Brixham.
On one of our last weekends in London, Kate, Adrienne, Erin and I took a million hour bus ride to Brixham. There were lots of sheep and countryside along the way. One highlight was pigs in a field. I’ve only seen pigs in muddy farmyards, not spread across a field like pink sheep.
In Brixham, we were staying at Kate’s family friend Susan’s cottage. It was a truly lovely, lovely weekend. The place was tiiiny. Two small rooms, one on top of the other. There was a fireplace, and the front door was one of those that split into two.
Our first night, we went to dinner at this little place called the Poop Deck. The menu looked good, and as we climbed the stairs, we were instantly a thousand times more excited about our upcoming meal. The restaurant was on the top floor (third US style, second UK style), and hanging amongst the beams and rafters were fishing nets, star lanterns, and nets of little lights (like the kind meant to hang on bushes at Christmas). There was lots of cobalt blue, coral, yellow, and green. There was lots of exposed wood. I was in love.
A man and a boy were sitting at one end, at an area that looked mostly like a small bar. They were excited and surprised when we walked in (it was a very small place, there was only one other party of 2, and this was the first weekend they were opened for the season). We each ordered a drink, I don’t remember what I got, but it was good. The man encouraged us to get two orders of garlic bread, and we were very happy that we had when it was delivered. It was delicious.
For dinner, I had a Caesar salad and native prawns in garlic and oil (I think that’s what it was…) The salad was good, the prawns were truly wonderful. In fact, the prawns were so good that only half way through did I notice that the shells I was peeling off still had the eyes on them. (The restaurant had very low lighting, we were starved, and the prawns were delicious). After a moment to regain composure, I kept on eating them. Erin had monkfish, which I’d never had before, but it was good, and Kate and Adie had tuna nicoise, which I had also never had before, but it was delicious.
We had another round of drinks, I got some sort of fizzy peachy drink this time (house specialty), and the man brought this round complete with sparklers. It was only good times. He loved to chat and the 12 year old boy kept taking our orders and was great. They were sooo nice! We got some sort of blueberry souffle something or other for dessert, which was also delicious. We left full of wonderful, wonderful food, completely happy, and excited about a weekend away. The man let us know we were welcome to come back, even if just for drinks, and we said we hoped we would be the next night.
We walked around the bay and out onto the jetty. It was a beautiful night and we were happy. We went back to the cabin and had champagne some one had given Adrienne, wine, and made a fire - sort of. We went to bed early, and happy.
The next morning we had grapefruit for breakfast and trekked out for the day. We walked out on the jetty and laid blissfully in the sun for awhile. We had lunch outdoors on the bay. We visited the aquarium (1 pound admission I believe) … a sad, sad little place. We shopped all the funny little stores, had Devonshire cream tea (a must), and bought a kite and a soccer ball. We went back to the cabin and hung out outside, kicking around the ball, reading, having hot chocolate with Bailey’s when it started to get chilly.
That night, we went to the grocery store and bought fish and I think beans, and I don’t know what else, and it doesn’t matter… I made fish with lemon butter and cracker crumbs and it was a completely delicious meal. Later, we wandered down to town again and heard some one playing Bon Jovi covers acoustic in a pub. We ran into the man from the Poop Deck and had a chat. We walked around and saw memorials to local boys lost to the sea over the years. It was sad but somehow wonderful.
We went to bed fairly early again, and I opted not to get up in the morning and trek out to some hill, so I slept later and read Zelda when I woke up and picked things up around the cabin. It was really really nice, I was so relaxed. Sadly, we had to leave around lunch time, but what a wonderful place.
Brixham is a tiny fishing town in Devon, in South West England. It’s one of three towns that make up "the English Riviera." I’m pretty sure it’s the smallest of the three. It starts on a hill that sharply drops down to the bay and all up the side are rows upon rows of stucco cottages. It was gorgeous. I’ll have pictures posted soon. We were there before the tourist season had really begun, so we got to see the town in it’s off season state, which was cool. It’s difficult to explain it all, 2 months later … but what a wonderful place. It was such a good weekend. I was so … relaxed, and happy.
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