Indulge me while I detour to record the origin story of our trip……

During the lockdowns of 2020, we had quite a few family movie nights. We watched an action film that was SO bad we have blocked almost all of the details from memory, and we also watched The Old Guard starring Charlize Theron.

Jarrod and Ross’ memories verge at this point, but The Old Guard’s final scene was in a pub on the River Thames called the Prospect of Whitby. Either we googled that and came across other historic English pubs, or our lunch venue for today was featured in the bad movie, but either way, our research after family movie night found a pub in Exeter called the Samuel Jones.

In 2020 with flights grounded and us all being told to stay at home, we started to hatch a plan to one day post-pandemic travel to the UK to visit the Samuel Jones pub, and thought it would be cute to be there for Sam’s 18th birthday in 2024 to celebrate with his first beer.

Well the timing didn’t work to the day, but we came close! We talked about it for long enough that everyone was keen to join a family holiday to Europe, with even extended family tagging along. It was a two hour drive from our castle to Exeter, but we made it in time for the 12.30pm lunch booking I made months ago.

After celebrating Sam’s birthday lunch there (he turned 18 as he got on the flight to Prague so there were no birthday celebrations until today), we wandered around the foreshore and up the hill to explore Exeter Cathedral.

We then returned home via Trowbridge to pick up dinner supplies. A shopping area with a Marks & Spencer Food Hall as well as several takeaway options (Greggs, Subway etc) meant everyone could choose their own adventure, which we then took home to eat together.

We did find a mouse getting into our supplies, meaning Aunty Beck would like to burn the place down and sleep in the bus or the nearest Premier Inn motel, but we will be brave and soldier on!