The Living Coasts of Torquay

A town near Exeter, known as Torquay, reportedly has quite an impressive aviary, so Will and I set out to see it today. Our train ride took around 45 minutes and was filled with beautiful views of water and countryside. 

The aviary is about a 25 minute walk from Torquay's train station, so we were able to see a lot of other interesting sights on our walk to it, including the city's beautiful beach, Torre Abbey Gardens, and Princess Gardens. We even saw some workers scaling the side of a cliff. 

By the time we reached the aviary, we were really hungry, so we stopped at a pub called The Tudor Rose for lunch. Will ordered soup and a roll, and I had a BLT. I had forgotten that the British idea of bacon is more like Canadian bacon than American bacon- a mistake that I hope I will not repeat. Nevertheless, my sandwich wasn't bad for a ham sandwich- it just wasn't what I was expecting. 

After lunch, we finally made it to the aviary, which is called Living Coasts. The exhibits began with a children's film on the extinction of a great auk, in which the last two great auks in existence are named Gertrude and Gabriel. After they are killed, Gabriel comes back as "the auk angel Gabriel" and explains to the hunter that he should have taken them to Living Coasts rather than killing them. Needless to say, we found this film underwhelming, though it is probably reasonably effective at helping children understand the purpose of the aviary and its breeding program.

 

The rest of the aviary, however, was quite enjoyable. It contained a variety of different birds, including penguins and puffins. Some of the birds were free-flying, while others were restricted to enclosures.

The penguins' enclosure was particularly interesting, because it was deliberately designed so that the penguins can get out and walk around if they wish. In fact, the penguins have two different play areas which are separated by a walkway that runs right across the humans' sidewalk. The barriers are designed to keep people out rather than penguins in! When we walked by the habitat the first time, the penguins showed little interest in venturing out. However, when we returned at feeding time, quite a few penguins came out to get food and to visit the other play area. 

In addition to birds and plant life, Living Coasts has two newly acquired South American seals. While we were there, one of the seals spent the entire time sunning itself on a rock, while the other frolicked in the water. 

Living Coasts also has numerous interactive children's learning areas, which include games and other activities. Will particularly liked the climbing wall. From is aviary, it is also possible to get a great view of Tor Bay. 

After leaving Living Coasts, Will and I roamed around for a couple of hours further exploring the city. Since today is "Red Nose Day," a fundraising day for the charity Comic Relief (whose slogan is "Do something funny for money"), we saw several money-raising efforts. One shop we visited provided snacks in exchange for donations to Comic Relief, and some of the snacks had little "red noses"! We also saw an old ocean mine and a gorgeous Anglican Church, visited the marina, and drank a milkshake at a local coffee shop, "Le Petit Gourmet". Surprisingly, here, a milkshake does not necessarily contain ice cream and may simply be flavored milk. Fortunately, we were warned of this in advance and were able to order a "super shake" which did contain ice cream. However, the ice cream was not blended into the milk, so it could better be described as a "milk float" than an American-style milkshake. It still tasted good, though, and it made for an interesting cultural observation. 

Flower Arranging

Today, my schedule once again allowed me to attend Global Gathering.  Although the crowd was smaller than it often is, several people came for the first time, including a Spanish lady and her daughter. Our activity was led by a British lady named Lucy, who demonstrated flower arranging. Her young son, Freddie, came with her, and he seemed to enjoy her demonstration, despite wanting her to pay more attention to him. After someone handed him a snack and something to color, his mom was able to precede without further interruption.

Lucy's arrangements were quite different than what I was expecting. One was a hand-tied bouquet, and the other was a centerpiece consisting of a candle surrounded by flowers and greenery. For the centerpiece, she used a style called blocking, which meant that she used four different plants and did not mix them together. Thus, there were four distinct patches of color. The candle was held in place with toothpicks, something that all of us in attendance found quite clever. 

When making the hand-tied bouquet, she explained the importance of planning and getting everything ready before starting, since one has only a single free hand to use after beginning. She told us that the proper way a make the bouquet is to place flowers between one's thumb and index finger one at a time, and then turn all of the flowers each time a new one is added. This helps the arrangement keep its shape. She also showed us how to add flowers to fill in gaps at the end, and then how to tie the final bouquet. Although I was not a huge fan of the finished product, I definitely learned some things from her demonstration. 

Around the Close

Today, we (finally) took the Around the Close tour. At first, it was just us and the tour guide. Actually, the tour guide almost missed us altogether. She was roaming around the area where tours assemble, and there were a lot of people around, but none appeared to be interested in a tour. I had to actually stop her and say "Hey, are you doing a tour this afternoon?" to keep her from walking off. However, once she realized she had a couple of people to tour, she assembled us and began the tour. Because we confirmed that we had both been on a tour (several) before, she skipped the obligatory disclaimer of responsibility and the "Potted History of Exeter." Shortly after discussing the development of the Cathedral Close (the bit about the murder of a cleric from the Catacombs tour), she found that she had a third person lingering at the rear of the group. The guide apologized profusely to her new group member, and the three of us followed our guide around the rest of the tour.

After completing the introduction to the Close and a quick discussion of Hooker's statue, we proceeded, literally, around the Close. We began with the Royal Clarence Hotel, then proceeded to Mol's Coffee Shop (which, it turns out, is named after an artist named Mol, who once had a studio there) and then along to the ecclesiastical homes along the east side of the Close. We, once again, had the opportunity to walk into the courtyard at the Minister of Music's house, only this time we were allowed to walk into the rear portion of the courtyard. Incidentally, in the Dean's House window, we were able to see one of the Dean's children, who waved at us before darting away from the window. We also met one of the Dean's cats, who was roaming about the Close near the East Gate.

After we saw the East Gate, we proceeded back up into the Close to the north side of the cathedral, and discussed several aspects of the cathedral (also covered in the Heart of Exeter tour, among others). As we worked our way around the front of the cathedral, we found out that the statue of Peter at the very top of the front is actually well over six feet tall. He doesn't look it from the ground, but apparently he's about twice life size! While in front of the cathedral, we discussed the demolition of St. Mary Major in the 1970s (a Victorian church on the site of an old Saxon church) and the discovery of the old Roman Baths under the church. The baths in Exeter are reportedly larger than the ones in Bath; however, the Exeter City Council didn't have enough money in the 1970s to excavate them (as no one in the UK had any money in the 1970s), and the baths were re-covered with sand, as they remain today. Several proposals have been floated for partial excavation that could be covered with glass to be viewable from the open space at the cathedral's West Front.

From the West Front, we moved around to the south courtyard of the cathedral, and discussed the development of the cloisters there. The Exeter Cathedral, unlike most cathedrals, was not developed as the abbey of a religious order. Instead, the cloisters were built as housing for members of the cathedral clergy, which is how they survived the reign of Henry VIII. However, they did not survive the reign of Cromwell, and were demolished in the 1650s. Proposals to rebuild them in the ensuing 450 years have never been realized, although they were almost rebuilt during the repair of the bomb damage to the south side of the cathedral after World War II. 

After the south side of the cathedral, we moved toward the west side of the Close, passing the old Deanery and then passing through the Close's West Gate (not to be confused with the City's West Gate) into South Street, which forms the west side of the Close. We worked our way back up (north) on South Street, passing several items of note (Kentucky Fried Chicken, Oxfam, the cathedral school, etc) before returning to the close through the gate at the top of South Street. This was the end of the tour. We went on to Edinburgh Woolen Mill, and then attempted to get ice cream at McDonalds, but their ice cream machine was still out of order! Maybe another day . . .

The Yeomen of the Guard

Tonight, Will and I ate at the Impy and then went to see "The Yeomen of the Guard" at the Northcott Theatre. In many ways, this was the perfect British outing: eating at a typical British pub and going to a classic British musical. At the pub, we ate three bean chili with french fries and rice and shared some mint chocolate ice cream for dessert. Afterwards, we hiked up the hill to the theatre and collected our tickets, which we got for free under the "under 26 free tickets program." We got really good seats, in the center and only about five rows back from the stage.

The play was put on by the university's Gilbert and Sullivan Society, and it was a really enjoyable experience.  The play itself is a typical Gilbert and Sullivan production, filled with sudden romance and hidden identity. Though there were numerous flaws in the acting and music, and the performance did not rise to the level of professionalism of the plays put on by The University of Alabama's theater department, there were no forgotten lines or major problems with clarity of spoken or sung words. The worst bit of the performance, unfortunately, was the overture. The orchestra clearly had not practiced it as much as they should have, and it brought the play to a shaky start. Nevertheless, the performance quickly recovered when the acting began, and the set and costumes were great. During the intermission, a few of the yeomen mingled with the crowd, so we got to see their costumes really close up. 

I am quite glad that we were able to go, and I hope we will make it to a few more plays before leaving the country.

Plymouth

Today, we went to Plymouth. We attempted to go to the aquarium. Sadly, it was closed.

We did make it to the Mayflower Steps. We went to both the officially recognized ones, which are about 100 feet from the location of the originals, and the original ones, which are now under the pub where we had lunch. As the menu says, the best guess for the proper location of where the Pilgrims departed from is "under the ladies toilet."

We also went to the Mayflower museum at the Visitors' Centre. We watched a short film about Plymouth first. We had some technical difficulties with it (apparently, they had forgotten to turn the projector on this morning!), but eventually everything worked as planned. We then went into the next part of the museum, which consisted of Mayflower exhibits. The most notable part were two items near each other which stated that we really don't know what the Mayflower looked like, but here is our best guess, and "this is the Mayflower II, an exact replica of the original." Try to reconcile that!

We also stopped into several shops in Plymouth, including the local Edinburgh Woolen Mill. We searched for the local Build-a-Bear, but we were unable to locate it. We did, however, find the local Sports World. We will be returning to Plymouth in a few weeks to try the aquarium again. Hopefully, it will be open this time!

We also saw several places at the Plymouth Hoe. The first thing we saw was the local lighthouse, Smeaton's Tower. It was originally built in 1759 about 14 miles south of its present location, but was relocated in full in 1877. It now stands just past the Plymouth Royal Citadel, a fortress built during the reign of Charles II (r. 1660-1685). The Citadel was officially built to defend the port of Plymouth in light of the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1664-1667), but was built in such a way that the guns could fire on the town, which had supported Parliament in the Civil War, a subject about which Charles understandably held a bit of a grudge. It is still used by the British Army today.

Beyond the lighthouse and Royal Citadel, there are a series of terraces built on the seacoast (a mix of beach and cliffs) between the 1830s and 1890s. At the end of the small harbour formed by the terraces, there is a public swimming pool known as the Tinside Pool, which was built in 1935. The Tinside Pool is still closed for the winter; however, it will be open from May to September. It was closed in 1992 because it was literally falling apart, but it became a Grade II Listed Building (the lowest of the three grades of historic buildings in England) in 1998 and re-opened after a major renovation in 2005. Interestingly, it is built on the site from which Drake, according to legend, sailed off to fight the Spanish Armada in 1588. Like most legends, this one probably didn't happen. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say he took the five minute walk back down to the main harbour, where he set out to fight the Spanish.

Fashion Show

Tonight, I went to Mint Methodist Church's "Off the Peg" Fashion Show, a fundraiser for the church's on-going building project. I wanted Will to go with me, but he had an on-campus event to attend, so we each headed our separate ways for the evening. Before parting ways, though, the two of us ate an early supper at the Chaucer's pub on the High Street. We have wanted to eat there ever since we first spotted it, and there is a 2-for-1 special on fajitas on Wednesdays, so we thought this was the perfect opportunity to check it out. The food was absolutely excellent, though the normal prices are fairly steep. We will definitely eat there again, though probably only when they are having a similar special. 

After supper, I made my way over to the Mint, and Will headed to campus. I got there a bit early, so I killed time by looking at the various shops on Fore Street. Since it was after 6 pm, nearly everything was closed. Only a small grocery store and a gaming hall were open. The doors opened for the Fashion Show at 7 pm, but when I got there, the only people besides the Mint volunteers who had arrived were Kirsty and Joe Mottram, a young married couple who have just moved to Exeter from Leeds. I am always glad to see them. 

Within a few minutes, numerous other ladies began to arrive. I say "ladies," because with the exception of Joe and one other male audience member, the only men there that night were Mint volunteers. Before the show began, there was time to look at al the articles of clothing which were for sale and to get some tea or coffee and cookies. 

The show itself began around 7:30 pm, and it was quite amusing. The "models" were members of the church, most of whom were dressed in clothing which was somewhat different from what they would normally wear. The commentator told us about each item of clothing, including its cost at the show and its normal in-store price. The items came from a variety of different shops, including some prominent High Street shops, but were all quite reasonably priced. The ladies in the show did a very nice job modelling the clothing. 

After the show, I stayed an talked with Kirsty and Job for a while until it was time for them to catch their train back to Dawlish. Though the fashion show was different from the type of events I usually enjoy, I had a good time and was quite glad to have gone.