Thursday 26th August – Friday 3rd September

Our annual trip to Salcombe over the Bank Holiday week to meet and have a jolly time with some of the Tea Girls and other friends. We try to book the same flat from year to year, but people take their property off the holiday market and that has happened to our last property. So this year, we found something new …….. and very posh!

Thursday 26th August

As usual, as we are travelling around the Bank Holiday and are splitting the journey over two days. We made a stop at NT Tyntesfield https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/tyntesfield a glorious gothic revival house. We were too late to be able to go inside – a must for a return visit – but the exterior, gardens and grounds alone were stunning.

We moved on to our usual stop at Portishead. The Travelodge where we have stayed many times has been sold and is now an Ibis Budget https://all.accor.com/hotel/B8F3/index.en.shtml – they’ve re-furbished the reception area and the rooms. It’s fine.

Having almost missed out on dinner last year as we hadn’t booked anywhere, we had made a reservation at La Marina https://www.lamarinarestaurant.co.uk. I guess because of word Marina I thought it was going to be a seafood restaurant when in fact it was an Italian – lovely food, just not what I was expecting! It is positioned next to the enormous sea lock on the edge of the re-generated Portishead Marina.

Friday 27th August

Breakfast at The Posset Cup – a Wetherspoon https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/all-pubs/england/somerset/the-posset-cup-portishead – built a few years ago next to the hotel. With rather over-full stomachs, we rejoined the M5 and had a pretty easy journey down to Salcombe.

First order of business, a trip to North Sands and The Winking Prawn http://winkingprawngroup.co.uk/winking-prawn/ to meet up with the gang and to discover the very exciting news of an engagement – a proposal on one knee on a clifftop walk just a few minutes previously. Fabulous ring. Happy times. Weepy in a lovely way!

Later, Chilli night at one of the team’s rented homes and we only have a few yards to walk to get back to our new property. The interior feature spiral staircase down to the kitchen needs careful negotiation after a couple of drinks!

Saturday 28th August

Breakfast on the terrace – what a view.

As we have a larger property this year, with room to entertain, we are hosting a BBQ this evening. The day is happily spent shopping / prepping / catering / chilling.

The team arrive – 16 of us this year! With thanks to them for lots of help with the BBQ, pouring drinks and major clear up!

The lesson of the yellow plastic plates (second photo). We’ve had the yellow plates and matching yellow bowls for years and years. They live on top of a high cupboard from where I retrieved them before departure. Of course they had to be washed, dried and then spread out to really dry. After our evening the whole process was required all over again. I brought them home and immediately sent them to a charity shop – next time we’ll use good quality recyclable paper plates!

Sunday 29th August

Today, just a sunny, circular stroll past favourite Salcombe haunts.

Followed by Fajita night with the team.

Monday 30th August

Chill day – admiring the view, podcasting, knitting. Husband on a walk with the team.

Tuesday 31st August

Parking at Bolberry Down we made our way towards our regular haunt, the Ocean’s Restaurant https://oceansrestaurant.co.uk for elevenses, only to find it was closed due to a shortage of staff.

Elevenses-less, we walked our well-trodden path along the cliff top and down to Hope Cove, Husband suggesting he would return for the car while I sat and enjoyed the view. Sadly, Hope Cove was mostly ‘shut’, including both pubs and the Lobster Pot. Only the small store with a hot takeaway pasty service was open for lunch. It would seem the 2 day closures were due to Brexit/COVID-19 creating a shortage of staff. The Lobster Pot had put a nice notice up saying they need to give the staff they have got some time off so were closing for two days each week in order not to lose them. Pretty sad.

This evening we are missing out on the curry night and eating in.

Wednesday 1st September

We have unfinished business in Plymouth. We visited by train earlier in the year when we were staying at Looe, but were unable to get into the The Box https://www.theboxplymouth.com because we hadn’t booked! This time we are sorted. It was so worth the return visit. A lovely building and an interesting collection.

Lunch on the decking at the Pier Master’s House https://www.piermastershouse.com

On our way back to the car an elderly lady (later found to be bright and spritely) fell over right in front of us, knocking her head quite severely on the pavement. Husband and another guy carefully helped her up and, because of the knock to the head, some initial slight confusion and some blood, I called an ambulance. It took about 45 minutes for them to arrive by which time the lady was recovering nicely. It turned out that she had actually fallen twice, once tripping on a sleeping policeman as she crossed the road, getting straight up – perhaps too quickly – and then falling again. So nothing bad going on, just a trip. We waited while the ambulance checked her out and patched her up. Although she said she’d walk the half mile to get a bus(!) we insisted on driving her home. Lovely lady who had led such an interesting life.

Impromptu Engagement Party this evening. There was a Greek theme for reasons I can’t recall. Ouzo and Metaxa were drunk and by 2.00am things were getting a bit messy!!

Thursday 2nd September

A stroll into town today; a clear sign that Summer is at an end …….. there is a man with a ladder taking down the bunting.

Friday 3rd September

Our traditional last breakfast at Captain Morgan’s and it’s farewell to Salcombe. It’s been good, if a little weird. Quite difficult to eat out this year with the shortage of staff, plus some shops haven’t made it through the pandemic. Hopefully, things will have improved a little by next year.

It took almost 8 hours to drive home!!