Toby Atkin-Wright

My memories of childhood holidays include recurring visits to Salcombe in South Devon (which I loved), visiting granny in Eastriggs near Annan (which I loved) and weeks spent sitting in a beach at or near Benidorm (where I was bored out of my mind).

It is a great joy to be able to spend a week in Salcombe in 2009 and find that it is as wonderful a place as it ever was.

We travelled down from Leuchars to Totnes courtesy of Cross Country Trains, on their Dundee to Plymouth service. We spent about nine-and-a-half hours on the train, but with seats booked around a table and no changes to make it was far superior to driving. Unfortunately Cross Country have done away with the time-tested concept of a buffet car (or the ‘shop’ as we saw on Virgin trains in recent years) — now there is only a rather feeble trolley service. Mind you, at least we had cups of tea on the way down the country; the hot water machine on the trolley was broken for our return travel.

Our holiday included my parents and Polly, so it was a fine family occasion, and there were plenty of willing bodies to play with Beth and to look after her, so it gave kateaw and me a good break from usual routine. We visited Paignton Zoo, walked up and down some hilly Devon roads, ate cream teas, visited a beach, drank local cider, ate chips at the sea front (avoiding hungry seagulls) and some of the party had fun with boats.

After learning from the experience of our last trip down the country, where we travelled back on the Saturday leaving a day to recover before I returned to work on the Monday, we followed this pattern and came back home on Friday. We were planning a weekend of relaxing nothingness (and a bit of laundry), but this was enhanced by a visit from ioevri1 and family yesterday afternoon; we took them swimming to the spa at the St Andrews Bay Hotel and then shared a Chinese with them before they pootled back to Dundee.

Kate and I have a bit of TV to catch up with; I take delight in not watching anything when away on holiday. We saw the first three episodes of Torchwood last night; will continue this evening.

My memories of childhood holidays include recurring visits to Salcombe in South Devon (which I loved), visiting granny in Eastriggs near Annan (which I loved) and weeks spent sitting in a beach at or near Benidorm (where I was bored out of my mind).

It is a great joy to be able to spend a week in Salcombe in 2009 and find that it is as wonderful a place as it ever was.

We travelled down from Leuchars to Totnes courtesy of Cross Country Trains, on their Dundee to Plymouth service. We spent about nine-and-a-half hours on the train, but with seats booked around a table and no changes to make it was far superior to driving. Unfortunately Cross Country have done away with the time-tested concept of a buffet car (or the ‘shop’ as we saw on Virgin trains in recent years) — now there is only a rather feeble trolley service. Mind you, at least we had cups of tea on the way down the country; the hot water machine on the trolley was broken for our return travel.

Our holiday included my parents and Polly, so it was a fine family occasion, and there were plenty of willing bodies to play with Beth and to look after her, so it gave kateaw and me a good break from usual routine. We visited Paignton Zoo, walked up and down some hilly Devon roads, ate cream teas, visited a beach, drank local cider, ate chips at the sea front (avoiding hungry seagulls) and some of the party had fun with boats.

After learning from the experience of our last trip down the country, where we travelled back on the Saturday leaving a day to recover before I returned to work on the Monday, we followed this pattern and came back home on Friday. We were planning a weekend of relaxing nothingness (and a bit of laundry), but this was enhanced by a visit from ioevri1 and family yesterday afternoon; we took them swimming to the spa at the St Andrews Bay Hotel and then shared a Chinese with them before they pootled back to Dundee.

Kate and I have a bit of TV to catch up with; I take delight in not watching anything when away on holiday. We saw the first three episodes of Torchwood last night; will continue this evening.