And it was all Storm Dennis’ fault!

I had purchased all-day tickets on the train to Exmouth, only 30 minutes from Exeter, about two weeks ago, before we knew that Storm Dennis was going to be causing serious havoc. I had seen some beautiful images of Exmouth and thought Mick and I should take a look. The image below is one of the photos that enticed me.

Knowing full well the winter images would be very different, I thought it would be worth taking a look. But we actually did not get a chance to make a comparison.

The rain was falling heavily, and the 20 minute walk from town to the beach resulted in one of us getting very wet.

Mick did not have a proper raincoat, and he was starting to doubt the wisdom of us venturing out on a day such as this. When I tried to get a photo of the beach, even my phone was damp, but Mick and I were amazed to see people strolling along the beach while it rained ‘cats and dogs’.

 

I have done absolutely nothing to enhance (or destroy) this photo!! And those stick-like objects are (mostly) people.

Mick and I had to get a taxi back from the beach to the railway station before catching a much earlier train back to Exeter. We had decided to have lunch in Exeter at one of the many pubs we had walked past on our way to catch the train at Exeter Central.

And this is where the pub crawl started….. But it is not quite what you think!

We visited these three pubs one after the other, only to be told there was “no room at the inn”! Sunday lunch time was obviously popular.

However, we hit the jackpot on our fourth attempt at The Black Horse.

At first we were not sure if the pub was serving food because there was no-one there. But, not only was it serving lunch, it was offering all-day breakfast for the cheapest price we have ever encountered.

A full breakfast for £3.49 plus a coffee for £1 extra. Perfect. Mick decided to skip the coffee and try one of the ciders on tap.

He had a still cider and peri called Crazy Goat (ABV 6.8%) and loved it. It was so good that we have decided we will return here for brunch at least once before we depart Exeter.

The Black Horse is directly opposite our favourite bar from our first visit to Exeter.

After a few hours rest, Mick and I headed out for a proper pub crawl, and our first port of call was The Pursuit of Hoppiness.

Mick ordered a Holy Hand Grenade (at ABV 6%) and I loved the colour and the taste as well.  It looked like a fruit smoothie. I enjoyed a glass of Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, which cost 50 pence less than Mick’s beer (at £6).

The crowd here was an interesting mix of old and young, with one fellow ordering himself three beers at a time and he appeared to making notes about what he was drinking. Either he has a serious problem or he was a reviewer, or craft beer enthusiast.

But as with pub crawls, even though we loved this place, we had to move on. And across the road and up the street a little way was our next destination.

It was a sports bar – with enormous television screens everywhere and live soccer showing. Funnily enough, there were very few people there.  Mick ordered a Guinness here and I had a red wine that was deliciously smooth, from Argentina.

We sat in this ridiculously decorated area and wished we were still across the road.

But as soon as these were finished, we moved on to our final pub, closer to where we were going to have dinner. (We had eaten a beaut Thai meal the night before and we wanted to go back to try some more items on their menu.)

Talk about ‘chalk and cheese’.

Mick had decided he did not want any more beer, and approached the barmaid to ask what sort of red wine the pub had on offer.

Her reply was gorgeous – she said they had “shizam or merlotte”, and added she could not find a bottle of the shizam at the moment – obviously she was not a wine drinker. With little option, Mick ordered us each a merlot.

Here we met a few locals – like this one depicted in the photo. Our table was right beside this machine.

Then there was this other guy who was a walker – he loved walking on the moors and so we had a lot to talk about with our new-found knowledge of Dartmoor National Park.

Once our wines were finished it was time to walk to our restaurant. But sadly, being Sunday night the one we wanted to eat in was closed.

So instead of Thai we had Chinese.

It was one of those restaurants where you used a plastic coated menu and highlighted your choices. But having said that – we did enjoy our choices.