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Published: August 21st 2017
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Farewell to old England, but not forever.
Sandy and Francis have been such good hosts that we're planning our return visit already (don't tell them, let them get over this visit first!). Although we both eagerly look forward to the next 5 weeks as we wheel around the place we were a bit sad to say 'see ya later' to Rose Cottage and its resident. Both Lee and I had a great time doing just what we wanted. Sometimes nothing, sometimes walking, sometimes nothing, sometimes cooking, sometimes nothing, sometimes 'strimming' or whatever we did enjoy our time there. The place is great, the company is terrific, the cider delightful and the weather terrible (well 3 out of 4 ain't bad!).
Last night was spent dining at Kentsbury Grange, the Michelin starred restaurant of Michael Caines. Bit of a splurge to say thanks to Sandy and Francis and really a pretty good spot in the middle of not much. Gastro pubs are springing up around Exmoor and this is one of the front runners. Housed in an old coach house the restaurant has a relatively open and visible kitchen and obviously a very good reputation. Sunday evening was t really
busy but the ambience and the attention to detail was evident from the start. My only 'concern' was that some dishes where I expected the food and plate to be at least warm, if not hot, (a pigeon dish) weren that. My surprise and probably not for the better. But the serving and presentation was excellent and we all happily spent the time anticipating and then eating some very good dishes.
So that's it England (well for a couple of days!). We are in Wales after crossing the Severn Bridge and travelling through the delightful countryside and driving to Abergavenny. We traveled on the motorway as far as Bristol and averaged 28 miles per hour! No that's not good, even in miles. Our average speed increased around the outskirts of Bristol! We could see no reason for any of the hold ups we experienced and the traffic going in the opposite direction was just as bad. It's bizarre! And the English seem to expect this sort of delays! The small town of Abergavenny is really quite nice and again the atmosphere is pretty good, although the only person we really spoke to was Italian! The rest have delightful accents
but we're not sure we understand them yet! And we haven't even reached Scotland! We will head back into England in a few days time and drive to Stratford for our ritual dose of Shakespeare. We always love it and this time it's a couple of productions we are both looking forward to. Then it's Peak and Lake Districts and Hadrian's Wall at Twice Brewed (good luck finding that on any map!) before we reach Scotland. Our BnB is very comfy (Lee is aready asleep and will even need to be woken as its nearly food o'clock), it's a Georgian house on the edge of town with a helpful host and it seems we will be more than content here.
I'm pushing for Indian but it is difficult to debate with a snoozing partner! Our host has a couple of pages of suggestions so I'll hide a few pages and strategically fold the remaining one in order to highlight my preference.
Until after food o'clock.
See you sometime.
This was started in Withypool but completed in Abergavenny, so set the location wherever you like.
Rob.
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