The English Riviera or to everyone else - Torquay

Our next stop is the seaside town of Torquay. The English call it the English Riviera not quite sure why but we will see. Also not quite sure why we included this one in our itinerary apart from my interest in Agatha Christie.

We arrived around 11.30 and were able to get into our room straight  away which was good because they also had parking available on site which we have found is a bit of a rare thing in the UK. We have found that anywhere you  park in the UK is not free and is in a Park and Display car park. Some of these are quite expensive when you want to stay for awhile but I suppose that's just the way it is and you have to suck it up.

We leave our bags and go for a wander into Torquay which is about 15 minutes away. It is another lovely day but with a few clouds on the horizon. As we walked in it was obvious that this is another seaside town that gets absolutely packed in summertime. There are a lot of families walking around, on the beach and fishing in the harbour. While the sun is out it is very nice but when the wind picks up can be quite fresh.

The Marina at Torquay

Clock Tower in the middle of town around which a roundabout has been made.

We find somewhere for lunch and then have a walk around the city centre. As we are walking back we decide to visit Torre Abbey. What a great experience this was. After a coffee in the tearooms we venture inside to have a look around. We walked through the gatehouse with its Medieval looking entrance and castellations. The Abbey is surrounded by a lovely garden with plenty of places to sit and enjoy the sunshine which quite a lot of people are doing this afternoon.

Gatehouse of Torre Abbey

Front Entrance to the Abbey

As we make our way through the entrance there is a Medieval Undercroft which has a very good display of the history of the abbey in a short animation. It is interactive so you can jump to which ever part you want to. It has been done in a way that is easy for children to understand and go through as well as adults being informed as well.

The Abbey was founded in 1196 as a monastery and is now the best preserved Medieval monastery in all of Devon and Cornwall. But since 1662 until 1930 was in the hands of the Cary family who when the depression hit sold it to the Torbay Borough Council.

As you leave the Undercroft you move into the Abbey proper where the shop and payment area is. The guide on duty tells us how the Abbey is set out and says the best place to start is at the top with the 800 years exhibition. So that's where we start. This exhibition is amazing. It is full of interactive exhibits which you are in control of and again enough to keep the kids and adults alike interested. There was a time machine which started at 2014 and you could dial it back to any number of important events and how they affected the development of the Abbey. It has artefacts throughout the exhibit as well with attached information.

It also had an exhibit which was based around people who had lived in the area and had something to do with the Abbey particularly family members and you could listen to their stories. Very interesting. 

Another interesting one is the life like figure who actually looks like he is talking to you using a video concept. It was great! 

As we made our way down the levels there are various rooms with displays that are part of the history of the Abbey and also new exhibits of modern art. One of the most interesting is the Cary Dining Room where the table is set and at each place is a famous person's face that talks from the table, very interesting.

Cary Dining Room

As we went through there was an interesting aspect to every room. I made sure that when we left to go to the garden I talked to the guide on duty and expressed how impressed we were with the whole interpretation of the Abbey.

The garden is one where there are ruins of the original Abbey as well as the graves of monks who served there. The church itself is the ruins and you can easily walk around these ruins and there are interpretative signs telling you what you might have seen back in Medieval times. There is also one which marks the grave of William the Brewer who was the founder of the Abbey. An extremely interesting walk around.

Cloister

The grave of William the Brewer

The garden itself is very structured and includes one of the points on the Agatha Christie Mile the Potent Plants Collection. This is an interesting display as it was used in a number of her books and this is because at one stage of her life Agatha was a pharmacy dispenser and knew the potency of certain plants which she then used in plots in her books.

The plan of Agatha Christie's Potent Plants Display

The Potent Plants Garden

The garden was lovely and very relaxing to walk around.

We made our way back to our B&B to get ready for dinner. 

Our dinner was at another iconic Agatha Christie place in Torquay - the Grand Hotel. This is the place where Agatha spent her honeymoon with her first husband Archie Christie. The hotel still retains an Agatha Christie Suite. The dinner was in the main dining room and was very nice. An advantage was it wasn't far from our B&B.

The Grand Hotel Torquay

Tomorrow another full day is planned.