Exeter

A city ‘as old as time itself’ – well almost.   

The Romans were here in 50AD and left a wall to remind us.

The Roman wall- still very much a part of the city

We were here today, with photographs to remind us 😂


Churches were part of the landscape in one form or other from 50AD and the cathedral was started in 1112, demolished, rebuilt and by 1315 became what is known as Exeter Cathedral 


And what a Cathedral. 
 Just stunning. Described as ‘an immaculate cathedral, luxurious, confident and mature’ it has the longest single continuous vault in Europe.  

The Vault ; approx 96m (315 ft)
Which makes it the longest continuous stone vault in Europe
A close up of the vaults and ‘bosses’ which lock the vaults in place
Each ‘boss’ weighs about one Tonne and depicts a different story – this one the murder of Thomas Beckett
Canopied tomb of Bishop Stafford (1419) still perfect
Bishop from 1280-still retains its paint

 

Exeter Astronomical Clock dated from 1484. The hole in bottom of door below Clock was cut out circa 1620 to provide access for Bishop’s cat to deter rats and mice 😂

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Bishop’s Throne is 18m (59 ft) tall. Made between 1312-1316, from Devon oak, it is held together by wooden pegs
Choir stalls with tip up seats carved in 13 century – the oldest set in England
14century Minstrels Gallery – 14 carved angels playing musical instruments

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The cathedral is just spectacular, beautiful, and full of history. Signs of Cromwell and his men still remain with the heads of many effigies hacked off by them. I could bore you with so many stories 😜 but won’t.

Looking down the Naive to the stone pulpitum (built 1317-1325)


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Exterior – amazing

Exeter is a large city, with a glorious mix of old (very old) and new (some very new) parts. The university ‘feels’ everywhere, and the city is thriving. Large areas exclude cars so walking and window shopping is relaxed and unstressed.    

And so it was that a rainy blustery English day led us to explore a lovely city, enjoy a wonderful meal overlooking the cathedral, a wander through some exciting shops – feeling very lucky 

Are we there yet?

I will, I assume, finally get to Heathrow.    
I feel like I’ve been travelling for weeks 

A full full flight, me at the window, not sitting but squeezing in. A charming gentleman the cause, very sociable when awake and very snorey when not. All the time he is large; awake some of the size, he contains, but asleep, well then the body relaxes, the legs spill onto mine and the arm rests disappear as his upper limb collapses onto ‘my side’ 😂
The only up side of this uncomfortable tedium is outside my window; snow capped beauty, and on my screen names of cities I’ve dreamed of visiting and some I didn’t even know existed:

Zagros mountains(where precisely are they?); Baku, Ervil, Baghdad, Tehran, Basrah, Tbilisi, Riga, Black Sea 

A good flight?

Can there in this modern age of flying, be such a thing as a good flight (assuming one travels in the back of the bus so to speak 😜)? 

 I think not. 
I remember when one dressed up smartly to fly, when security was just a word, not queues and queues of frustrated passengers in long lines being ‘processed’ by grumpy security people. (And being made to virtually strip- belts, watches, oops maybe it’s your shoes No? Well take your earrings off ). At the other end of this process is a fascinating scene of men and women reassembling themselves, wobbling trying to put shoes back on, lifting shirts often too high to thread belts back; dropping things as they get back into coats, scarves and hats.

It would all be very amusing if I wasn’t trying not to miss a flight. How did I get booked on a connecting flight with less than an hour between the two😩😩😩😩

But I digress because the first leg of this long haul was not too bad ( in the context of modern flying) and my ‘co traveller’ and I nodded hullo then dozed or dreamed most of the way.   

Talk, slim, French and ridiculously young (when did I start thinking everyone was ridiculously young?). I discovered she is a university lecturer in Holland and her partner the same, but in Melbourne. How the world is changing. 

 So she commutes.   

And knows the modern ways 😜😂

Which was wonderfully helpful 😃

She reminded me I could use the butterfly of my earring to take the SIM card out of my phone – which was fortunate as I had not brought my ‘thing’ with me.

On discovering how little time I had to connect flights, she led the way. Up you get and follow me was her instruction. 

And so I did, gratefully, as she pushed and hustled her way past passengers on the plane (can you imagine how popular we were😂). The advantage of height, beauty, French and confidence – me, I kept my head down and hung onto her bagpack so I could be part of her 😂😂😂.

Then off the plane, weaving in and out of passengers going wherever they were going and on to security. (Why security again? We remain in transit throughout 😩).  Which is where the undressing was taking place 😜

Her youthful long legs took it all in her stride, my somewhat shorter, and considerably older legs took a bit of a pounding and suddenly she was gone : I remain forever grateful to her

I made my connection and the journey continues, or perhaps I should say the waiting continues.   Having broken the 4 minute mile record, I now sit and wait and sit and wait to board 

But board this time, I will – just not sure when 😜