Sightseeing Tour in Exeter

After loosening up my somewhat tense calves today, there was a packed itinerary. First, I visited the terrace of the student dormitory where I am staying, which offers a wonderful view over the western part of Exeter. Then I went to explore the park next to the accommodation, which turned out to be a huge and beautifully maintained park rather than a botanical garden. Somewhere, I saw a sign that this park and its surroundings have won numerous awards for design, maintenance, and biodiversity in flora and fauna.

The next destination was the entire campus of the University of Exeter, which turned out to be even more massive than I expected. In the midst of the campus, there are concert halls, theaters, and museums that collaborate closely with the university. I visited the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, where the entire history of the film medium is explained through many artifacts, very fascinating!

On my way to the city center, I passed by a beautiful pub called 'The Imperial,' which, as is usual here, has a massive park attached. I will definitely visit there again in the evening.

Along the way, there were churches with large and old cemeteries, many memorials for fallen soldiers in World War I and II, and not surprisingly, many small parks.

Arriving in the city center, I took a closer look at the Exeter Cathedral St. Peter, which, unusually, was not built with the same red stone as almost all the other buildings in the city. However, the cathedral is adorned with an extraordinary number of details both inside and outside. Further along the way, I found St. Catherine's Almshouse, another memorial to the bombings of 1942. Of course, I could not miss the Roman walk, if only because of its name, but it is actually named after the Roman city wall built around the year 200, which is still very well-preserved and mostly intact today. Unfortunately, I missed out on visiting Exeter Castle, but I still don't know if it can be visited. Instead, I took a guided tour of Exeter's Underground Passages. These water supply tunnels were built in the Middle Ages and brought fresh water from various sources in the surrounding area to the city. The tunnels are quite extensive and remarkably well-preserved.

Further into the city center, it was not entirely filled with parks anymore, although trees have still been planted in every possible space.

On a different way back, the city suddenly looked more like a typical suburb with enclosed children's playgrounds and more or less identical-looking houses.

Since I still had time, I went to visit the Exeter Brewery, which happened to be right on my way back.

All in all, it was an exciting day in a beautiful city!

Well, the large number of photos already shows how much I like the city, so I extended my originally short stay from 2 to 4 nights ;-)