Blog: The Exeter Cut

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On Friday last week I went down to EXETER to go on a pub crawl with my DAD. We did a similar thing last year in Bristol which worked out rather marvellously (including having a curry at 6:30pm and both being asleep by 9pm) so we thought we'd have another go. We chose Exeter because it is halfway between Cornwall and London, although it ended up taking me nearly twice as long as it took Dad because I'd booked myself on a CHUGGER train that stopped EVERYWHERE. I did think it was cheap when I booked it, now I knOw why!

Once we'd arrived we got a taxi to our hotel and then attempted to get one back but the lady on reception was quite insistent that we get a BUS instead, almost as if she didn't want to ring the taxi company. We took her advice and got on a bus but, at the next stop, the driver stopped and suggested we get on the one behind him. Everyone in Exeter was VERY ready to offer help and advice, even the driver on the next bus who told me at some length that he wasn't supposed to let me onto HIS bus with a ticket I'd bought on another, but he would "let it go this time." There went my plans for a day of bus hopping on one ticket!

Soon we were in our first pub, The Hourglass, which was LOVELY - cosy, nice beer, and very helpful bar staff who informed us that there weren't really any particularly good pubs in Exeter. This would turn into a bit of a theme - we visited SEVERAL good pubs over the course of the day and pretty much ALL the barstaff we spoke to told us there weren't any!

Next we strolled down to the quayside and popped into The Prospect Inn before heading into town to try and find The Well House Tavern, which had been reluctantly recommended a couple of times. We got to the Cathedral but couldn't see the pub so asked a young hippy who was bouncing along with his dreads and his comfy clothing. "He'll know" we thought but when we asked he looked MIGHTILY CONFUSED and had NO CLUE. It was only when he bounced off again that we spotted The Well House about 8 feet away. He's just walked past it! Kids today! Where are their pub spotting priorities?

After being told again in The Well House (another good pub) that there were no good pubs in Exeter we went down the road to The Beer Cellar which was a right proper Craft Beer Bar i.e. it looked like it had been a SHOP until very recently and the barman had a HUGE MOUSTACHE! Over a pint of STOUT (I was sleeping alone that evening so I thought I'd take the opportunity) we decided to go and see STAR WARS!

This turned out to MOSTLY be a GRATE idea. We were at that stage of the pub crawl where FLAGGING occurs and you need to do something non-beery for a couple of hours. Also we'd both seen the film but wanted to again, and the cinema was only 10 minutes away, so it seemed daft not to. ALSO also I'd been to see the FIRST Star Wars film with Dad, so it seemed like a nice thing to revisit.

The only problem was that we had rather been in the pub all afternoon, so it was a MUCH shorter version of the film for me this time. It was all a bit confusing - one minute Rey and Fin were just meeting up in the market, the next everyone was flying off on the final mission to blow up the space station. Surely there was more to it than that? And why did I feel so REFRESHED?

Actually this was also quite FITTING, as when we saw Star Wars the first time we missed the first ten minutes, and every time I've seen it since I've been surprised that there's stuff BEFORE Luke finds R2 D2!

We staggered off to the taxi rank and ended the evening with PUB GRUB and RED WINE. It was DEAD sophisticated and a very nice way to end a LOVELY day out. The next morning wasn't QUITE so delightful, and I could have done with cutting an hour out of the journey home in the same way I had with the film, but otherwise it was ACE - very much like going off to do a GIG, just without the half hour of showing off in the middle!

posted 26/1/2016 by MJ Hibbett

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