Uploaded July 2020 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
June 18, 2019, our fifth day in the UK, dawned overcast and rainy, what we understood to be typical English weather. After enjoying a "Traditional English Breakfast," the first of many during our 30 days in the UK, we travelled by car from our Airbnb in Totnes to the train station in Paignton, transportation kindly provided by our hosts. This was a trip of several miles through hedgerow country. As a student of history and literature, I was well acquainted with hedgerows, but was not prepared for the awesome, amazing reality of them.
The main activity of the day revolved around the Round Robin tour operated by the Dartmouth Steam Railway and Steamboat Dompany. This involved riding the steam train from Paignton to Kingswear, a ferry crossing of the River Dart to Dartmouth, a cruise of the River on the SS Kingswear, the only operational coal fired paddlewheel steamboat operating in the UK, then return to Paignton via ferry and steam train.
Back in Paignton we took dinner at a pub near the train station, then returned to Totnes via GWR. We could have taken a bus, but it would have taken twice as long, and anyway we were travelling on Britrail passes.
June 18, 2019, our fifth day in the UK, dawned overcast and rainy, what we understood to be typical English weather. After enjoying a "Traditional English Breakfast," the first of many during our 30 days in the UK, we travelled by car from our Airbnb in Totnes to the train station in Paignton, transportation kindly provided by our hosts. This was a trip of several miles through hedgerow country. As a student of history and literature, I was well acquainted with hedgerows, but was not prepared for the awesome, amazing reality of them.
The main activity of the day revolved around the Round Robin tour operated by the Dartmouth Steam Railway and Steamboat Dompany. This involved riding the steam train from Paignton to Kingswear, a ferry crossing of the River Dart to Dartmouth, a cruise of the River on the SS Kingswear, the only operational coal fired paddlewheel steamboat operating in the UK, then return to Paignton via ferry and steam train.
Back in Paignton we took dinner at a pub near the train station, then returned to Totnes via GWR. We could have taken a bus, but it would have taken twice as long, and anyway we were travelling on Britrail passes.
