Out & About-English Riviera

Nearby to Dartmouth is a small section of coastline which apparently hums with tourists in the warmer months. So renowned are the beaches and hotels, it is known as the English Riviera. Having been and stayed for long periods at its more well known cousin, the French Riviera, I could not see the reason for calling this piece of England the Riviera. It was however the middle of winter and bitingly cold at 1.5C most of the day.

After catching the Higher Ferry across the Dart, we drove onto Brixham at the southern end of the Riviera. The wind here nearly blew us from our vantage point above the yacht club. The village was quite pretty all around a man-made harbour. A replica of Drake's ship the Golden Hind was moored in the harbour as well. We drove onto Paignton which is the next town along the beach front from Brixham about 3-4 miles north. It was quite pretty with a pier and several hotels on the beach front promenade. Further north still was Torquay, another 2-3 miles north of Paignton. Here we stopped to visit a miniature village called the Model Village. Workers were working feverishly spreading fake snow and ice to make the miniature houses and cars all winterish. The kids loved this spot.

The next day we drove back to Torquay to visit the Kent Caverns. If there is a list of must do things on our holidays abroad it is Castles, Cathedrals and Caves. So to make it this far into a holiday without finding a cave was amazing! Kent Caverns have evidence of early humans living there from around 30000 years ago. It was quite a good tour and the kids loved it with a mini-dig site for them to find old teeth, bones and minerals.

After this we drove our to Buckfast on the A38. This Benedictine Monastry was destroyed in Henry VIII's discarding of the catholic faith. In the last 1800 and early 1900's it was rebuilt from the foundations up and is truly magnificent! At this point in the day the temperature climbed to 2.5C just in time for the Sun to set at 4pm.