16th October 2006 - Bristol

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It took a while to find a hotel that looked reasonable in advance of the trip. Finally came across the Rangeworthy Court and booked directly with them (no online booking facility). At £85 per night, bed and breakfast, it sounded about right and the rooms looked ok on their website.

And so it turned out to be! Very comfortable room at the top of the hotel and very quiet. Being set in the middle of farmland obviously helped. The meals were fairly good value, too. There was a very acceptable Chicken Cassoulet, one evening. Very nice! Must look up a recipe for that one.

Here's the url for next time: Rangeworthy Court

Not too many pubs in the local area as an alternative eating venue. There was one at the bottom of the lane but it looked distinctly closed for most of the time so I didn't bother. Just by way of a change, I drove out towards the M5 one evening. I had spied a likely looking place on the way down so thought I'd give it a try. Well, you do have to explore these places don't you? Nothing ventured nothing gained, they say. In this particular case, there was certainly nothing gained at all. A passable vegetable soup followed by very dry smoked haddock, peas that could break your teeth and spinach that was, quite frankly, disgusting. Someone had clearly told the chef that you shouldn't cook this delicious vegetable for very long. He obviously erred on the side of caution and didn't cook it at all. Back to the hotel, I'm afraid.

According to the SatNav, my working venue, in Almondsbury, was only about 8 miles away with a forecast journey time of 22 minutes along country lanes. Sadly, someone decided to close one of the local roads and the 22 minutes turned to 1 hour of nose-to-tail traffic. I tried an alternative route, the next day, via the A38. At around 45 minutes, the journey was still prolonged but marginally better than the more direct route.

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