Today was another beautiful day. We took the coastal route to Dartmouth, a lovely drive, part of which was along a causeway. Thank you, again, Marty for the recommendation. We pulled into the car park at Slapton in the middle of the causeway to have a look. A sign there indicated this was where they held D-Day rehearsals, which included bombardments. They took over the area, evacuating about 3,000 people and their livestock.

We arrived in Dartmouth, which was mobbed with tourists, and surprisingly we found a parking spot on the street. Of course once we were parked we realized it was a one-hour spot. A woman told us that there were also two-hour spots and a car park down through town and up the main thoroughfare. We walked down the hill to the town center to check it out. I wanted to take the river cruise up to Agatha Christie’s house. There were two choices, a one-hour cruise up past the house and back, or a cruise that let you off at the boathouse where we could get out and walk up to the house, go inside (it was a National Trust building) and come back on a later boat. The man selling the one-hour cruise said we would need four hours to go up to the house. I had read, and was also told by my niece, that it is a very strenuous uphill climb to the house. The man selling this package said it was a five-minute walk and admitted it was steep only after I questioned him. He also said it needn’t take four hours. I wasn’t sure I could believe him so we opted for choice #1. But first we had to move our car.

We walked up the hill, got the car, drove down through town and followed the sign to the car park. We thought we had missed the turn because it was quite far. Just when we were wondering if that was going to be the extent of our visit to Dartmouth, the car park appeared on our left. However, we couldn’t find a spot, even in the overflow lot and then really thought that was it. On our way out, though, Gord found one that must have just been vacated. We bought our ticket in the machine and only had to wait a few minutes for the bus into town. (I now know that, if we had persevered in St. Ives, we would have been able to make it work there as well. So no Barbara Hepworth this trip, but I’ll be sure to see as many of her sculptures as I can in London.)

The cruise on the River Dart was very pleasant, although we could barely see Greenway, Agatha Christie’s holiday home, up on the hill through the trees. Look closely at the photo below and you might catch a glimpse of the white house in the centre. Christie was known here by her married name, Mrs. Mallowan.

Other highlights of the cruise included a section of the river that was all forest, called Longwood, I believe, which was used in some 1970s television show that was set in the Amazon rainforest. They used inflatable crocodiles as part of the set. We passed the very impressive Britannia Royal Naval College building up on the hill and its training boat down in the water.

And there was a castle.

There is a steam train across the river from Dartmouth in Kingsware, but as much as we would have enjoyed it we decided there wasn’t enough time--we would have to allow time to get the ferry across and back. In hindsight we might have been able to do it. Instead, we went and had cream tea at the Angel Tea Rooms. I realized that we were leaving Devon tomorrow and this would be our last chance to have Devonshire clotted cream in Devon. We really could have shared one order because, although the menu says cream tea for one, it came with a large pot of tea and two scones, much more than one person needs.

We didn't drive the coastal route back to Salcombe because the alternate route made the most sense from the car park. We rested a bit before walking into the town centre for dinner at the Victoria Inn.

We’ve noticed a lot of children who seem to be vacationing with their grandparents. In fact, the couple who own our bed and breakfast have their grandchildren visiting right now for two weeks.

I’ve gotten more sun this trip than in the last five years combined. I guess I can stop taking my 2000 mg. of vitamin D!  

Favorite menu of the day (from the Victoria Inn):