Thursday 6th April

Now last night we had noticed that there was a large coach party booked into the hotel, so we had decided to make an effort to be up really early and get into breakfast when it opened at 7am.
So at about 9am we went down to breakfast. Which was lucky because the coach party were in the restaurant at 7am. It is worth mentioning now that the dining room was actually on the top floor of the hotel so you could see way across the Hoe and the Bay, which was a lovely view on a sunny morning. The breakfast was nice, but my OH was slightly disappointed that all the grapes had gone. Damn those tourists and their fruity breakfast tastes! Luckily they hadn’t eaten all the bacon, sausages and eggs.
Today we decided to visit Exeter. It has been many years since I was last there- during my student years- so it was nice to reminisce about those times. We parked in the city centre- £4.60 for four hours! “How much?” My OH screamed, enough to set off an alarm of a nearby car.
For lunch, I had a Frijj milkshake and we sat by the Cathedral. It was very busy, but we found an empty bench. Unfortunately it was in the shade, which is probably why it was empty. We did notice there were a couple of large ladies who seemed to be drawing quite close to us, forming a pincer movement, one on either side of the bench. When we got up to leave, they swooped in quickly, quicker than their size suggested, and commandeered the bench for themselves.
After a brief spell of shopping where we bought a rock cake and a roll of slightly-sticky-but-not-entirely-unsticky masking tape, we ventured down to the quay. I used to love going down to the quay on a sunny day when I was a student. We had a nice cup of tea and just watched the bald men walk their ‘masculinity-signifying’ dogs by the river.
One thing we did notice in Exeter, more so than anywhere else, was this fashion where teenage boys have their jeans halfway down their asses showing an awful lot of underwear. I thought that fashion died out ages ago? or has it only just hit Exeter? I was tempted to ‘accidentally’ tip some milkshake down there!
Anyway, later on that evening, we had fish and chips on the Barbican and went to see Alien Autopsy. I thought it was fantastic but my OH thought it was just OK. “It’s still Ant and Dec whatever they do” she told me, echoing the sentiments of many I feel.
Then it was back to the hotel, watched Bones and then to bed.

Weather: Sunny
Breakfast: Full English
Lunch: Frijj Strawberry milkshake and a small piece of rock cake
Dinner: Fish and Chips

Wednesday 5th April

Had another lovely breakfast! Then we he had decided to go out for the day. We were gonna drive to Morwellham Quay.

Because it was somewhere we had never been before we decided to give the SatNav one more chance. We input our destination and turned it on. All we knew was that we wanted to go via Tavistock and NOT across the Tamar Bridge, which has a toll. Guess which route the SatNav wanted to take us. Perhaps the bitch has shares in the takings. So we turned it off- again- and set off.
It was a lovely journey and we got there about 11am. But when we got there we noticed three coaches. How busy was it gonna be? And worse still, they had been full of French Pupils- obviously on some school trip. There were hundreds of them, all going round in small groups of about twenty.
Undeterred by the foreign invasion, we made the most of the lovely sunny weather. We had a lovely walk down the river and back past the costumier, which was being invaded by French students trying on costumes. We walked up through the village and then back down to the costumier, which was now being invaded by different French students. Then we had a walk around the quay where the mine carts were (It put in mind of a computer game- If only I had a shotgun!) and as we walked back past the costumier there was yet another group of French students in there. We were actually interested in seeing what costumes they had, but we never got in. Oh well maybe later.
We had a nice lunch in The Ship (no legs, no points) and then went for a mine tour. You can book a trip down the old copper mine, which I think is being run by someone who was actually around in the nineteenth century (Either that or he was a gnome). The mine tour, even though it was short, was really fascinating! And we had No French students on the train. They had there own pre-booked tours (either that or they were all stuck in the costumier).

Here is me and the wife chatting to one of the French kids. As you can see, we were unable to get any costumes, so we are just in our normal clothes. Only kidding! That's a publicity shot of the place

Anyway it was nearly time to go home, but we thought one more chance to try on a costume (It’s the Mr Benn in me) but guess what, there was yet another group of French students in there!
So we went. And decided to use our National trust cards and visit Cotehele. It was a lovely house and there is even a Prospects Tower which is triangular! My OH even met someone she hadn’t seen for about 15 years, so they had a nice chat.
Back at the hotel we decided that we would go out for dinner then just have an early night. We went back to The Bank then back to the room for The Apprentice and bed.

Weather: Really Sunny
Breakfast: Full English
Lunch: Cheese & Onion Pasty
Dinner: Chicken Tikka and a Pint

Tuesday 4th April

After a lovely breakfast (I’ve paid for it so I’m gonna enjoy it) we decided to head into town for a bit of shopping. I wanted to get some Doctor Who figures, because I had heard that a couple of them were limited and so may be worth something in the future- plus I want to play with them . It just so happened that Toys-R-Us had a good deal; buy 2 get a third free! We had plenty of fun wandering around Toys-R-Us thinking how much kids have these days; there weren’t motorized police cars and pink DVD/Karaoke machines when WE were young. But we did reminisce over the hoola hoops, which we both enjoyed in our youth.
WE then headed back into town. Now forgive my insanity but I am sure there used to be an underpass that led from the theatre to the main shopping area. I remember the walkway; it had buskers and the walls were tiled with a design of ships. Can anyone actually tell me what happened to it? (Aj- do you know?) Or am I mis-remembering it?
But shopping called to us. So we spent a good few hours mooching around the shops. When we were in Virgin Megastore, my OH pointed someone out but I couldn’t quite see who it was until they were standing right next to me. It was Matt Lucas! They Little Britain boys are still touring and had been in Plymouth the night before. Matt was with his huge bodyguard and appeared to be in a rush. He even knocked into me a little as he was searching for something. So there it is; My Holiday Claim to Fame!
We lunched at The Bank and had a pizza for dinner, then went to see Inside Man in the evening. I had heard a lot of good things about it (Thanks Bobski) and thoroughly enjoyed it. The VUE cinema is very nice, the screens are huge and the seats are comfy. Unfortunately the bogs are DISGUSTING!
We then had a nice romantic stroll, by the harbour and the Barbican back to the hotel

Weather: Sunny
Breakfast: Full English
Lunch: Chicken Tikka and a pint
Dinner: Hawaian Pizza

Monday 3rd April

After finishing the last yoghurts and bananas we set off on our holiday. We had recently purchased a SatNav so we thought we’d give it a go. We typed in our destination – Armada Way, Plymouth- indicated that we wanted to avoid motorways if possible- and set off. Now when we go to the West Country we always go the same way- down the A27, M27, A31, A35, A30 and finally the A38, it’s a pleasant route through some nice countryside. It also seems to us a very direct route avoiding the M25, M4 and M5. Stupidly we thought that the SatNav would think the same thing- but no! IT wanted to go up the A21 and join the motorways. So we turned it off. At Brighton, we reset it and this time it gave us the correct route. So we let it chatter away to us; “At. The. Next. Roundabout. Take the. Third. Exit.” Which was fine except we were moving slowly in traffic and it was happily chattering away to itself about 30 miles ahead. We weren’t even near Arundel and it was happily guiding us around the ring roads at Chichester!
“At the next roundabout take the third exit!”
“ What roundabout?”
“Take the Third exit”
“What bloody exit? There isn’t even a bloody roundabout!”
It got quite annoying, so we turned it off and decided to play extreme travel cricket instead.

Extreme Travel Cricket: The rules
Player 1 goes first. Every pub that you pass, you score points for the amount of legs indicated in the name of the pub. For example, The Queen Victoria Pub would give you two points. Queen Victoria; Two legs; two points. If the name is pluralized but doesn’t indicate the amount, then you must assume two of them. For example; The Pilgrims would indicate 2 pilgrims = 4 points. But if the pub was The Three Pilgrims you would get 6 points. If the pub name has no legs; such as the Queens Head or The Globe; then you get no points and lose your go. Player 1 continues to collect leg points until a pub with no points is seen and then it is player 2’s turn.
It was a good game but I never realised how many non-leg related pubs there are on the way to Plymouth. I won, even though my OH got 8 points in one go (Thanks, Coach and Horses!) The score was 16-14.

We got to the hotel at about 5pm (but the SatNav had got there at about 3pm- it was sitting on the bed asking what took us so long!) The room was lovely: Big room overlooking the Hoe. We got a sea view! Fantastic!
After settling in, we went to The Bank for dinner. (The Bank- No points) And I had a very filling mixed grill for ten pounds. Great food and great prices. And two pints of Lager for four pounds!
After dinner, it was time for bed. It had been a tiring day and we were knackered!

Weather: Lovely and Sunny
Breakfast: A yoghurt and a banana