Synopsis: Time Helen and Simon spent staying with me in England over the Christmas and New Year holidays. Various excursions, a little exercise and a plentiful amount of time spent with family.
(selection of photos from Flickr photo set – use link above to view album)
I started the day with some jogging. I was just a little short of clocking 400 kms of running this year, so I put in this one, slightly extended run, of 11 kms (see link above), to take me to just a tad over 400 kms for the year. That’s the most I’ve achieved in a year since returning to running last year, inspired by Helen running the Stuttgart half marathon.
Helen and Simon arrived in England in the late hours of Thursday night. They caught a coach at Heathrow at 21:45 arriving in Exeter at 01:05 the following morning. I had prearranged a taxi to pick them up at Honiton Road Park & Ride. Simon was suffering with a undiagnosed medical problem causing him some difficulty in walking, and welcomed a lift to my place. I, of course, was tucked up warm and cosy in my bed when they arrived at my place. All aspects of their journey were punctual.
I met Helen and Simon at Breakfast this morning. This was the second time that I had met Simon, first meeting him when I holiday in Germany in October/November time. Both Helen and Simon looked well, and in good spirits, if a little tired after the medical ordeal Simon had just been through. What with this, and all the travelling to get to England, it was little wonder they were a little fatigued.
After breakfast (my usual 3-course of fruit, cereal and toast, with fruit juice and tea to accompany), the first job that Helen and I needed to do was to walk across town to pick up our car rental from Europcar on the Marsh Barton Trading Estate. Nearly two hours had elapsed by the time we returned home with the car, in part due to delays at the rental office due to an incompetent clerk. We picked up Simon from home and set off immediately for Bishopsteignton, for our lunch invite at David and Julie’s.
Julie had prepared a very nice chicken casserole for us all. David and Julies children, Sarah, Emma and Jack, were there too. It was lovely to catch up with them.
David told us all about how he had become a film star during the previous year, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz in the making of the film The Mercy [IMDB]. David was in fact just an extra, a sound recordist, in the film. Crowhurst set sail from Teignmouth on his epic challenge to sail around the world singlehanded in 1968. He was of course doomed to fail tragically on this quest, and hence the material for this film which charts his story. One to look out for, especially if you happen to live in Devon.
We chatted away through the afternoon until it was early evening and time Helen, and Simon and I were on our way. As we had a little time on your hands, I suggested we drive down into Teignmouth and have a quick look around, this despite the fact that a thick fog had set in once again. We’d experienced a few of these just recently. Helen parked our car in the car park on the sand spit at Teignmouth (Lower Point Car Park).
As I’d expected, we could hardly see the sea, but we could at least hear it. We walked towards the pier, which was shut-up and uninviting. Circling around the theatre, which I noted had been completely rebuilt and was looking very smart indeed, complete with a café with sea view (on a clear day), and headed back towards town. We spotted the new Wetherspoons that David and Julie had mentioned to us earlier in the day. This, too, looked very trendy, and was certainly doing a fine trade on this rather wintry evening. Apparently there are old photos of Teignmouth dotted around the building, and the ones in the toilets are particularly worth seeking out. Well, maybe next time.
Walking on, I realised that we were close to 30 Brunswick Street [Google Street View]. There is a shop in this small back street that was once occupied by Helen’s grandfather, Arthur Doxsey. He operated a radio and television sales and repairs business from a premise here during the 1950s and the 1960s. Helen had not seen the shop, so we took a brief detour to search it out. Today, the shop functions as a sort of craft outlet. I guess today’s world of digital television, recordings, surround sound and satellite dishes is a million miles away from the television world of Arthur Doxsey’s Teignmouth shop.
We circled back to our car, passing the crazy golf and children’s play area as we went. Searching for our car in the fog, and eventually finding it.
We thought it would be nice to do something with Mum today. A trip to a stately home seemed a good plan, as Mum is very restricted in what she can do these days due to limited mobility arising from health problems. I suggested Knightshayes (NT), as this is only a short drive from our home town of Exeter, which would be welcome on this short winter day. The weather forecast was good, and so there was the chance we might also fit in a little tour of the gardens.
I thought the best plan would be to arrive around midday and have an early lunch in the Stables Restaurant at Knightshayes. The selection of food that is on offered there is generally limited, but it is wholesome and well prepared, and the restaurant has a nice (if somewhat horsey) atmosphere. Helen and Simon dropped Mum and I by the car park entrance area, which is near to the old stables, whilst they went off to park the car. Mum and I bought tickets for our party and then we found ourselves a table for our lunch. I then returned to collect Helen and Simon at the ticket reception area. I learned from Helen that the car park was ‘pay and display’, which I hadn’t expected. As we were travelling in a rental car, we did not have my NT car park sticker on display. We spoke with the person on reception and he said that would be ok, if we left our vehicle registration number with him, which we did. I was to learn on a subsequent day (visit to Lanhydrock – see below), that this new car parking policy was being introduced by the National Trust to curb abuse of the old system, whereby people were taking advantage of free parking to walk the grounds of National Trust property. It seemed to me a reasonable and fair course of action on the part of the National Trust, to ensure adequate funding streams to offset in part the costs of running these facilities.
After lunch (I had a delicious pork and apple sauce bap with salad) we walked over to Knightshayes House. At this time of year, primarily due to shortage of volunteers, only parts of the house would be open. The upstairs was closed off. But there remained plenty to see, and an added bonus to visiting a National Trust property at Christmas is that it is decorated for Christmas. Since I, in best curmudgeonly spirit, had not put up a Christmas tree at home this year, this was a good opportunity for me to provide some recompense to the guests staying with me. The interior of Knightshayes was full of charm and warmth, and we all enjoyed our little tour.
With plenty of time to spare, and the sun shining, we thought we’d like to do a tour of the garden. Mum said she would like to come too. Exiting the house through the conservatory we walked the high terrace at the back of the house, where the formal gardens are to be found. We then climbed some steps which took us onto a circular path around the wooded garden. It was a glorious day, and we were pleased to be outside. Helen decided she wished to become a garden fountain statue for a short time, and duly took her pose. And if all that wasn’t enough, a little robin came to serenade us.
After our garden tour, we returned to the Stables Restaurant where we ordered cake and tea. Well, this is England after all. Three of us had a delicious slice of carrot cake, whilst Simon settled for fruit crumble and clotted cream. These are things hard to come by in Germany.
It had been a splendid day that we’d all enjoyed very much. Hooray for the National Trust.
Simon’s Aunt Jane had recently moved to Devon, buying a house in Christow, moving down from Henley. It seemed an odd coincidence that she should move to a place such a short distance from us. Simon and Helen had been invited to visit Jane today. They set off for Christow just before midday. I had the day free to do with as I pleased. I needed to do a Tesco shop, and there were a few chores around the house that I needed to complete. Simon and Helen’s day with Jane was a great success. They showed me photos of Jane’s place, a conversion of a large Victorian house into 8 units, of which Jane’s is one. Jane even has a ‘cricket pavilion’ which she has converted into a workshop that she intends to use for her hobby of stained glass making.
We needed a plan for today. Although it would be a bit of a drive, and we’d visited one stately home already, I suggested a trip to Lanhydrock (NT). In part, this was because it was a good winter activity, and one that would appeal to a wide range of people, hopefully. And so, that became our plan for the day.
We put the message out of our plans on social forums with an invite for others to join us if they wish, with only limited expectations that would happen due to the short notice of our intentions. However, a few of our family said they would join us for the day, and would meet us at the property. All was set fair for a good day out. The three of us, Helen, Simon and myself, picked up Mum in our car, and began our journey to Cornwall.
We arrived in at lanhydrock car park just ahead of the others. As I knew there was a bit of a walk to the reception area, I set off with Mum, whilst the others grouped in the car park. As Mum and I approached the visitor reception the shuttle bus that runs down to the main entrance pulled up, so Mum took a seat whilst I purchased our tickets. Mum was in the warmth of the main building by the time the rest of us arrived.
It was a glorious sunny day, and the place was packed with visitors. One of the rooms that really caught my eye on this visit was the kitchen. There was so much colour in the display of Christmas foods, and a rather colourful character of a National Trust steward to give explanations where required. I particularly liked the charming porcelain that was on show.
We ordered a Chinese takeaway supper for our evening meal at Mum’s. Most of the family gathered with us for a sociable evening chatting.
Helen and Simon visited Helen’s grandma, Riki, where Helen prepared a curry lunch. Because Grandma tired quickly, they had time to spare, so they returned home for a while, although I had set off on foot for Riverside, as I was keen to have a swim. Helen and Simon discovered I had left my keys in my backdoor, which wasn’t very clever, something I discovered I’d done when changing for my swim. Ah well, just a little senior moment.
Helen and Simon were, luckily, passing Riverside Leisure Centre just as a I left, so picked me up, saving a walk for me across town to Wendy and Colin’s.
Our plan for today was to visit Simon’s Aunt Jane, who has recently acquired a property in Devon, at Christow. Helen and Simon had already paid Aunt Jane a visit on the previous Sunday (see above).
We had planned to do a couple of walks. The weather was a little inclement, but this still seemed viable. It is only a short drive from Jane’s place to the reservoirs nearby, not far from Bovey Tracey. As it happens, Jane had visited these reservoirs, but I thought a short walk around Trentiford would be a good idea. There is a car park at the reservoir which is where Jane parked her car with all of us onboard. A circle of the reservoir took us about 45 minutes. Jane’s dog, Tally, was really enjoying himself, bounding off in the direction of the water, as Jane said he would, and coming back to us covered in mud. Luckily he responds well to Jane’s dog whistle, returning quickly on hearing this.
After this initial walk we decided to head for Hound Tor. There were two primary reasons for this objective: 1) I would take Helen and Laura to this tor which was a favourite destination of theirs, loving to climb all over it, and 2) because there is a Sherlock connection. The second of these reasons relates to Sherlock (2.3: The Hounds of Baskerville), of the Sherlock series starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, that has been airing on BBC for a number of years. There is one particular scene in which Benedict Cumberbatch stands high on the tor for a wild-angle shot, a shot that Helen and I recreated on a visit the previous year.
The weather had deteriorated by the time we’d reached Hound Tor, and a gentle rain was now falling, and the temperature had dropped too. Undeterred, we made our way up to Hound Tor. On reaching the top, we could see that Tally was struggling, seeming to lose control of her back legs. Jane was concerned, and said that she would return to her car with Tally. Apparently Tally suffers with some sort of fit that leaves her struggling in this way. Just after Jane and Tally left us, Helen spotted her cousin Sarah on the tor with a couple of her friends from Plymouth University. An odd coincidence that.
We didn’t stay as long on Hound Tor as we might have. It would have been nice to have taken in the nearby medieval village, and walked over to Great Tor, from where there is splendid view of Haytor Quarries, with Haytor itself looming large behind. However, light was now failing, and we were beginning to get cold, so we returned to Jane’s car.
On reaching Jane’s car, Jane set off for home via Bovey Tracey. We had tea and mince pies at Jane’s. In the evening our plan was to meet up with Maya and Colin, Maya being Jane’s daughter, Simon’s cousin, and Colin being her husband. We met up for a meal in The Lamb Inn in Longdown. The place was quiet, which suited us. We had a good meal and a couple of beers whilst we sat and chatted away the evening. Mara and Colin invited us back to their place for coffee, which was just a minutes walk down the road.
It had been a nice sociable sort of a day. Jane certainly has a charming home in Christow, and although only there a couple of months, seemed very settled and happy with her new residence.
Simon was due to catch the 10:55-14:05 National Express coach to Heathrow. As that gave us a little spare time, after breakfast we drove over to Tesco, to do the first of our Tesco English goodies shop of this holiday. Simon squeezed into his bag all that he could. It’s strange the things from England you miss when you’re living in Germany, such as Maltesers and crisps.
The coach arrived punctually at the Honiton Road stop and Simon was soon on his way to Heathrow. Helen and I returned home to get ourselves some lunch.
After lunch, as the weather was gorgeous, Helen and I thought it would be nice to get out and do a walk. Helen asked if we could do an old favourite of ours, the walk from Beer to Branscombe. This we set out to do, with Helen parking our car in the car park on the headland just out of Beer. We followed our usual course, which was to walk out following the low path to Branscombe, and then return by climbing the cliff and following the high path back to Beer. Helen thought we could make a shortcut on the way back, which I wasn’t so sure about. After a little hunting around for a course around various bushes and hedges, we did eventually find our way back to our car. It was lovely climbing the cliff out of Branscombe, as we were doing this just as the sun was setting, and the sky shone pink with wisps of cloud, just for us.
On our return from Beer we drove into Toys ‘r’ Us store. Apparently one of Helen’s bosses had asked her to pick up a copy of Junior Scrabble, which we did. I had a look for anything with a dinosaur theme, what with my having recently discovered that Exmouth has its very own dinosaur trail (this we were to follow later in the week, see below). I didn’t find anything dinosaur related that was particularly interesting. As it transpired, I did find something in Lidl of all places, later on during our holiday period.
On our return from Beer, we drove over to the new Lidl’s store once again, so that I might pick up some onions and potatoes for our supper. When we got home, I cooked us a bangers, mash, onions, fried eggs and gravy supper, whilst Helen caught up with a little work. I also prepared our dessert, simple though it was, of a bowl of custard, in which we dropped flapjack cubes. A very straightforward but delicious pudding that is a favourite of mine, and it seemed to go down well with Helen too.
Helen had some work to do, so she wanted some time in the morning to do that. She also wanted to do some online shopping (washing machine, photo frame, electric salt & pepper mills), so she set about doing all this. I took the time available to me to plan a walk route. David and Julie had suggested we meet up to do a walk, and had asked if we had any suggestions. One of the walks I had in mind was Lustleigh Cleave, so I set about mapping a Lustleigh Cleave walk route (11.9 Kms / 7.4 Miles) using the Outdoor Active web site. Sadly, the Bing Maps walk route planning facility on Ordnance Survey maps has been removed. I thought it would be at some time. It was free, and anything Ordnance Survey related isn’t meant to be free to use.
In the afternoon, the weather wasn’t good, with quite a lot of rain about. We decided that we would walk into town to do a little shopping. In particular, Helen wanted some slippers. As it happens, Primark proved the best shop all round, for slippers, and for various other garments that Helen wanted. In the evening we went around Mum’s and cooked a wok meal for all of us. Then, later in the evening, we sat down to watch Sherlock (4.1: The Six Thatchers). As Mum hadn’t recorded this programme, I installed Chrome on Mum’s laptop and we presented the programme on her TV using her Chromecast device.
We picked up Helen’s grandma, Riki, in our car, just as the nurse arrived. A nurse checks on Riki and gives her her insulin injection. Once this was done, Helen drove the three of us out to her Uncle Peter’s place in Crediton. Peter was preparing his trademark roast. We were joined by Peter’s sons Christopher and Michael.
After lunch, Helen’s grandma, Riki, was feeling rather tired, so we set off fairly early in the afternoon, to drive her home. I’m sure she’d enjoyed her little excursion, but seemed relieved to be home again when we dropped her off.
Julie had suggested a walk from Noss Mayo that she knew. We met near the car park by the tennis courts, but parking wasn’t possible in the small car park. This wasn’t too significant a problem. We were able to find some high level street parking. I wasn’t keen to park down on the tidal beach by the Ship Inn. I didn’t fancy dealing with the potential repercussions of finding our car stranded by the tide.
As I’ve walked the entire South West Coast Path, the way was familiar to me. That mattered little, as it is a magical spot, and I was more than delighted to find myself back here once again. I’d last come down this way with Helen in 2011 (05 June 2011 – Trip: Noss Mayo). Helen had just previously successfully completed her university studies, and I took her and Mum down to the Ship Inn for a celebratory lunch. I remember we were lucky to find a table on that day, as the pub is very popular. We also walked part of Revelstoke Drive, as we were about to do today.
At first the walk is relatively level, along lanes, following the line of the estuary, headed towards the sea. Just pass the point where a passenger ferry berths, the way begins to ascend slowly through trees, until the wide expanse of the coastal scene, looking westwards, opened up before. We could easily see as far as Rame Head. I, rather tantalisingly, asked our group if people could make out a small building on Rame Head. They said they could (I almost believed them). It’s a very tiny chapel (Mount Edgcumbe to Rame Head 162).
It wasn’t long before we were up on the headland and we joined the Revelstoke Drive that I mentioned earlier. This one of the very few stretches of coastline that is reasonably level to walk. It follows what I think was once an old coach drive. It is on land owned and managed by the National Trust. We cut our walk short at the nearby National Trust car park. A walk is described by them from this point (Gara Point walk (NT)), which pretty much describes what we did today, except our start/end point was in Noss Mayo. It was a short drop for us back into Noss Mayo. By now we were looking forward to our lunch in the Ship Inn.
We were provided with a whopping great table on the first floor. The girls, Sarah, Emma and Helen, were sat on some old church seating, which well suited their pious natures (methinks). But our main concern was sating our appetites, and the meals we had certainly did that. Helen and I settled for roast beef and Yorkshire pudding followed by sticky toffee pudding. The food was delicious, and exceedingly bloating. A good thing we’d already completed our walk for the day.
My favourite story of our lunchtime has to be David’s setting fire to his neighbour’s hedge. I started the ball rolling, by recounting the time Ewald, Helen’s step-father, set fire to his hedge. But David’s story capped mine. Apparently he had a bonfire going in the garden. A spark from the fire blew across his garden into his neighbour’s hedge, setting fire to it. Julie ran to the neighbour’s house to warn them about what had happened. Apparently David and his neighbour’s efforts to douse the fire with there hoses was getting them nowhere, so the fire brigade had to be called to put it out. As David put it, who would have thought so much mayhem could be caused by just one little match.
On leaving the Ship Inn, Helen noticed they had a ‘Weather Station’, of sorts. Well, it’s actually nothing more than a coconut on a piece of rope. But, perhaps that is all you need.
We returned to our cars and said our goodbyes to David, Julie, Sarah and Emma. We were so pleased that they were able to join us today. They were headed to Plymouth, to drop Sarah back at university. Helen and I were headed back home to Exeter.
In the morning, Helen and I decided we’d like a swim, so we drove down to the Riverside Leisure Centre to do just that. It was relatively quiet, so we had a pleasant and enjoyable swim. I needed to do a shop, and we decided to use the newly rebuilt Lidl’s store that is closest to me. We were both impressed. The store is a really pleasant place to shop, and there is a fine selection of foods that are well priced.
We’d previously bought the ingredients for a wok meal, so we suggested to Mum that we come around to her to prepare that in the evening. We also mentioned that Helen and I were thinking of driving down to Exmouth in the afternoon for a short stroll along the Exmouth Dinosaur Trail that has been put in place in the town, and asked if she would like to come along. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, she said she would like to join us.
The weather had been rather inclement for most of the morning and early afternoon, but come the time we were driving down to Exmouth, the sun came out, and it was really quite pleasant. There was a cool breeze blowing, so it was wise to keep moving. Helen parked our car by Exmouth Leisure Centre, as the dinosaur trail started from that point.
We struggled to find the first dinosaur, but discovered one on The Strand, and one in Exmouth Market, which we were lucky to find. Then on through Manor Gardens where we found yet more dinosaurs, although some had obviously ‘escaped’, as all that there was to see was the fenced area with no dinosaur in sight. Following the dinosaur trail was an amusing diversion, and the replica dinosaurs that we did find are very well executed.
The final dinosaur for us to find was in the middle of The Maer, which would have proven a little challenging for Mum. Instead, we suggested to Mum she have a cup of tea and a biscuit in the Harbour View Café and whilst she did that Helen and I would search out the last of the dinosaurs. This proved a good plan.
On our return, I stopped in the café with Mum for a while and Helen went off to collect our car. She returned and picked us up, and then drove us around to Mum’s place. We had our wok supper, which turned out really well, and then settled down to watch the latest episode of Sherlock (4.2: The Lying Detective) that Mum had recorded for us to watch.
I’d planned this Lustleigh Cleave walk route (11.9 Kms / 7.4 Miles) originally intended as a possibility for our meeting with David, Julie and their family on the previous Sunday (see above), but we eventually decided not to do this walk as it was a little inconvenient for plans David and Julie had to take their daughter Sarah back to Plymouth University at the end of the walk. Helen and I therefore thought this would make a good walk for today. The weather wasn’t that good, but neither was any significant rain forecast. It wasn’t quite nice enough for a cycle ride, but a walk, we hoped, would be fine. We quickly put together sandwiches and a flask of tea, set about preparing a slow-cooker meal (ratatouille) for the evening, and then Helen drove us to Lustleigh.
Helen parked our car on the street in Lustleigh from where we set off on our walk. Apparently the name Lustleigh, from the early English, means ‘much loved place’, and it’s easy to see why it acquired that name. We climbed steadily at first, but more steeply a little into the walk, ascending onto the hill ridge that forms a border between the village of Lustleigh and Lustleigh Cleave.
From the hill ridge there was a fine view out to Dartmoor, but that view was coming and going as the clouds built up and then were blown away by the substantial wind. By the time we had reached the northernmost point along the ridge, at Hunter’s Tor, time had marched on, and we were a little hungry, but I persuaded Helen it would be more pleasant to eat lunch in the valley by the river out of the wind, so on we continued. From this point on the ridge the path we followed dropped sharply, and we had to watch our footing on the damp and slippery granite boulders that lined the path.
Soon we were at a favourite place of mine down on the River Bovey, where the waters cascade in quite a torrent over moss covered boulders. The sun struggles to make much of a presence down in the depths of the valley, and so everything has a green hue to it. We found a boulder that provided a reasonably comfortable seat and chose that as the place at which to eat our lunch. We were observed by a robin as we did so, who came by for the odd droppings of food that fell his way.
After lunch, we attempted to follow the course of the river downstream, although no trail is shown on the map. Progress wasn’t easy, and the ground beneath our feet soon became very soggy, so we decided to route ourselves back onto the public footpath further up the hillside. Once we’d gained this, our way was easy to follow and we made good progress, largely following the contours of the hill.
Eventually we dropped back down to the River Bovey at a place where two footbridges are to be found. One is a substantial modern footbridge, whereas the other, an old ‘clam’ bridge, looked decidedly precarious. Of course Helen chose the latter, for the added excitement it promised, and equally obvious, I chose the former.
The path we then followed mapped the course of the river until we reached an old packhorse bridge that is named Saddle Horse Bridge (SX779801) [Bing Maps] further downstream. This is another picturesque bridge, which provided the means for us to once again cross the River Bovey for our final stretch of today’s walk, back over the hill ridge and then dropping into Lustleigh village.
Once back in the village we returned to our car for the journey home.
Walk Statistics:
Total Distance: 12.1 km / 7.5 miles
Elapsed Time: 3hrs 54min
Total Ascent: 738 metres
Maximum Elevation: 331 metres
Buses: (none)
We contemplated a cycle ride to Dawlish, but after the walk of the previous day, we decided that we weren’t quite up to that, so we settled on driving down. As we had a little time to spare, Helen took a look at the Viewranger mobile phone app. Helen, acting on my advice, had installed the Outdoor Active navigation app, but we had discovered that the free version of this app does not allow for offline maps. It also does not record track logs very well, the data stored being very limited (GPX file export won’t load to Runtastic). Helen decided to install the Viewranger app on her mobile, an app that her uncle David had said he had been using, and thought it very good. Helen also downloaded some offline maps (Open Cycle Maps) of the Dawlish area, so that we might give the Viewranger app a trial later.
We parked at Dawlish Leisure Centre, where we took a swim. This is a quiet pool, simple but pleasant, that we’d used on previous occasions. After our exercise, we dropped the car down to a car park a short distance down the road, from where we walked into Dawlish.
We stopped in a fish & chip café near to the railway station, Sea Breeze Restaurant (what used to be Bailey’s Restaurant), where we enjoyed a very nice meal (guess what we ate?), sat by the window with the warm sun streaming in and warming us. Eating in was a good choice, as a chill wind was blowing along the sea front and, though the sun was warm, it wouldn’t have been a pleasant place to eat a meal.
After we’d eaten we set off on a little walk. We followed a favourite route of mine, out through the back of Dawlish, past St Gregory’s Church, and then into the countryside. From there our route circled back in the direction of the coast, climbing a hill, before descending through a small woods and then onto a path through parkland which eventually brought us out on the coast path on the cliffs high above Dawlish.
We then descended to Coryton Cove and walked a little way on until we came to a shelter with benches where we stopped for tea and biscuits (I’d packed a flask and packet of Bourbons – how civilised is that?). After our short break we walked along the top of the sea wall, crossing the railway line at ‘Rockstone flats’ footbridge. Apparently the bridge is listed, and dates back to the time of Brunel’s construction of the railway. From here it was on a short distance to our car.
On our return we stopped briefly at Tesco so that Helen might do her priority shop. That is to say, buy a wide selection of English goodies to take back with her to Germany. After doing that we drove home, where I gave our hire car a quick clean, inside and out. It was filthy, so we felt obliged to give it the once over. The car looked brown, but I was quite sure it was black when we picked it up. The light was fading fast as I completed the quick wash.
That evening Helen and I decided to have a quiet night in watching a film. We chose the film Ex Machina, which, although not brilliant, is somewhat thought provoking. And it does have an interesting twist to the tale, which makes for particularly interesting first viewing.
P.S. The Viewranger app that Helen used on her phone provided accurate maps of our walk route, and produced a fully detailed track log (GPX file export that will load to Runtastic) as well. We were really impressed with this app. It would seem to make an extremely useful navigation aid. It also has a ‘Skyline’ feature, which, when the mobile phone’s camera is switched on, overlays the landscape view with place markers, highlighting features, such as towns and hills, in the landscape. It worked really well, and was a most impressive app, but, sadly, it isn’t available on Windows phone, and therefore is no use to me. It has the facility to download free maps such as Open Cycle Maps, which are very good, plus the facility of making Ordnance Survey map purchase that can be loaded onto the mobile app.
Helen did the majority of her packing first thing in the morning. We then set off in the car to the Europa car hire centre down on the Marsh Barton trading estate. We then strolled through the rain up to town, where Helen did a little shopping (Primark) before we set off to Gandhi’s Indian restaurant where we had a very nice curry (I had PUNJABI THALI (£14.95) and Helen had Chicken Ceylon, sharing my naan bread). My meal was ridiculously big. Both curries were excellent.
Whilst waiting for our curries, Helen installed Whatsapp on my mobile (I caved in after a lot of psychological pressure from Helen). A bus passed down the street as we ate our curry, advertising the fill La La Land, a musical that has garnered quite a number of awards. We discovered it was on at 14:00 in our local Odeon. This we were able to make just in time, picking up cappuccinos in the cinema foyer on the way.
We walked home from the cinema. After a snack supper Helen and I strolled over to Mum’s where we displayed some photos on Mum’s TV for her to see. We had the photos from our holiday, and showed Mum some photos my daughter Laura had posted from her Christmas holiday at Heiterwangersee. Helen was able to install Chromecast on her Android phone, and displayed her photos wirelessly. I had to use the old fashioned, but extremely reliable, method of using a connecting cable between my tablet PC and Mum’s television.
We then returned home early to grab a little sleep before setting off to the coach stop where Helen was to catch her coach for Heathrow early the following day.
In the very early hours of the morning Helen and I traipsed over to the coach stop so that Helen might catch her 13:10 coach to Heathrow. Hail had already fallen, and we were caught in a shower of hail as we walked the dark streets. Luckily the coach and flight were extremely punctual, and Helen reached Germany on schedule, landing at 9:56 (German time).
And, final reflection, on having seen out another year. Last year I was slightly short of my target cycling distance of 2,000 kms, but this year I was on target, and that was achieved with time to spare. And, not only that, but I put in an extra run late in 2016 such that I exceeded (just) 400 kms for the year. Don’t believe me? Check out my fitness statics at Runtastic. Feeling rather chuffed with myself, and fitter than ever (well, almost). I shall keep my cycling and running Runtastic target for 2017 the same as for 2016, but will increase my hiking target.
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