Olaf and I spent a long weekend in Ivybridge, Devon to visit my friend Annalie who was over from New Zealand to see her parents, Pam and Stuart. A visit with Annalie is always a lovely opportunity to catch up and spend some quality time shopping and lunching. Olaf and I had been to visit the previous October and had a lovely time and were both made very welcome. I was pretty sure that if I turned up without Olaf I would be turning around to go home to get him!
I arrived on a Saturday afternoon after a very good journey. I stopped on the way down at the Tortworth Estate Farm Shop which was just off the motorway but a much better stop for us than a service station. I arrived mid afternoon which gave Annalie and I a chance to wander into Ivybridge and check out the shops. We had a very lovely dinner together with her parents when we got back in.
On Sunday we headed to Exeter for a day of shopping and lunch. It’s about a 45 minute journey from Ivybridge and we spent lots of time checking out all in the shops especially White Stuff, Seasalt, Lucy and Yak and John Lewis. We had our lunch in the Tiny Tasting Room – just a sandwich though because we were saving ourselves for a BBQ back at Ivybridge! It was a little cold to sit outside and eat but we did spend some time outside while the sun was still up and the BBQ was getting going – not too bad for a Sunday in October.
On Monday we went to Totnes and enjoyed walking up (and then back down) the street with all the unique, independent shops including some well stocked charity shops and consignment shops. We had lunch at the Waterside Bistro which was really nice – I chose the fish pie. We headed back to Ivybridge before Olaf and I set off for home mid afternoon. Olaf travelled very well indeed which was helped by the fact that we had two excellent journeys with little/no disruption due to traffic both ways – both were less than 5 hours.
I feel very welcome in Ivybridge and very spoiled – Annalie had made me lots of lovely things that she’d brought with her in her suitcase from New Zealand and her Mum knitted a blanket for me too. Olaf was treated like royalty and could do not wrong – even when he was digging in the garden! No wonder our 2026 trip to Devon is already in the calendar!