Well, good evening.
Tonight I will start on the details of each day of our trip. Because we wanted to maximize our BritRail pass, we traveled by train EVERYDAY except for the Sunday before we left. In other words, we used our 15-day pass for 13 days; great bang for the buck, yes?
So our first full day in England, we opted to travel close to our England-home of Paignton. It turns out (well, I knew ahead of time of course) that the rail station in Paignton is also home to an authentic steam train, a train that heads south out of Paignton and stops at Greenway Halt, the stop for Agatha Christie’s vacation home, Greenway. Further, the train continues south to Kingswear, directly across the River Dart from Dartmouth.
Our Steam Train. The engine’s name is Hercules!
Greenway Halt – a short walk (uphill and then along a road) to Greenway
Dartmouth (with the Royal Naval College up on the hill)
Maggie and I both love Agatha Christie, especially her Hercule Poirot stories. One of her HP novels, Dead Man’s Folly, is set at Greenway and uses her boat house as a key feature of the overall mystery. Reading the mystery (on my Kindle) while watching the scenery fly by was pretty darn awesome!
Reading Dead Man’s Folly in the boathouse she used in her story.
From Greenway’s front driveway looking down on the River Dart
We had so much fun, touring thru the house. You start in the front hall, with a quick overview from a volunteer docent … than you are given a binder filled with information about what you are seeing as you traverse the house, on your own and as slowly/quickly as you like.
Christie as a 5-year-old; the chair holds the doll she has in the portrait.
Some of the many, many articles written about Christie.
The award given to Christie when she was named a Dame of the Realm … she was so humble, they found this ribbon hidden behind other bits and bobs in the cabinet
Maggie typing away at Greenway!
After spending about 2 hours in the house and grounds, we decided to walk back to the train station, catch another train down to Kingswear and then cross over to Dartmouth on the ferry. It’s a quick 15 minute trip and the day was so gorgeous, the trip was not long enough. We walked about Dartmouth for a bit … then had lunch at the Station Restaurant. Maggie had her standard ham and cheese while I tried the Ploughman’s Lunch which was amazingly good. the view from the restaurant, over the river and watching the ferries and paddle steamers plying up and down and back and forth was so restful and just amazing!
Getting ready to board the ferry across the River Dart
Our lunch spot: Dartmouth Station Restaurant, overlooking the River Dart
As we traveled back on the late afternoon steam train, we were treated to gorgeous vistas of the English Riviera as the steam train chugged up the rugged track and back to Paignton!
The English Riviera from a Steam Train
BTW, if you’d like to see Greenway IRL, watch the David Suchet version of Dead Man’s Folly … besides, it’s a great mystery!
Tomorrow … our day in Bath … searching for Jane Austen and, more importantly, finding her!
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