Devon

Devon the English Riviera!

Our adventure starts like all adventures with a ton of planning. Devon is a pretty big part of England and it's Southwest of the Country. It's not as far as Cornwall but pretty darn close. It's a temperate climate and with some warm air hitting it there are lots of plants that you wouldn't believe could grow in this country. We decided to start our adventure on the South coast of Devon! Really we just wanted to pretend it would be warmer and more tropical since it's been so cold here.

On this trip we decided to check out the National Trusts cottages so we rented one so we could take Brian the dog along and have a good home base.  It was great! The cottage was so cute and we got a real taste of English cottage life. It had everything except for internet. =( But that was fine for the weekend.

The National Trust is a non-profit organization in this country that obtains large properties (usually from Wills) and then opens them to the public.  It became a common practice since the inheritances tax is so high that families couldn't keep with the up keep of a property.  These properties are huge! Like mansions or castles! And they are so amazing that this organization was started so that the houses wouldn't become ruins. Any way, it's a great way to see some neat places.

So South Devon... Is beautiful! It has coastal waters, cream tea's, seafood, and lots of beautiful people. We spent lots of our time hiking and walking to the coast on the first day. Just seeing the Ocean was amazing. In Dartmouth Bay we saw some dolphins making their way through the waters.  It was amazing!

The second day we hit the Dartmoor National park which is situated further in Devon. More on that in a later post.

Fun rich people houses....

Ickworth

So short post on this and I'll be all caught up! In the UK there are a bunch of memberships that you can get to go see places of interest around the whole country.  It's kinda like our National Park membership but instead of Parks (there are some parks) it's a lot of rich peoples houses.  We thought this would be a good membership to have since the locals do it mostly and it would be a good so when we want to get out with the baby we would have places to go see. So typically, we go on Sunday's right now and just take a day trip. Get a coffee, check out the rich guys house and gardens and do a lot of walking around.

Ickworth

So the rich family at Ickworth were generations of wealth and then when they got to the 6th and 7th generation it all fell apart.  Luckily the 5th generation knew his kids were screw up so he gave the house to the National Trust in his will.  But again with the British drama the 6th and 7th generation were locked up for drug and gun smuggling in the 60's.

Anglesey Abby

Anglesey Abby was purchased by a wealthy American (oil family). This place was once an Abby and was shut down until the wealthy American came along and fixed it all up and made it a real amazing house to keep his art collection. Inside is a tribute to the 1930's.  He also created all these gardens around the house. This picture above reminded me of the trees that line Central Park in NYC. A home away from home, I think.

And Mike said in our next house he is going to make something like this. He just needs to start collecting garden tchotchkes now. =)