Sunday, July 29, 2007

Been Down Torquay Way A Holidaying

Ok, if anyone's been wondering where I's been at, I had a quick last minute holiday last week which took us down to Torquay. With the weather having been so grim the last couple of months, it was decided we'd go somewhere that the beach wouldn't be the main attraction. Mrs Dio suggested Torquay, and despite my lack of interest in the place, I decided it would be a good escape for Elis with lots of things we could do given the likelihood of bad weather.

Despite my apathy for Torquay, I got nice and chilled and enjoyed being completely unplugged and spending some time with Elis doing fun things like swimming and playing table tennis. We stayed in an apartment in the Manor House Apartments, a very nice Gothic styled ex-hotel with sweeping views across Torbay. You can see our apartment here if you're interested (look at the next picture link above the picture).

So, apologies if I didn't get back to anyone, or have seemed rather unobtainable the last 10 days. As well as the holiday, I've had to catch up with the deluge of email and little bits awaiting my return.

As for snaps, the light was pretty bad most of the week, so I didn't really take many snaps - we did a few nice things - zoos, animal sanctuaries, nice walks and late night promenades. Here's a selection of the very few shots I took.

First up is the Queens Hotel. The architecture around Torquay is pretty dull. There's loads of bland high rises and concrete yucks in the area. The one building I really like is the badly kept, Art-Deco like Queens Hotel on the harbour. It's falling apart and in need of some TLC. It really stands out like a sore thumb amongst the classically dull buildings of the rest of area. Here's a detail of the rotting sign on the front.

Queens Hotel - Torquay

We went to the Living Coasts on the sea front at Torquay. We tried to go there last year when we had a day trip, but it was closed. We also did Paignton Zoo later in the week. It poured down and I didn't take many snaps and none worth showing here. It was very wet and the animals all looked sad. Living Coasts though was a lot cheerier - but Elis was determined to just rush through.

Penguins at Living Coasts - Torquay

Living Coasts = Torquay - Sky netting to stop the penguins flying away

Another view of the netting

Baby seal and mum at Living Coasts

Underwater window at Living Coasts

Elis had one night when we allowed him to stay up late (10.30pm!) to see the promenade lights at Torquay. It gave me a chance to indulge my love of electric lights against dark skies - and needless to say, Elis had a ball being up into the wee small hours of the night...

Dusk lights along Torquay's promenade

Torre Abbey Beach in the dark

And that was it. Back to Tenby via Cardiff, and we now have most of my side of the family staying down the road for their summer holiday, so the fun goes on.

Posted by Dio Bach at 22:51

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