would never get there!  It was pouring rain when we left.  There were a lot of kids there as they were having Easter egg hunts sponsored by Cadbury so it was a shame for them.

Our backing up entrance

 

Kay and I had fun playing with these "Talking Tubes"

 

This is where the Easter Egg Hunt was to be....

We headed up the road to a place called Topsham and found the Dart Farm Shop.  The place was huge and we did find the restaurant and had a very delicious lunch as the ladies had told us, there was so much to see we decided we want to come back when it isn't so crowded.  It is a very popular place.
We both actually went to bed early.


I fixed breakfast this morning and we talked about a few different things we could do.  We decided on taking the Rick Steve's Drive Dorset which took in several places we wanted to see.  We set off and shortly begin to realize that Rick Steves has no idea what he is talking about and his maps got us totally lost. We pulled off the road and got out our own maps.  We decided to go to Eveshot as this was a filming area for the movie Emma.  It is a beautiful little village and we enjoyed walking around there and taking photos.  Then we went to a place Kay had been to with her brother Jimmy and his wife Judy when they were on a cruise several years ago.  Cerne Abbas is where the Cerne Giant is located.  The rock in this area is chalk and someone carved this really obnoxious man on the hillside.  Now people congregate there to either hike up there or to take their picture with the giant which was our choice.  Miterne was our next stop where Kay had been as well but it was a beautiful little church where the first Winston Churchill is buried.  There is an estate and gardens here as well with a real Duke living there, but it is by invitation only.  From there we had no idea where we were for quite some time but managed to get to Dorchester and an "A" road.  Our next goal was Lyme Regis so that Kay could walk the esplanade.  Last week when we were there it was excessively crowded and we could not find parking.  This time was perfect.  We had dinner there and the weather was perfect for seeing the cliffs.  Last week it was hazy and you really couldn't see very far.  We finished dinner, walked the esplanade and returned to the car frozen.  The wind up on that wall was really cold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

A Ford

The Ford

Me and the Giant
 

 


Two other things today.  We were on a road with traffic so we couldn't stop to take a photo, but we saw a sign off to the right....pretty good size that read "Church of Ciderology", then directions, then "We're not a cult...I swear!"  We laughed so hard Kay could barely drive.  Then we think it was somewhere on the way to Eveshot that we crossed a Ford.  This was our first one.  A Ford (not the car) is a small stream that runs across the road.  They can get quite wide and deep during heavy rains I guess and therefore drivers are told to be very careful crossing them and signs after warn you to try your brakes.

Two more days completed...Well done us and proper job!
Frustration with the photos...it is now moving photos so they are out of order...after a day of trying to fix it, I give up!  Ugh!!!