We visit The Shops At Dartington and find Totnes Community Bookshop

Dave was intrigued when he saw The Shops marked on the

Upcycled figure at The Shops 

map at nearby Dartington. Normally towns don't bother to announce their retail district so proudly so he investigated further. It turns out that The Shops At Dartington are part of something a bit special. The estate was purchased by Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst in 1925 and they 'embarked on what they called the Dartington Experiment to regenerate a rural community.' The Elmhirsts welcomed people who were interested in social change and reform - artists, economists, horticulturalists - and the estate is still very much a social enterprise today, ploughing any commercial profit back into local projects. There is a full calendar of musical, artistic, culinary and literary events as well as an arthouse cinema, beautiful gardens, restaurants and the eponymous Shops. Parking is pretty cheap and we also spotted a Sustrans cycle / walking route from Totnes.

We began wandering around outside this pretty venue

The Sustrans route leading away from the bridge 

which is all old stone and flowers. Lots of the trees were in full blossom and there are interesting details like the above upcycled figure near to the Restore shop. Restore is a voluntary enterprise, part of Refurnish Devon, which brings people together to learn how to repair and restore their existing furniture as well as upcycling individual pieces for the shop. Right now there's a nice gateleg table there!

We managed not to allow ourselves into the very tempting food shop and also bypassed another business selling fire bowls, outdoor pizza ovens and the like. A homewares shop had Christy towels at half price, but we don't have the space! Instead we spent our time (and money) in a greeting card shop which has a fabulous range of cards - special occasions, humorous, and arty. I especially appreciated their support of local artists and liked designs by Kerry Tremlett from Exeter and Sally Anderson from

Sally Anderson greeting cards 

Teignmouth. Our final discovery was a branch of the vegetarian Cranks Restaurant which Dave remembers as the first veggie eaterie in London. He even ate there in 1967 and we are planning to treat me to a birthday lunch at the Dartington establishment (on Tuesday, just as a by the way!) so I will review it next week. I think if we do find our perfect abode in Torquay, we will be visiting Dartington fairly frequently!

Another town we would be visiting frequently would be Totnes. We have already stopped by once and loved its hippy vibe. This time we hoped for another good DVD, but couldn't find anything promising that we hadn't already seen. My other aim was to find a cafe with a book exchange shelf because I thought Totnes looked a likely place. I wasn't able to google one either there or in Torquay - so if you know better, please let me know. But in the meantime, we made the wonderful discovery of the Totnes Community Bookshop in Castle Street. It officially became a community enterprise in March and hosts events such as open mic poetry evenings, author visits and acoustic music. I think all the books are second hand, but are in good condition and there's an excellent selection. Most of the paperbacks that caught my eye were £2 each so we chose five between us and, best of all, I got a £1 trade-in each on the three I had hoped to exchange. So if you want to read Daughter Of The Killing Fields, Fermat's Last Theorem (review blogged tomorrow) or The Amateur Marriage, my copies are now all at the Totnes Community Bookshop. Go take a look!

Photo from Totnes Community Bookshop FB page

A second day in York - St Mary's Abbey and York Museum

A later start today as we didn't set out for the Park and Ride until after an

Ruins of St Mary's Abbey 

early lunch of toast and cheese. We have been having problems with the electricity here at our Bishopthorpe campsite. Yesterday, the CL owners needed to reset the site boxes from the main switch - in a locked shed at the far end of their garden! And today, our travel kettle finally gave up the ghost. It started caravanning at the same time we did so has boiled a fair few cuppas, but still only lasted about two years. I saw a new one at Go Outdoors for £15, but we weighed up that against the similar cost in gas and decided to just use our trusty old camping kettle on the gas hob for the time being. And Dave asked about the birds on the CL - they are guinea fowl which I had heard of but am not sure I've ever seen before.

Our first port of call was York Museum and, as the sun was out, we took a stroll around the extensive gardens to see the ruins of St Mary's Abbey. This vast complex was, of course, destroyed during the reign of Henry VIII and the forlorn crumbling structures reminded me of the same story seen at Bury St Edmunds just a few weeks ago. It's amazing how much of British history seems to pivot on that time!

Ruins of St Mary's Abbey 

York Museum is built over part of the Abbey remains and the monks' fireplace can be seen on the lowest floor, together with its gargoyle-type face to encourage said monks not to linger in the warmth. Comfort was probably sinful! The museum has an odd range of exhibits spread thinly over a fairly large area. There are lots of archaeological finds which are logically displayed in their time periods - Roman, Viking, Medieval, etc. Not everything is identified which was irritating. The special exhibition of Richard III Man or Myth displayed one of the very earliest collections of Shakespeare plays in book form which was interesting, but otherwise didn't reveal much at all about the man himself. Both rooms focused more on the myth. I liked the Extinction exhibition which examines not only the human impact on animal species over the past couple of centuries, but also looks at five previous mass extinctions millions of years ago. Not just the dinosaurs then! There is an ichthyosaur skeleton which reminded me of years ago hearing the novelisation of Mary Anning's discovery of the species in an excellent Audible download of Remarkable Creatures.

A paperback copy of that same book was in the upstairs Reading Room where I finally found what I really wanted to see - William Smith's 200 year old geological map. It is kept under glass and we did think that the conservators had done an unbelievably good job of the restoration as the map looks brand new. What the museum fails to mention on site, although I did find it on the website once we got home, is that what we saw IS only a copy. The real map is underneath and should have been revealed for its hour's afternoon showing while we were there, but wasn't so I feel cheated about that. We did get to see a lot of stuffed animals including a life-size brown bear and the skeleton of a dodo though! And I bookcrossed my copy of Ferney in the Reading Room so if you'd like to read the book, visit soon to pick it up.

Caree Risover commented on my blog post yesterday advising us to look out for Whip Ma Whop Ma Gate - the shortest street in York that has the longest street name while walking around. We did head back around the Shambles area in search of a cute coffee shop, but didn't see the street sign. In hindsight, I think we were very close. One to remember for next time around! The Fossgate Social was our coffee shop of choice today. A good flat white served with a little amaretto biscuit in chilled surroundings. I liked the jazz playing and the rough wood and brick wall decor.

Finally, I went to the OXFAM bookshop on Petergate which has a really good selection of fiction and non-fiction and fiction books. I left three and only bought two which I thought was pretty restrained! Look forward to my reviews of Argentinian-set novel The Ministry Of Special Cases by Nathan Englander and Israeli novel Weeping Susannah by Alona Kimhi.

Enjoying Porto despite the rain

which has been torrential in bursts this morning. The hotel has umbrellas to borrow though!

We've seen the Bolhao market, the gorgeous bookshop with the Hogwarts staircase - Lello - and so much beautiful architecture. I love that there as so many grand old buildings with fabulous tiled frontages and interesting statues like the one pictured. All the pavements are cobbled, some with black and white images.

Yesterday, there were several groups of university students, elegantly dressed in black capes and suits all over the city centre. Apparently it is some sort of initiation rite for the freshmen students but it was bizarre to see them all together. Perhaps J K Rowling was inspired by their appearance as well as Lello?

I think this afternoon we might wander round some more and drink in the atmosphere. I quite like being in the rain as it is still warm and with only a light breeze. Photos aren't coming out so well though.