Totnes

The weather was a bit more clement today, though with threats of showers. So we took the train to Totnes.

Totnes is a very attractive, small county town on the River Dart in Devon. It is quite 'alternative' having been a centre for contemporary medicines since the 1800's. I would describe it as an upmarket Stroud. It has ample organic and vegetarian shops and cafés, and generally has a 'nice' feel to it. Unfortunately the very narrow High Street and Fore Street still allow, one-way, traffic through, though the community is fighting against this. Here's a picture of the High Street.

The river there is very attractive and there are riverside walks in both directions.

OK, enough of the tourist sell bit. You can tell I like it.

We had coffee at Woods and the lunch sitting by the river watched, as ever, by the beady seagulls. We then visited the museum which is housed in a medieval building. This had all the usual stuff, but one room of particular interest, to me, was dedicated to Charles Babbage. Famous son of Totnes and inventor, amongst other things, of the forerunner of today's computer. A mechanical computer called the Difference Engine. Unfortunately like a lot of visionaries he was before his time and the technology was not in place to take computers forward in the 19th century.

On display in a cabinet, this is just for computer nerds of a certain age, there is a Sinclair ZX81, a Acorn BBC Computer and an original Apple Mac, along with user guides - picture here. I remember buying an ZX81 for the boys and teaching Peter how to program it using basic, ah, those were the days!

Managed to get the train back to Dawlish though there was some disruption due to flooding. Later we went out for a curry with Colin to his favourite Nepalese restaurant.

The photo is not the result of me throwing a stone at a defenceless seagull scavenger, it is same bird taking off from the water by one of the arches of the bridge over the Dart. I'm obviously catching something from all these dratted people, yes I'm looking at you Roz, who bombard me via Blipfoto of seagull pictures, arghhhhhhhhhhhh