2May2009: Day 341: English Riviera

Today we packed up and went to South West England. It is called the English Riviera, to compete with the French, I think, and probably to try and stop so many English from going over there. Anyways, we stayed at a Holiday Inn in Exeter but unfortunately, we were stuck in traffic for a couple of hours with everyone else in England and we eventually made it to the hotel at 3:00 in the afternoon. The plan today was to just go into downtown Exeter and see the Cathedral there, so that is what we did.

But first, we had to get Makenna out of the bathroom that she locked herself in! When we got to the hotel room, she went into the bathroom, shut the door and locked it. I was nervous about what we’d have to do to get her out and I was asking her repeatedly to try and unlock it but she just kept playing with the door handle. She wasn’t getting the idea that she had to turn the knob above it again to get out. Luckily I looked and noticed that all I needed was a thin object to turn it from our side and found a small key I had and it worked. We are now keeping a more vigilant eye on her anytime she goes in there.

The Cathedral was the most worn Cathedral we have seen with most of its outside features well worn away by ages of weathering. Inside the architecture was very amazing. The Cathedral boasts the longest unbroken stretch of Gothic vaulting in the world. The entire length of the Cathedral is vaulted arches with carved sections where the arches meet.

We walked around the Cathedral for about an hour and we were then escorted out as it was closing. One other interesting feature was the astronomical clock that was built prior to Copernicus and the understanding that the earth wasn’t the center of the universe. It showed the time the sun and moon would set and rise. There was some great organ music going on as I think the Organist was practicing during our visit. There were also these really big organ pipes that you could go up to and as the guy was playing the organ, you could feel the air coming out of some of the pipes.

We walked around Exeter for a little while trying to find a place to eat. Makenna of course wanted Chicken nuggets and there was a McDonald’s and we really should have just got her them as she was quite tired, but we saw a Pizza Express and Teri wanted to go there. Actually, she wanted to go to Nando’s, which is a different chain over here that serves Chicken, so we got in the place and she looked at the menu and no chicken nuggets.

We should have left right then, but we like torture…and…we weren’t denied. Makenna was a monster…she didn’t listen, she just wanted to play with the flowers on the tables. I don’t think there was anything she ate though we got her some chicken (not fried and fingered), but she didn’t like it. We decided to deny her the ice cream desert which came with the meal and I’m glad we did. I drank some of the “cappuccino” (warm foamy milk – no coffee) and found a piece of glass in it. I think it was because someone dropped glass earlier and it must have sent the piece flying. I told them about it and told them that they should really wipe out their cups before they use them. I could have blown up, but chose to just tell them to don’t let it happen again. Makenna and Teri were waiting outside and this was the slowest service EVER! The food came quickly, but it took forever for them to take our order, they were just sitting around. It also took them forever to get us the bill…they would stop by and then we would ask them for something and 10 minutes later they would return. Very slow.

After that we packed it in a went back to the Hotel. Makenna would not stay in bed, so Teri and I got into bed and shutoff the lights. We ended up falling asleep and it was only 8:00. She wears us out.