Saturday 26th March 2022
The end of the annual leave year and a goodish wether forecast means time for a little railway trip holiday. I might have visited Exeter once long ago but I’d never stayed there so booked 3 nights at Jurys inn, being not too far from the railway stations, and an off peak return to St. James Park (Exeter). At Reading GWR was providing its usual Saturday menu of late-running trains and I could have caught the delayed service prior to that on which i had a seat booked. I thought it might be a bit crowded so let it go which turned out to be a mistake really since the 1230 departure hadn’t even left Paddington by the time it was supposed to have reached Reading and we all spent a windy hour on platform 7 wondering if it would turn up or be cancelled. It turned up about 27 minutes late and everyone piled on board and off to Exeter St. Davids I went, arriving 30 minutes later than expected. This would have meant a longish wait for a connection however a late-running train to St. James Park turned up after a few minutes thus getting me to my final destination 29 minutes late and alas only eligible for the lowest Delay Repay compensation band.
I hadn’t made the mental connection between St. James Park and Exeter City’s football stadium and as it turned out they were at home to Stevenage that afternoon but by the time I got there the crowds were all inside and cheering loudly - Exeter won 2-1 - so that was an advantage. On the other hand there were two dozy women who suddenly decided that they were on the wrong train, having been told they’d need to get off at SJP and catch the following one instead decided to stand in the doorway and have a prolonged discussion about it so that everyone else had to struggle to get past them and onto the platform. As the train pulled out I realised that somewhere in the scrum I’d dropped my hat :-( I’ve just jumped through the hoops to register it with GWR lost property which surprise, surprise involves creating an account with some hitherto unknown third party that they’ve contracted out to.
Anyway, I found the hotel and in spite of the 1600hrs check in time specified on the booking, which seemed unusual to me, they let me in just after 3 o’clock and I was able to get my feet up and a brew on.
Suitably refreshed and no longer dragging a large holdall about I went off to explore Exeter.
Having been heavily bombed during the war in the 1940s Exeter has some fine examples of post-war buildings in the city centre and unlike some other places they haven’t yet been demolished and replaced with a shiny, USAnian style, privatised shopping mall. Also they appear to have been kept in a good state of repair - or perhaps refurbished?
It’s a fair walk down to the Quay but that’s where much of the action is early on a Saturday evening when it’s sunny. I went for a walk up and down the banks of the Exe and then headed back up towards the city centre to find a pub where I could get near the bar to buy a beer (The Ship) and not being able to make up my mind where to go for dinner did the obvious and got fish and chips and sat on the green outside the cathedral.
Then back to the hotel for a couple of beers and some interesting conversations in the bar :-)
Part 2 will follow, Exmouth, sunshine, a beach, and a rusty pole.
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