Tuesday, May 6th      Torquay
Robyn writes:    We were thrilled to wake up to a sunny morning outside our window! The outlook of this apartment is absolutely gorgeous - hard to imagine how anywhere else might top it.
                 Goodness, it's tough waking up to this, but I guess someone has to do it....

We were up fairly early and keen to get out and explore Torquay while the sun was shining. Lex had discovered last night that the steps in our front garden lead down to the esplanade below (actually hidden from our sight), so we set out down them towards the seafront. They are fairly recent and are a wonderful thing to have there - lots of local wildflowers and even a friendly Torquay kitty who came and joined us for some of our walk for lots of pats and purring. I of course greatly enjoyed this!

        

                                                            Steps in front of our apartment. We spent quite a while walking around the seafront - first out onto the Princess Pier, built in the 1890s, then back around the harbor front and the marina to the original jetty from 1870. It was a beautiful morning for walking and though the wind was cool, the day was reasonably warm. The original Victorian Pavilion on the waterfront is sadly closed awaiting a redevelopment, but there were lots of other shops and tea houses etc. We had a lovely morning tea at Burridge's Tea House, which is in a shop that's been there since Victorian days. After that, we headed up the hill to the Torquay Museum, which has an Agatha Christie display and lots of other eclectic items from all over the place - Torquay seems to have been home to lots of explorers who went out and cheerfully brought back artefacts from all over the world for their local museum!
                                                   Some tourists don't read the signs......

                                     Lex - coffee break on the red sands of Preston Sands beach
We headed back down the hill into town again and happened upon an open-top bus tour which was just about to start, so decided to go on that (10 pounds each, turned out to be very good value). It went for an hour and a half, and we sat in the top of a vintage 1947 bus from Plymouth, and a driver dressed like Reg Varney in "On the Buses". (Apologies to all of those non- Baby Boomers reading this who won't have a clue what that means - Google it!). We had live commentary as we were taken around Torquay and the surrounding areas. It was great for Lex especially to be able to relax and look around, as when you're driving in areas like this you don't get to see a thing! We went down to one of the southern beaches, Preston Sands, for a break to have a cuppa and walk on the beach (RED sand, not pebbles for a change!) They also had rows of lovely little classic beach houses there - very picturesque! We also went past several of Agatha Christie's favourite hotels and her beach house so I was very impressed. One of the highlights for we Monty Python fans was the Hotel Gleneagles - the hotel which inspired John Cleese to write Fawlty Towers. Apparently all of the Pythons used to stay there when filming, and the manager was quite loony - he once threw Eric Idle's bag into the hotel pool because he thought there was a bomb in it! There was also a Spanish waiter who hardly understood English and he, of course, became Manuel.

                                            Hotel Gleneagles - the original Fawlty Towers!

We really enjoyed the bus tour, then afterwards we went and had a (very) late lunch on the seafront (it was well after 3 by this stage!) We looked around the central city area a bit more and went to the Information Centre to find out about Dartmoor for tomorrow, then Lex still wanted to explore a bit more but my feet were more than ready for a break, so I headed back home after a little retail therapy (have discovered "Pound Stores" - everything is a pound!) It was a great relief to get home and put the kettle on, I must say. Lex jumped on a bus and went around the bay to Brixham and Paignton for a look there.

Following a late tea (8 o'clock again - this Daylight Saving has us messed up!) we looked at our tourist info and decided on a course of action for Dartmoor tomorrow. Which Lex will tell you about...