Visiting the English Riviera

Torbay has, since Victorian times, claimed the name 'The English Riveria' to compare itself and its summer charm with that of The French Riveria. Well, St. Tropez, Cannes and Antibes it is not, but on a sunny day with temperatures at a consistant 23C and rising to 24C later in the afternoon, it is a great place to visit.

Morning

My body clock woke me at 5.30am again, so I got up and wrote the first of the blog posts I composed yesterday, then had breakfast.

With Drew up at 7am and having time for a shower, shave and toothbrushing (in exactly the opposite order from which I typed them!!) we were ready for today's journey.  

Travel to Torbay

We left Exmouth at 9:50am and arrived at the Car Park in Torre, the upper town from which Torquay derives its name. This is the route we took, an easy drive:

Torquay's History

Torquay's name derives from the town of Torre, which is up the hill above the current town centre. Torre's name derived from a Tor which was at the centre of the emerging town. It was a thriving Saxon village and in Norman times an Abbey, Torre Abbey, was built beside it. With the need of fish, for Fridays, and the whole of Lent and most of Advent, the monks saw the opportunity of building a Fishing Quay on land below the Abbey. Gradually the Quay became more important than the Town and Abbey and the town of Torquay, now encompassing the original area of Torre, was created. 

It began to grow in the era of the Napoleonic Wars when it became a holiday destination. Wealthy English people suddenly found themselves unable to visit continental Europe so looked to the south coast of England instead. There are records from 1794 showing the town was expanding to welcome the visitors. 

The elite visitors were joined in the 1840s by a wider segment of the population when Torre got its first railway station in 1848 and larger numbers started to arrive, especially with the establishment of a fortnight's holiday in factories and mines around the country. 

This Pathe News film shows images of Torquay and its sister towns in the 1960s.

Torquay Today

Torquay today is a great mix of the old and the new. On the sea front the Victorian Fountain forms a forwground for a modern Big Wheel. 

The harbour is filled with boats from small dingies to full sized motor crusiers.  

The town also acknowledges that it has lots of elderly visititors and residents. With handy Bay Walks signs in the pavement of the promenade showing how far it is from place to place for those planning a walk. 

Some of the older features of the town are still there too. The British desire to toast themselves to a cinder on a sandy beach are clearly in evidence. The large numbers of families doing this in the picture below obviously knew they were in for a time limited experience. As, on our return some hours later, the sea was all the way up to the sea wall with no sign of the beach!

The gaudy and glitzy side of the town are shown in the signs and images of the fair rides. 

While the genteel and comfortable side of the resort is shown in the Victorian grandeur of the Grand Hotel. 

All complemented by some lovely views of the bay with the sun beating down upon it.

As we continued to walk along the front we were amused by this, very unhelpful, sign for pedestrians. 

Footpath closed seek alternative route, without any hint if there is an alternative route, and if so where it might be!! I've spent many holidays in the USA laughing at road signs that means something different in US English from the British version, but this sign doesn't work well in any versions of the language. But it was still fun. And with views like those below to distract us, we didn't really care and managed to find our way around!

At this point Drew said: "If we don't turn around soon we'll end up walking to Paignton." Well this was an accurate assumption as 100 meteres later around the next corner we had come to this sign:

In Paignton the coastal path isn't a Promenade, but much more like a traditional pathway. It still provided yet more opportunties for views of the bay.

and of the many people who were here to worship the sun and braise their bare skin. 

Paignton is a much more rough and ready town than Torquay, but is equally busy with tourists and adventure golf, what we used to call crazy golf, and all types of entertainment and amusements for young and old. 

Paignton even has its own operational Steam Engine, which we saw on the platform as we walked past the station. 

Having walked just over five miles, we decided not to walk back today. So caught the Number 12 bus back to Torquay, indeed the bus went all the way to Torre and stopped two streets away from the place where our car was parked. 

Brixham

We drove the 11 miles from Torre to Brixham around the Torbay bypass. 

Arriving in Brixham at 2:30pm. Brixham, though part of Torbay, feels so different from Torquay or Paignton. While it has its touristy features - including a Welsh Shop and a Tea Shop called Liberty 

it is still a working fishing port. Indeed it is the most important fishing port in England and Wales when measured by the value of catch landed, note value not volume, that prize goes to Newlyn in Cornwell (both exceeded by Peterhead, Scotland, hence the careful mention of England and Wales in the stats above).

Brixham is also the home of the Golden Hind, captained by Francis Drake, the first ship from this country to circumnavigate the world.  

Brixham has a more contentious claim to fame, depending on your reading of British History. It was the site where the Dutch Prince, William of Orange, landed to begin (from one perspective) the Glorious Revolution or (from the alternative perspective) the foreign invasion supported by a coup by the protestant ruling classes. Whatever the politics, this is where the future King William set foot on British soil.  

Having completed our visit and finding Brixham our favourite part of Torbay, we returned to Exmouth arriving at 4.30pm.

Dinner

We left the house for dinner at 6:30pm. We headed down to Exmouth with the list of possible eating places and a plan to whittle the seven we had still not visited on my original list before travelling by seeing which were open on a Sunday. 

Two met that criterion and of them both the Namaste Himalaya Restuarant had the most interesting menu. So, we went in and say in the sunny restaurant.

Thankfully the sun soon went down below the roof line of the Pilot Inn opposite, so I wasn't bathed in so much sun for the whole meal.

The menu seems to be Indian food with Nepalese specials as most of the menu would be familiar to anyone who has eaten in an Indian Restaurant though Drew felt something was missing [Co-pilot's note: NO GOAT]. However, the owner and the waitress we met were both Nepalese and the food we choose was from the Nepali section of the menu. 

We began with the Mixed Poppadum Basket served with the Namaste Himalaya Special Chutney Tray. The poppadum were a mix of plain and spiced, both really nicely cooked. 

The chutney tray had a variety from those I've tasted before, and a good one. As well as the delicious Lime Chutney, the, to sweet for me, Mango Chutney and the mild Mint Chutney there was a delicious, finly sliced, mix of vegetables.  

Here is a close up of the delightful vegetables:

For starters Drew opted for Mughlai, Seekh Kebab, cooked in the Tandoor on metal skewers making the meat cook all the way through.

I opted for another Nepalese special the Himali Chicken Choila. The Choila was spicy, but flavoursome. The spices were well mixed so you could pick out the cumin, fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds and little hot chilles, while they combined to make a tasty and inviting whole. 

For mains we had two similar dishes as each other, one with lamb the other with chicken. These are called Khasi Ko Masu and Kukura Ko Masu. 

I could pick out flavours of bay, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, coriander, cumin, turmeric, ginger, garlic and tomatoes, but I think there were other flavours there too – whatever they were they were zingy and delicious. 

We eat the Ko Masu with plain rice (Drew) and pilau rice (Haydn).

and Keema Naan (Haydn) and Cheese Naan (Drew) both Naans were soft and fluffy, with no hint of fattiness. I have had Naan bread where I've need cuffs to stop the oil dribbling down my arms as I eat it, these were the opposite of that and delicious.

There were no desserts on offer, that we can see, but Drew was grateful for the two little chocolates that came with the bill.

We walked back up to the house arriving back at 9pm. Today's walking came to 7.9 miles and 19,000 steps. 

We put the car on to charge at 9:05pm we had done 75.7 miles so have used 59% and have an estimated distance of 56 miles left.

Having loaded up today's photos we went to bed at 11am.

[Co-pilot's addendum: I, dear readers, and Captain Jack, think that Mr. B deserves a special treat for managing to avoid reference in this entire blog post to a certain British TV sitcom classic based in this town. "Hay demasiada mantequilla en esos platos."]