Our Trip to England PART THREE (Shopping in Exeter)

It’s no secret that I have a weakness for European designer children's clothing. I’d been dreaming of shopping in Europe and going into boutique after boutique filled with the European brands I love to buy for the girls—Jottum, No Added Sugar, Mim Pi, Oilily, Beetlejuice, Tickittyboo, and Cakewalk.

So, on Tuesday, we drove to Exeter to do some shopping. We found a little mini-mall with shops and stopped at “Next” first. I bought several dresses for the girls (although I’d never heard of this brand). Then we went to T.K. Maxx (which is the British version of T. J. Maxx although why they needed to change the name to K is beyond me). It was so awesome because the clothes were all the children’s European brands that I buy online. So I got the girls a couple more outfits each.

Afterward, we walked around several cathedrals and had a really good lunch at The Ship Inn. Then we walked to a bookshop called Bookcycle that we had driven past earlier. We couldn’t find any prices for the books and when I asked about it, they said everything’s free. You can take up to three books a day and they hope you’ll give a donation for the books for the charities they support to ensure people have books all over the world. (I realized after I returned home that there’s a bookshop in this very town that’s carrying my book and they’re asking a whopping $34. It would have been so cool to walk into a bookstore in England and see my book on the shelf.)

Next door to Bookcycle, there was a “designer children’s clothes” boutique (really the only children's boutique I found). I walked in ready to see all those name-brand clothes I had been expecting and was so disappointed when everything was Ralph Lauren, DKNY, Roxy and other stuff I can get at home. How ironic is it that our high-priced boutiques carry European clothing and theirs carry US brands?

On our way home, we stopped at Powderham Castle for a tour. It had two libraries and a music room, which Bianca was pleased to see. There was also a little strange story about the skeletons of a mom and baby found beneath one of the staircases when they were excavating years later--my guess is one of the important men got a servant girl pregnant and thought it'd be easier to off her than face the music. It’s known to be haunted (supposedly a medium came in and said they felt the presence of a mother and small baby). I asked Eric, Bianca, and mom if they felt a "presence". They didn't. Portia felt she had "presents" coming her way in the future. Cool castle.