Devon

On Boxing Day we hopped in the car and headed a couple hours south to Devon.


On our way down, we swung by Stonehenge. It really just kind of pops out of nowhere when you're driving on the highway!


The next day, we started out with a walk with Peter Matthias, my Dad's friend and fellow architect, and our host for the weekend.



Devon is a series of green rolling hills dotted with sheep, and divided by narrow, winding roads.



And beautiful views of the English Channel.


And lots and lots and lots of mud. The Mathiases were kind enough to lend us a couple pairs of their Wellies for our trek.


Then we went to Dartmouth, a port town at the mouth of the Dart river (duh). After walking around the port and peeking into some shops, we went to lunch at Cherub. The little restaurant is housed by a building built circa 1380. That's right, 1-3-8-0. Old, European-style.


We then drove down to Dartmouth Castle, which, along with Kingswear Castle, makes the pair of forts that guards the port.



This tank was at a memorial near the coast. Apparently the allied forces practiced the D-Day invasion here, because this beach was thought to be very similar to Normandy. However, due to a mis-communication about protecting the coastline, German subs got in, and hundreds of American and British soldiers were killed. This was kept quiet until a scuba diver found this sunken tank, causing the government to release the details.


We ended the day with a drive along the coast for sunset.