Something I forgot to post last time - When we stayed at the Travelodge at Aust / Severn View services, we went looking for a pub for our evening meal, and stumbled across The White Horse at Northwick.
This is a good, old fashioned pub serving good quality hearty food at reasonable prices - the sort of pub grub that pubs used to do before the chains started mucking around with pub food.
The landlord was friendly, but not overbearing, the pub was clean(ish) and there was plenty of room in the car park. The only improvement will come when the smoking ban comes into force!
The kids in the pub seemed to like the garden, but we didn't investigate.
This bub is conveniently sited on Sustrans Route 4.
Thursday, 12 April 2007
Tuesday, 10 April 2007
The Grumpys Go To Bath
Well, we had booked a couple of cheap rooms in Travelodges for a trip to Bath.
First stop was at Thame, where we didn't manage to see anything of the town, but the Travelodge was clean and conveniently situated - and it was good to chat with the cyclists on the Denmead 300 Audax who were using the services as a final control.
We drove on the next day to Bath - which is supposed to be a world class tourist destination. Well, I know it was Bank Holiday Monday, but, frankly it was a disgrace. The amount of litter was astonishing, and there was no visible attempt to clear it up; the pavements were covered in chewing gum, there was tacky advertising everywhere, and, smaller things, like railings that hadn't seen a lick of paint in years. The traffic in the centre of the town was noisy and intrusive - quite unusual for a modern British town, and the standard of driving was surprising aggressive - witnessed by a road rage incident involving a bike rider in Queens Square (the driver was using his car as a weapon, and the bike rider took exception, and laid into the driver). Queens Square garden was noisy, the benches covered in pigeon sh*t, the grass scrubby, and generally not a nice place to sit.
The gardens overlooking the river were pleasant enough, even if the cream tea was overpriced, the toilets, though, like all toilets in Bath were frankly disgusting. What messages are we sending to the tourists who are propping up the British economy if we can't even keep the loos clean?
Bath rather absolved itself the next day (Tuesday) when we came back to look at the Roman Baths, which were well presented, interesting and not overcrowded - which they so easily could have been.
We had tea in the Pump Room Restaurant - not cheap, but not bad value either. The staff were doing a splendid job in the face of too may stupid tourists who could not, or would not, read simple instructions!
Mrs Grumpy speaks highly of the Thermae Spa (and linked here)- again not cheap, but not bad value - she went with the 2 hour session. Her main advice is to be sure to take your own towel as someone will nick your hired one while you are in the sauna! The towel hire is a bit on the steep side, but it's a captive market isn't it! This facility is a fine example of how a local authority can get things right occasionally - professionally done, and well presented.
We stayed overnight at the Bristol Severn View Travelodge which is situated at the M48 services by the old Severn Bridge in what used to be Aust Services. Although it seems to be in the services, it's probably one of the quietest spots we've found for a Travelodge - high up on a hill, with a partial view of the bridge, no traffic noise, and no cars coming and going in the night. Well recommended.
Well we're glad we've been to see Bath, but It'll be a long time before we go back.
First stop was at Thame, where we didn't manage to see anything of the town, but the Travelodge was clean and conveniently situated - and it was good to chat with the cyclists on the Denmead 300 Audax who were using the services as a final control.
We drove on the next day to Bath - which is supposed to be a world class tourist destination. Well, I know it was Bank Holiday Monday, but, frankly it was a disgrace. The amount of litter was astonishing, and there was no visible attempt to clear it up; the pavements were covered in chewing gum, there was tacky advertising everywhere, and, smaller things, like railings that hadn't seen a lick of paint in years. The traffic in the centre of the town was noisy and intrusive - quite unusual for a modern British town, and the standard of driving was surprising aggressive - witnessed by a road rage incident involving a bike rider in Queens Square (the driver was using his car as a weapon, and the bike rider took exception, and laid into the driver). Queens Square garden was noisy, the benches covered in pigeon sh*t, the grass scrubby, and generally not a nice place to sit.
The gardens overlooking the river were pleasant enough, even if the cream tea was overpriced, the toilets, though, like all toilets in Bath were frankly disgusting. What messages are we sending to the tourists who are propping up the British economy if we can't even keep the loos clean?
Bath rather absolved itself the next day (Tuesday) when we came back to look at the Roman Baths, which were well presented, interesting and not overcrowded - which they so easily could have been.
We had tea in the Pump Room Restaurant - not cheap, but not bad value either. The staff were doing a splendid job in the face of too may stupid tourists who could not, or would not, read simple instructions!
Mrs Grumpy speaks highly of the Thermae Spa (and linked here)- again not cheap, but not bad value - she went with the 2 hour session. Her main advice is to be sure to take your own towel as someone will nick your hired one while you are in the sauna! The towel hire is a bit on the steep side, but it's a captive market isn't it! This facility is a fine example of how a local authority can get things right occasionally - professionally done, and well presented.
We stayed overnight at the Bristol Severn View Travelodge which is situated at the M48 services by the old Severn Bridge in what used to be Aust Services. Although it seems to be in the services, it's probably one of the quietest spots we've found for a Travelodge - high up on a hill, with a partial view of the bridge, no traffic noise, and no cars coming and going in the night. Well recommended.
Well we're glad we've been to see Bath, but It'll be a long time before we go back.
Saturday, 7 April 2007
Tea & Vistaaaagh!
Two things come to mind today-
Rooibos tea, otherwise known as redbush tea (although that's a tradename of Redbush teas) is something you either take to or you don't. I have. It's quite a pleasant alternative to proper tea and it comes in a number of flavours - one of my favorite varieties is the Dragonfly Cape Malay Rooibos Chai from Dragonfly Teas, which has a very comforting aroma. Although their evening blend is also very peasant, and closer to the standard Rooibos teas - such as Tick Tock (also from Dragonfly as well as Tesco). Lidl sell a very peasant Vanilla Rooibos.
Redbush offer advice on making Rooibis tea on their website, but my advice is to let the teabag stew in the cup for slightly longer than you would with a 'normal' teabag, and then add a very small amount of skimmed milk - maybe a small amount of sugar as well if you are used to sweet things.
Rooibos teas don't stain cups like normal tea, and they don't contain any caffeine. The only cafe or teashop I've found offering Rooibos was in Madiera - in Funchal!
A note on Microsoft Vista - for some reason (I think it was an exhortation by a newly installed program) I turned the User Access Control (UAC) back on - BIG MISTAKE! I couldn't access functions in the control panel, some of my programs wouldn't start, and nothing would delete! And, I couldn't get into the UAC control in the Control Panel to turn UAC off, or to get to a restore point! In the end I had to restart windows in safe mode, turn UAC off, and then all was well. I've seen so many complaints about UAC in various places, it makes me wonder if it really is worth all the extra security it's meant to provide!
Rooibos tea, otherwise known as redbush tea (although that's a tradename of Redbush teas) is something you either take to or you don't. I have. It's quite a pleasant alternative to proper tea and it comes in a number of flavours - one of my favorite varieties is the Dragonfly Cape Malay Rooibos Chai from Dragonfly Teas, which has a very comforting aroma. Although their evening blend is also very peasant, and closer to the standard Rooibos teas - such as Tick Tock (also from Dragonfly as well as Tesco). Lidl sell a very peasant Vanilla Rooibos.
Redbush offer advice on making Rooibis tea on their website, but my advice is to let the teabag stew in the cup for slightly longer than you would with a 'normal' teabag, and then add a very small amount of skimmed milk - maybe a small amount of sugar as well if you are used to sweet things.
Rooibos teas don't stain cups like normal tea, and they don't contain any caffeine. The only cafe or teashop I've found offering Rooibos was in Madiera - in Funchal!
A note on Microsoft Vista - for some reason (I think it was an exhortation by a newly installed program) I turned the User Access Control (UAC) back on - BIG MISTAKE! I couldn't access functions in the control panel, some of my programs wouldn't start, and nothing would delete! And, I couldn't get into the UAC control in the Control Panel to turn UAC off, or to get to a restore point! In the end I had to restart windows in safe mode, turn UAC off, and then all was well. I've seen so many complaints about UAC in various places, it makes me wonder if it really is worth all the extra security it's meant to provide!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
