Cynthia from Atlanta

Well here is the first installment of our Devon adventure since no one seems to mind if answer Debbie here.

My husband Jim was born in Nottingham but his family imigrated to Montreal Canada when he was just five. They moved on to the US when he was 12. He still has his British citizenship and passport so we decided we would start our travels there. The first hurdle was getting a spousal visa for me. They are only good for two years now and have to be renewed. After getting the visa the next step on the road to permanent residence is passing a test given by the Home office on knowledge of English and of UK laws and institutions. I was always a good student but my memory isn't as quick as it was so I worried a bit about the test but did manage a passing grade. The group taking the test were two Australian surfer boys, an elderly Korean couple and their middleaged daghter and gray haired granny me. We were an odd group.

But back to the move to Devon. We knew we wanted somewhere in the southwest since the climate is very mild there, that we wanted a small town of around 10 thousand so it was too small to get lost in but big enough to have everything we needed and it needed to be on a mainline train route and have plenty of bus service since driving on the left side is a real challange for me. We pored over climate maps, transportation maps and population statistics until we settled on Totnes.( We did not know at the time that it is called "Hippy Dippy Totnes...the alternative center of England.) It has 8000 residents, a high street with every sort of shop (real old fashioned shops) for everything you would need to live. And plenty of interest for outdoor lovers, music lovers and history lovers so it sounded like the place for us. Lookiing at the scenery around  it on the internet made our minds up.We rented our house to our married daughter and son-in-law and disposed of all our possessions except the clothing that would fit in two bags and two carry-ons. The week before we left we made a reservation at a B&B on the outskirts of town for three weeks while we looked for a flat to rent. That was when we hit our first pitfall.. None of the leasing agencies in town were interested in renting to two flakey Americans without a bank reference they could check (they won.t check American banks,) And without a refernce they could check (we had owned our own home for 35 years so did not have a landlord still alive, not that they would have checked the US for that either). We really thought we were going to be stymied right there. But,,,,we found a private landlord through the newspaper who happened to be our age and in sympathy with what we were doing so he gave us a chance. and rented the top floor flat in a converted coach house right off the High street to us. The ground floor had been converted to two small shops, one for pine furniture and the other for antiques and home furnishing.Both shops were run by lovely ladies named Tracey who became firm friends. The flat was unfurnished so we borrowed beds and chests and even a TV from our landlord and bought kitched ware at the thrift shops. We lived a bit as though we were camping out but it was great fun. I loved living over the shops in the center of town. I could hang out my window and watch the shops open and people going and coming at any time of the day. After the two Traceys got the shops downstairs open , one of us would brew up and we would take a tea break , sitting outside in nice weather, eating cakes and chatting with everybody passing...In about 10 days we had gotten the basics figured out. That is, we had opened a bank account (Barkleys is easiest for us transplants), joined the library, registered with a doctor, found which butcher, baker, greengrocer and fish shop we liked best and learned to cook in centigrade and measure in metric.Now we were ready to start exploring our new home, the South Hams in Devon in England in the UK.

That is how we did it. I will write more later about the wonders of Devon and the things not to be missed.For Totnes I can recommend the Old Forge B&B, The Seven Stars Hotel (a bit pricey but very nice.)for rooms or meals in the bar, Country Pine Furniture and Gifts for good souvenirs, Elke at Take Two for haircuts, Ticklemore Cafe for good and inexpensive lunches and The Bay Horse Pub for entertainment..

Debbie, we had been renting our house in Atlanta to our daughter and son inlaw who hoped to be able to afford to buy it in a couple of years. But they had to relocate for work. So we dashed back to try to sell it since we didn't want to be absentee landlords from such a distance. The housing market seems to be picking up a bit here so there may be a chance. We are catching the next plane back to Devon if the house sells before we are to old and decrepid.to travel..

Diana, we are in Alpharetta just above the Forsyth County line,