The English Riviera

Simon gave a talk at the University of Exeter on Wednesday, so we took the opportunity to make it an extended stay until Saturday. As soon as we got off the plane, we could tell that we weren't in Scotland anymore.... It was at least 2 degrees C hotter than Edinburgh. It was down right sweltering! Marius behaved pretty well on the plane, but all of the traveling does throw him off of his napping schedule, so he had several crying spells every day of our trip. A screaming baby is not my favorite thing to hear, so I was a little stressed out at times. But it really was a great trip.

The weather was wonderful, the scenery quintessential UK - complete with lots of sheep and one lane roads with ten foot tall hedges, and the company was superb. On Friday we drove around Dartmouth and south Devon, which is also known as the English Riviera. The coastline did remind me a little of Santa Barbara, the California Riviera, with the cliffs and fog. The little towns in Devon were all really cute. But perhaps better than getting to wear a t-shirt without a jacket, was getting to have lots of adult conversation - such an under appreciated thing until you stop having it! It was really nice to meet and talk with Fiona and Katie, two women whose husbands work at the University. We stayed with Fiona, her husband and two lovely children. They have such a beautiful house and garden. It made me long for our yard in Tallahassee, and a bit depressed that we'll never be able to afford that much land in Edinburgh. Unless I win the lotto, which I keep meaning to start playing!!
Today was supposed to be our day to just walk around Exeter and see the cathedral before we headed back to Edinburgh. The plan was to go to Katie and her husband's place and use that as a home base while they were off with the kids on a fun field trip with Fiona and her family. We were supposed to just lock the door and put the key in her mail slot. Sounds easy enough right? Well..... Perhaps we were just dim and couldn't figure out how to use the key? But our front door has a crazy lock (you have to twist the key while pulling up on the lever handle at a 45 degree angle) and we figured that out by ourselves, so you'd think we could handle this one... We didn't have anyone's cell phone numbers, so I pulled a MacGyver and put two hairbands together to keep the door from swinging open. We still have not heard from Katie or her hubby, so we're hoping that their place is OK. Yikes! How hard is it to figure out a door lock? Perhaps it just broke? That's all we could figure out, because we both spent about an hour fiddling with the thing. So, needless to say we didn't go out and see Exeter. Oh well, next time right?