Exeter and Stourhead

We spent couple of days in and around Exeter after leaving the Plymouth/Dartmouth region. Exeter Cathedral is lovely but I don't need to tell you more about English cathedrals. It rained and was cold and windy in Exeter - we visited the waterfront, a museum or two, and an exhibit on film and cinema.  Although none were particularly memorable, here is Jim trying on a sea creature hat at an exhibit of marine life at the museum.

At the waterfront were several boats badly in need of repairs. This one had been painted bright blue on the side facing away from the quay, but it was full of gaping holes...

Despite the very chilly weather and spitting rain, three guys were having fun climbing on and falling off a paddle board. The green craft on the right is a pedestrian ferry that runs across the narrow harbor on a cable pulled by the fellow in blue.

 Climbing on...

 Falling off. They did this over and over again - must've been freezing but they didn't seem to mind!

After leaving Exeter, we drove to our next lodging in Broad Chalke, near Stonehenge. On the way, we stopped at Stourhead. It's a 2,600 acre estate in the Wiltshire countryside that was owned and maintained by the Hoare family until 1946 when The National Trust received half the estate as a gift. There is a large mansion and extensive pathways through landscaped gardens and woodland, with a small lake at the center.

I don't know what kind of coniferous trees these are but they are massive, and when they move gently in a breeze, the sound is very calming.

Inside the little Gothic Cottage by the lake.

Jim is standing under the largest rhododendrons I've ever seen.

The mansion. The Hoares must have rattled around in it. They had only one son who died in his twenties in WWI. Very shortly before the estate was gifted to the National Trust, both elderly Henry and Alda Hoare died within hours of each other on the same day.

The entry arch

Next stop - Stonehenge!