Travelogue
January 6, 2009 - Just wanted to give a brief account of my travels during the "twelve days of Christmas". My partner and I departed Baltimore at 9pm on Christmas Day and landed at London Heathrow Airport on Boxing Day aka The Feast of Stephen that Good King Wenceslas was so fond of looking out on at about 9:30am. We got a car from Europcar (caveat emptor - don't ever rent from them since they quote you an amazing price and then nickel and dime you to death when you return the car) and drove 5 hours roughly due west to Newport in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The rest of Boxing Day is a bit of a blur given jetlag, etc. but we did manage to stay up long enough to have a lovely late brunch at a fantastic restaurant called Llys Meddyg (more of this in a bit).
The next day, we drove down to St. David's to visit our friends David and Freya Dixon at their gallery (The Albion Gallery). David does amazing, evocative watercolors and Freya is an absolute goddess with textiles and handmade papers. If you are ever in St. David's be sure to check them out on Non Street, just around the corner from the fantastic St. David's Cathedral. Unfortunately, both David and Freya were sick so the visit was a bit truncated but it was still lovely to see them. That night we went back to Llys Meddyg only to find out that they were completely booked for dinner, so we and our friend Frederica Chapman headed over to the Royal Oak Pub for some pub grub and one of the most surprisingly (given the pub aspect of the place) delicious ginger sponges I've ever tasted. We also happened to meet the Mayor of Newport having a pint at the bar.
Sunday we hiked hiked through Ty Canol Woods in search of St. Brynach's Cave, a site where legend has it St. Brynach lived and communed with angels on Carn Ingli (Welsh for Mountain of Angels). For video of this little expedition, see my Facebook profile. They were taken with my Flip, another amazing little bit of gadgetry that I love almost as much as my iPhone. (Thanks to my godson Conor for giving it to me and Bill for Christmas.) Sunday night we ate dinner at a new restaurant back in St. David's called Cwtch (which means "cuddle up" in Welsh). The meal was okay, but the dessert (a warm bread pudding made with the traditional Welsh fruit bread known as Bara Brith) was amazing.
Monday, we were determined to dine at Llys Meddyg so we had made reservations and boy howdy was it worth the effort. This place is absolutely fantastic on every level. It's worth the trip to West Wales just to eat there. And evidently it's also become a bit of a celebrity hotspot. We sat at the same table where Keira Knightley has sat. Pretty hot, right? Anyway, definitely plan on going there if you're ever in even the remote vicinity of Newport.
Tuesday morning we left Newport and took a beautiful (but quite long) drive over the Brecon Beacon Mountains to Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds. We stayed at a lovely hotel named Cotswold House. Accomodations were fantastic; food in the hotel's bistro (except for the Christmas Pudding) was not so great. Seems the pattern on this trip (except at Llys Meddyg) was so-so meal, totally boffo dessert.
Finally on Wednesday (New Year's Eve), we drove into London, dropped the car off at Europcar (where the aforementioned wallet raping occurred) and got a taxi to the Sheraton Park Tower Hotel. Room was great, but the meal (a whopping 99 pounds sterling prix fixe 7 course festival of pretentious crap at the restaurant named OneOOne) was completely dreadful. Guess that will teach us not to make advanced plans for New Year's Eve in London. An unfortunate end to what had been a lovely trip. Oh well, can't win them all I guess.
Okay, so the next posts will be about all the exciting OV stuff that's coming up. See you at the opera!
The next day, we drove down to St. David's to visit our friends David and Freya Dixon at their gallery (The Albion Gallery). David does amazing, evocative watercolors and Freya is an absolute goddess with textiles and handmade papers. If you are ever in St. David's be sure to check them out on Non Street, just around the corner from the fantastic St. David's Cathedral. Unfortunately, both David and Freya were sick so the visit was a bit truncated but it was still lovely to see them. That night we went back to Llys Meddyg only to find out that they were completely booked for dinner, so we and our friend Frederica Chapman headed over to the Royal Oak Pub for some pub grub and one of the most surprisingly (given the pub aspect of the place) delicious ginger sponges I've ever tasted. We also happened to meet the Mayor of Newport having a pint at the bar.
Sunday we hiked hiked through Ty Canol Woods in search of St. Brynach's Cave, a site where legend has it St. Brynach lived and communed with angels on Carn Ingli (Welsh for Mountain of Angels). For video of this little expedition, see my Facebook profile. They were taken with my Flip, another amazing little bit of gadgetry that I love almost as much as my iPhone. (Thanks to my godson Conor for giving it to me and Bill for Christmas.) Sunday night we ate dinner at a new restaurant back in St. David's called Cwtch (which means "cuddle up" in Welsh). The meal was okay, but the dessert (a warm bread pudding made with the traditional Welsh fruit bread known as Bara Brith) was amazing.
Monday, we were determined to dine at Llys Meddyg so we had made reservations and boy howdy was it worth the effort. This place is absolutely fantastic on every level. It's worth the trip to West Wales just to eat there. And evidently it's also become a bit of a celebrity hotspot. We sat at the same table where Keira Knightley has sat. Pretty hot, right? Anyway, definitely plan on going there if you're ever in even the remote vicinity of Newport.
Tuesday morning we left Newport and took a beautiful (but quite long) drive over the Brecon Beacon Mountains to Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds. We stayed at a lovely hotel named Cotswold House. Accomodations were fantastic; food in the hotel's bistro (except for the Christmas Pudding) was not so great. Seems the pattern on this trip (except at Llys Meddyg) was so-so meal, totally boffo dessert.
Finally on Wednesday (New Year's Eve), we drove into London, dropped the car off at Europcar (where the aforementioned wallet raping occurred) and got a taxi to the Sheraton Park Tower Hotel. Room was great, but the meal (a whopping 99 pounds sterling prix fixe 7 course festival of pretentious crap at the restaurant named OneOOne) was completely dreadful. Guess that will teach us not to make advanced plans for New Year's Eve in London. An unfortunate end to what had been a lovely trip. Oh well, can't win them all I guess.
Okay, so the next posts will be about all the exciting OV stuff that's coming up. See you at the opera!
Labels: miscellaneous
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