Woke up and looked outside and the sky is all covered with a thick layer of mist, and reminds me of living in London and how sometimes you just dont know whats going to happen with the weather, and having thought that, an hr later the blue skies are out and the mist had lifted – ended up being a beautiful day!

Accomodation was smack bang in city centre just outside of the High St, so parking was 5pounds overnight so I kept it there while I explored

DAY 10 ITINERARY

A – EXETER
B – POWDERHAM CASTLE – Devon

C – CARYLON BAY – St Austell – Cornwall

EXETER

Devon

Today I gave myself a couple of hours at MOST to spend in Exeter, I didnt realise how much history actually is in Exeter! wow! I stayed here until 2pm, I just found too much to see, and its not like its a large city, its pretty big but the high street area isnt that large, its actually a really interesting city as there are large uni campuses just outside of the city centre and a lot of things are happening all over the place, its such a fun city!

Founded in 1050 and construction began in 1114 and was initally built in norman romanesque style

In the medieval times, Exeter became one of the most important cities in the country

Illustration of Exeter in 1563 – a lot of the surrounding city walls still exist and incorporated into other buildings or still standing on its own – the people here love their own history its great to see and hear what they have to say about their city 🙂

EXETER CATHEDRAL

WOW just WOW! come on… why do I have to live 26 hours away! I would spend so much more time looking at every single small detail of this beautiful architectural marvel if I could!

The Cathedral is Norman gothic style built between 1112-1400
96m in length this is the longest continuous medieval vaulted ceiling in the world – i wish they made architecture like this again!
They were organising some sort of event when i visited… can you imagine being one of the guests here!! I wish i had an invite!
This is the canopied tomb of Bishop Edmund Stafford who died 1419

Chapel of st savior and saint boniface – so colourful!
The amazing floor with tombstones in the cathedral
When i see such wealth and opulence and when im charged £7.50 to enter, I sometimes think, could this money and power get to the heads of those at the top? I dont mind paying, thats not the point but arent we all the same and bleed the same colour?
They were getting ready for the “Naive Dinner” which is a dinner party and fundraiser for the cathedral – i would love to be on the invite list!
How cute is this coffee car!? It was strategically placed right at the front of the cathedral, hadnt seen anything like this before
Church of the sacred heart
St Catherines Almshouses – these were bombed in 1942 along with many other beautiful buildings 😦 pisses me off what we have done to this world and what we have lost!
Alms houses here were founded in 15th c. By canon John Stevens they were to accomodate 13 men Of “good character”
After the Norman conquest in 1066, Exeter was the centre if the west country rebellion against william the conqueror – in 1068 williams forces came to the city, and the wall prevented Exeter from being overrun and they were put under seige and finally they surrendered after 18 days
Coffee with a view! @cafe espresso – offfft! I live for this
Church of St Stephens – an interesting old church! has a saxon crypt and has been mentioned in the doomsday book
Finding medieval back streets in the town centre near the castle

EXETER UNDERGROUND TUNNELS

7.50 – total time around 1hr

Omg – random find! I loved exploring under ground! These are old water pipes that serviced the ancient city of Exeter and had different stages of life depending on the times, at one stage the tunnels were covered up during the war as they were scared that enemies would find it and make their way in

The tunnels at present along with the modern streets

They were designed to bring clean drinking water from natural springs outside the walled city. The water came through lead pipes into the heart of the city.

Exeter is the only city in the UK to have underground passages of this type and it was such a good experience!

Was so cool walking through! Lucky for hard hats, we all hit our head a few times
One of the lower parts of the tunnel
This was the largest area of the whole tour – so interesting to see the different types of rock and building in the different sections
A few of us chose to go through the smaller section and we had to literally crawl on hands and knees most of the way – i have no idea how the plumbers and maintenance ppl of those times used to do this and they didnt have electric lights then either!

POWDERHAM CASTLE

Devon

I had spent half the day in Exeter and it was already around 3pm when I got to Powerham castle, was going to do a quick tour and leave but boy! I got my own private tour by one of the head guides there and I spent 1.5hrs going through the whole castle even some areas which are off limits to the public

Andy had worked there for 10 years and knew the castle inside out – as I arrived I was told that there are no more tours of the upstairs but I can walk through the ground floor, I grabbed a little leaflet to guide me through and I ended up chatting to Andy at the first room and he followed me around and ended up giving me so much info and he personally knew the family presently living on the property (was a large deer park as well as the castle and the family premises)

Andy noticed that I loved the castle so much that he mentioned he would show the top floor as well, and another volunteer guide, Christine, came along too as she was learning the ins and outs of the castle as well so the 3 of us had such a good chat and exploration of the castle – by the time i left it was 4:30pm and I knew that castle inside out lol

POwderham Castle – The outside is impressive but WOW the inside has so much history and unexpected beauty – I love how I just dont know what im going to find when I get somewhere new

West front, viewed from under the Victorian gatehouse. The leftmost tower dates from 1390 to 1450

The area is also a deer park and there are beautoful deers running around

Ok so we arent allowed to take photos of the inside so I got the next set of photos courtesy of the internet – its more magnificent in person!

This room was specifically added to the original building for the 21t party of the
Staircase hall
The library
The upstairs bedroom
the kitchen under ground
The library room with 5000 books

CARLYON BAY St Austell

Cornwall

Drove into Cornwall today! Ive been here before a few times, im excited to be back! Im going to be exploring places this time that I havent been so I chose Carylon Bay for that reason – also this Resort and Spa golf club looked amazing! set overlooking the Bay, its very Art Deco and I fell in love with the building immediately!

Carylon Bay
Dinner at the Terrace restaurant