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May 9 In Which We Escape The Village and Finally Score Some Goodies
<i>“I am not a number. I am a free man!”</i> – The Prisoner We drove southwest through Rhyd-ddu and the charming village of Beddgelert to Portmeirion. Architect Clough Williams-Ellis built Portmeirion as an example of how a town could be built while altering the natural landscape as little as possible. All the buildings are brightly painted pastels and gold – after driving through the mist-covered mountains of Snowdonia with its gray stone houses, it’s a bit odd to find yourself plopped into a coastal Mediterranean village! Audere_est_facere suggested we watch a few episodes of “The Prisoner” before we visited. I vaguely remember this show from my childhood, but hadn’t seen it since. Patrick McGoohan starred as a man who quits some sort of secret government job, is kidnapped and ends up imprisoned in The Village. Renamed Number Six, he makes numerous attempts to escape which are generally foiled by a man-sized white balloon. I suspect hallucinogenic substances may have been ingested during the making of this show, which has become a cult classic with a sizable fan club. Portmeirion’s “otherness” made it the perfect location for The Village. Portmeirion is an incredibly lovely place. Everywhere you look there is a beautiful building or view. Having just watched “Prisoner” episodes adds a layer of surreality to the whole setting – seeing the line of abruptly ending footprints heading across the estuary (“I guess the balloon caught up with him”), the bandstand, and the building used for Number Two’s house led to a good deal of snickering and giggling. We were kind to the cashier at The Prisoner Shop, though, and refrained from asking her “Who is Number One?” We browsed the shops – there is a nice Portmeirion pottery outlet – and drove back to Beddgelert. It was raining a little too hard to walk around the town, but the people at the information center gave us a couple of cream tea recommendations. We walked a block or so to Lyn’s, where we had a delicious tea – two scones with clotted cream, plus a slice of bara brith (a dark, spicy fruit bread). Now we’re hooked on clotted cream. Unfortunately, my attempts to make it at home have fallen flat, but at least I can buy some from time to time. After we picked up some dinner items, we headed back to the hostel to enjoy a pint of excellent local ale from Purple Moose Brewery while we talked with other visitors. The two sisters were still there, hoping for a clear day, plus a couple of guys who were rock climbing somewhere in the area. |
<<We were kind to the cashier at The Prisoner Shop, though, and refrained from asking her “Who is Number One?”>>
:) I adore Patrick McGoohan. Did you ever watch the Secret Agent series (Danger Man in Britain)? The Prisoner followed that. Anyway, like many things, it is a product of its time. |
Secret Agent - that sounds familiar too. Maybe I'm just thinking of that Johnny Rivers song...
Lee Ann |
Lee Ann:
I am still enjoying your trip report and have been to many of the places you are writing about. I'd like to know a bit more about the YHA - did you make your reservations on-line from home or did you phone? Are you guaranteed a private room? Is there a website where you can see what the actual rooms look like? Am I understanding correctly that you get the use of a kitchen to prepare food and clean up after yourself? What is the cost of a cafeteria YHA meal? Do you travel this way at home? Where do you live that you can buy clotted cream and how did you attempt to make it? Sandy |
Great report however for accuracy it is Bakew Tart not "Bakewell pudding "
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They call it Bakewell pudding in Bakewell, Blightyboy. I suppose that 10 miles away in Hartington they might call it Bakewell tart, but I was striving for Peak District accuracy, since we wanted to get one in Bakewell. :-)
Sandy, you can look at all of YHA's UK properties at http://www.yha.org.uk You asked: >>I'd like to know a bit more about the YHA - did you make your reservations on-line from home or did you phone? Are you guaranteed a private room? Is there a website where you can see what the actual rooms look like?<< We made all our reservations, except for Snowdon Ranger, on YHA's website. I had to do Snowdon Ranger via email because their double rooms weren't showing up on the YHA site for some reason. The site will say how many beds are in a room. As an example, my two choices for the Peak District were the YHA Hartington Hall and YHA Bakewell, both of which are listed as having two-bed rooms. In reality, that can mean a double bed, or two twins, or a bunk bed. So I emailed each place to ask if they had double beds. Hartington Hall responded first, letting me know they had rooms with a double bed, shower, and sink in the room, and a toilet just down the hall. As it turned out, Bakewell YHA also has double beds, but by the time they answered my email, I had already booked with Hartington, and didn't feel like changing my reservation. There are pictures of each property on YHA's website, but not necessarily of the actual rooms. >>Am I understanding correctly that you get the use of a kitchen to prepare food and clean up after yourself? What is the cost of a cafeteria YHA meal?<< Yes, every hostel has a self-catering kitchen with cooking facilities, refrigerators, and utensils. You can cook whatever meals you choose and clean up afterwards. For people like us, who travel on a fairly low budget, it's a great way to go. Not all hostels have a restaurant, but most of the ones we stayed at did. We had a three-course dinner at Hartington for about £10, and dinner in Bath was around £5-6. I imagine it varies from hostel to hostel. I think I mentioned that YHA prides itself on using locally grown foods as much as possible, which is a nice perk. One thing I'd forgotten is if a hostel has a license to serve alcohol, you can't bring in your own wine or beer. We bought a bottle of wine on our way to the Peak District and ended up bringing it home in Godzilla. We really enjoyed the local beers we tried, though. I would gladly stay at any of the YHA hostels we used, except for Bath. I'd even stay at the Stratford YHA if I could muster the courage to face the roundabout from Hell again! :-D At home (New Mexico) we have an abundance of inexpensive motels; hostels aren't as popular here, and if we want to visit family, we can get there in a couple of days. If I was going somewhere for an extended period of time, I would look at hostels. In fact, I already looked at Hostelling International's properties for our Hawaii trip next year, but they only have hostels in Oahu. Clotted cream - I know of at least two stores here that carry it. I tried a recipe I found at cooksrecipes.com, which involved heating cream in a double boiler, and one of Alton Brown's recipes from the Food Network that had you pour cream into a coffee filter. It was supposed to leave the thicker stuff in the filter, but no luck there. I can actually buy milk with the cream on top at my local co-op, but the milk is kind of expensive, so I haven't tried that yet. I also have a recipe that mixes cream and buttermilk. I suspect that may end up tasting more like creme fraiche, but it's probably worth a try. :-) Lee Ann |
Bakewell pudding/tart is very easy to make.
Bakewell Pudding from the Great British Cookbook http://www.greatbritishkitchen.co.uk/cookbook.htm A buttery mixture, flavoured with ground almonds and baked in a light pastry case, is the basis of this traditional Derbyshire recipe, sometimes known as Bakewell tart, the origin of which is still secret. Ingredients Serves: 4 225 Gram pastry (8 oz) 4 Tablespoon Red jam 110 Gram Ground almonds (4 oz) 110 Gram Caster sugar (4 oz) 50 Gram Butter, softened (2 oz) 3 Eggs, beaten 1/4 Teaspoon Almond essence Method Pre-heat oven to 200 °C / 400 °F / Gas 6. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface and use to line a 900 ml (1 1/2 pint) shallow pie dish. Knock up the edge of the pastry with the back of a knife. Mark the rim with the prongs of a fork. Brush the jam over the base. Chill in the refrigerator while making the filling. Beat the almonds with the sugar, butter, eggs and almond essence. Pour the filling over the jam and spread it evenly. Bake for 30 minutes or until the filling is set. Serve warm or cold with fresh cream or custard. When I was in the US, my American friends really liked it. I ground the almonds in a coffee grinder because I couldn't get the ready-ground packs over there. Be generous with the jam ;-) |
LeeAnn - Thank you so much for taking time to answer my many questions regarding your YHA experience. Very helpful information indeed.
Sandy |
Yes, I love the info about youth hostels too. Thanks.
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Really enjoying this Lee Ann!
Did Godzilla aka Hernia Helper go ALL the way with you? I have to say you both looked remarkably fit and healthy when we met up (two days on from here...) If you did get him home (Godzilla that is) has he been sent back to the thrift shop? And you like Marmite! WooHoo!! Did you take any home with you to tantalise the tastebuds of your children? Looking forward to the rest of your report. |
LeeAnn -
Back to Secret Agent :) The Johnny Rivers song was the theme song for the US version of the series. Thanks for the info re YHA - definitely something to research. Now, on with the trip report . . . |
Oh, yum - thanks, MissPrism!
Hi, Julia! Yes, Godzilla/Hernia Helper went all the way home with us - there was no way we were going to go suitcase shopping while we were traveling, and it was easier to handle once Mr. Pickle didn't have to haul it up and down many flights of stairs. :-D My total experience with it on the trip was putting things in and taking things out. I didn't buy any Marmite, but I can get it here. In fact, I plan to get some soon. Lee Ann |
>>Now, on with the trip report . . .<<
As you wish. ;-) May 10th In Which We Pass By Legends, Say Hello to Brother Cadfael, Enjoy a Wonderful Dinner, and Survive the Motorway Today was our longest driving day of our trip, so we packed up early and hit the road. We passed near Croesor, where Patrick O’Brian lived for a few years, and drove down the coast toward Barmouth. We stopped in Harlech to take pictures of the castle, and drove down to the beach. It was too cold and windy to stay long – though we saw a few people bundled up walking their dogs - but we enjoyed our closeup view of the Irish Sea. At Barmouth, we turned east for Shrewsbury. As we neared Dolgellau, we passed Cader Idris, where Susan Cooper’s Newbury Award-winning novel <i>The Grey King</i> is set. It wasn’t raining, but the mountain was shrouded in ragged grey mist and looked suitably spooky. The Tolkien Ensemble’s <i>An Evening in Rivendell</i> CD was the perfect soundtrack for this leg of the trip. We gradually made our way down the hills and across Wales into Shrewsbury, where Ellis Peters set her excellent Brother Cadfael mysteries, found a parking lot, and set out to explore. “Do you have our lunch in your daypack?” I asked. We both came to a stop as we realized we not only left our lunch at the hostel, but all our other food as well. Oh, well, I’m sure other travelers put our tea and cereal to good use. Providentially, you can always find a pub! We stopped at the King’s Head for toasted sandwiches, then walked through town to Shrewsbury Abbey, Brother Cadfael’s home. We didn’t take the guided tour, but one of the volunteers gave us some basic information and answered questions. Most of the Abbey’s grounds have been turned into roads and parking lots, but you can still get an idea of where things were, and the church is interesting. One tomb belongs to a man who left soldiering to become a monk; the people at the Abbey think that’s how Ellis Peters was inspired to write the Cadfael series. A window dedicated to St. Benedict was installed about 10 years ago as a memorial to Edith Pargeter (Peters’ real name). The lower right corner contains an ink bottle, a book with “Cadfael” written on its open pages, and the initials E. P. It’s a nice tribute to a gifted writer. Julia_t suggested we stop in Ludlow on our way south; it’s a charming town with a nice mix of Tudor and other architecture on its narrow streets. Ludlow Castle was about to close for the day, so we enjoyed a yummy piece of almond tart at the Buttery next to the castle instead. As we entered Hereford, we realized AA’s directions tend to route you through the centers of cities rather than around. This allowed us to get thoroughly lost. We ran into one dead end after another trying to get out of town; eventually we found a pedestrian who helped us find the highway. Even with the delay, we were still ahead of schedule as we drove through the drizzle and back across the border for our anniversary dinner at The Bell at Skenfrith (http://www.skenfrith.co.uk). After the stress of escaping Hereford, it was really nice to sit down in the parlor and put our feet up. The waitress brought us a little plate of appetizers to enjoy as we read the paper and sipped a pint of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord. The Bell’s excellent food and peaceful ambiance was just right for our 25th anniversary dinner. Almost everything they serve was grown or raised onsite or at neighboring farms. Mr. Pickle had the trio of seafood with basil and chorizo couscous, fennel/tomato chutney, and sauce vierge. I enjoyed a perfectly cooked breast of local duck with garden herb pearl barley, a spring roll with duck confit and stir-fried veggies, onion marmalade, and a fine herb jus. At about £17 per entrée, this was our most expensive meal, but it was worth the cost. We reluctantly got back in the car and drove through the dark, pouring rain to Stonehouse in the southern Cotswolds. AA’s directions routed us through the middle of Gloucester (I couldn’t find a way to change this on the AA site), and it was getting difficult to read them, even with the inside car light on. We finally found a helpful gas station clerk who pointed us to the M5. None of the YHA hostels in this area have double rooms, but I found a room at the Travelodge in Stonehouse (http://www.travelodge.co.uk)for £15 a night – definitely the biggest bargain of the trip. We had a very large family room with plenty of space. |
Lee Ann,
Really loving your report and happy to see another Jane Austen fan! I'm not sure if you are a Jane Eyre fan, but Haddon Hall was also used for the newest adaptation of Jane Eyre. We had wanted to tour Stourhead also, but we just didn't have the time - were you able to go, or did you have to cut it out? |
No, I'm not really a Jane Eyre fan, but I did see some of the new BBC version. I picked up a copy of inBritain magazine before we left, and there was an article on Haddon which mentioned Jane Eyre filming there.
We had a wonderful afternoon at Stourhead - report to follow in the next couple of days or so! Lee Ann |
May 10 In Which We Enjoy a Romantic Drive Through the Northern Cotswolds, Discuss Unusual Food Names, and Dine with Julia
While researching this trip, I found the <i>Passport’s Regional Guide to the Cotswolds</i> by Christopher Knowles at the library. I don’t know if it’s still in print, but it has quite a bit of information about the Cotswolds, including a variety of walks and a couple of drives which looked appealing. We decided to do Knowles’ suggested route through the northern Cotswolds, which guided us through not only well-known towns like Bourton-on-the Water, Broadway, and Chipping Campden, but delightful little places like Notgrove, Stanton, and Stourton. After a decent breakfast at a Little Chef located next to the Travelodge, we set off through Stroud and Cirencester to our first stop, Bourton-on-the-Water. The town wasn’t too busy, and we took a few minutes to stroll along the river and look in a few shops. We bought a few items in the Christmas shop; later we wished we’d bought more, as we didn’t see some of the things in other stores along the way. Though we didn’t spend too long in any one place, we enjoyed traveling through the beautiful countryside, including, of course, several wrong turns. :-) It was like driving through the Shire with rolling fields in varying shades of green, interspersed with fields filled with bright yellow blooms. We enjoyed walking up Broadway’s high street, and stopped for our last cream tea of the trip at the Bantam tea rooms in Chipping Campden. The sense of history in these old wool towns, even for the casual observer, is ever present – you can’t help but delight in having tea in a 400-year-old building. After our looping drive, we stopped in Bibury. It was too late for anything to be open, but we spent a while wandering through the rain, looking at the cottages on Arlington Row – I imagine the residents get tired of having tourists walking past their doors every day - and watching a man and his little son feed the ducks by the Coln River. Eventually we made our way back toward Stonehouse. Julia_t lives in the area, and she had made dinner reservations for us at the Bell Inn in Selsley. We drove up the steep hill into the car park, and got out to discover a stunning view across the valley to the towns on the other side. We would never have found this place on our own, but it was a perfect dinner location. Julia gave us a lot of help before we left, and it was a delight to meet her in person. Shortly after we ordered drinks and sat down at our table, one of the regulars came to tell us we should go outside to the beer garden. There was a gorgeous double rainbow spanning the sunlit valley – with the dark clouds behind the hills, it was quite spectacular. One of the men asked where we were from, and we discovered his sister also lived in Albuquerque. “I bet you don’t have faggots on the menu there!” he guffawed. “A lot of Americans come here and get offended when they see them in a menu!” Thanks to you all, I already knew what they were – we’d cooked some a couple of nights earlier, so we skipped them this evening for some lasagna and fish pie. Julia came through with more helpful tourist information – a copy of her walking tour of Bath, another walking tour of the North Nibley area, and a lovely copy of <i>Cotswold Images</i>. We talked about our families, various Fodorites, and more unusual food names, such as the infamous spotted dick. She also made sure we tried their sticky toffee pudding, another “must-eat” on our list. It was topped with that wonderful sauce and a delicious scoop of locally made banana toffee ice cream. It was truly lovely meeting Julia and enjoying dinner with her! |
May 12 In Which We Find Our Shoes Aren’t Made for Walkin’, Contemplate the Dangers of a Red-Hot Poker, and Stroll With the Bennet Girls and Severus Snape
We wanted to do a short walk near where we were staying before we headed south. After consulting with Julia and our Cotswolds book, we chose a walk that started and ended in the small town of Uley, taking us around the ancient hillfort of Uley Bury and giving views of Owlpen Manor and the surrounding countryside. We set off through the drizzle past the Uley post office, skirted the churchyard, and started up the hill, where we reached our first kissing gate and our first dilemma (not what to do at the kissing gate – after 25 years, we can figure that out). It had been raining off and on all over England for the past week, and what would have been a solid border at the edge of the field was now a three-foot wide swamp of mud and muck. Since this was the only walk we’d planned, we left our hiking boots at home. The ever-resourceful Mr. Pickle spotted a large dead tree branch leaning against the fence, which he laid across the muck. We carefully edged along the branch while holding on to the overhanging branches for balance, and voila! We were in the cow pasture, none the worse for wear. Off we trudged up the hill, noting there was indeed a lovely, albeit misty, view of Uley and Owlpen Manor in the distance, and along the edge of the woods to the next gate – and an even wider, deeper stretch of mud with no helpful branches in sight. We looked deeply into each other’s eyes – and at our soaked shoes, socks, and trousers. “I think we’ve had enough country walking for this trip,” Mr. Pickle said. With the strains of “Laughter in the Rain” echoing through my head, we retraced our steps down the field, across the branch, and back into Uley. We took a path through the churchyard, peeked in the church (they were preparing to hold a prayer service for Madeleine McCann and her family), and stopped at the town hall to ask if we could change clothes. I was glad I brought more than one pair of shoes! We chatted a bit with the people who were there for a digital photography class, and one of them suggested we stop at Berkeley Castle since we had extra time in our day. Since it was included in our Great British Heritage Pass, we decided it would be worth a visit. It was an enjoyable drive on one of the B roads; we passed the large William Tyndale monument near North Nibley as we went. As we arrived a few minutes before the castle opened, we spent our time looking at the gardens (pleasant, but not as nice as others we saw) and walking around the perimeter of the castle. The Berkeley family lives in the castle, and someone’s little dog yapped at us from an upper balcony as we passed by. We hadn’t spent any time learning about Berkeley Castle, as it wasn’t on our list of things to see, so we were happy to be invited to tag along with a tour group from Norfolk. We discovered this is the castle where Edward II was imprisoned and met his rather unpleasant, painful end; his cell is one of the first places you see on the tour. It was an interesting tour, including the huge kitchens and the Great Hall, which still has its original painted walls – a neat combination of artwork and Bible verses. Some fortunate couple was having a wedding reception in the Great Hall that afternoon. A variety of floral arrangements decorated the walls, and it was fun imagining having a party there. I found the stained glass windows, which contained a chronology of various kings and nobles, amusing – I didn’t write down the exact names, but many were of people named Harold the Hapless and things like that. We ate lunch in the castle tea room (sandwiches and hot foods, reasonably priced) before leaving. The Edward Jenner (inventor of the smallpox vaccine) Museum is next to the castle, but we didn’t have time to look in. We took a minute to look at all the classic Jaguars which were parked in the car park before we left, though – must have been some kind of road rally going on. Our next stop was Lacock. This town was owned by the Talbot family for hundreds of years and was donated to the National Trust in the 1940s, so the 17th- and 18th-century shops and houses are well preserved. Lacock stood in for Meryton in the BBC <i>Pride and Prejudice</i> and was Highbury in the Gwyneth Paltrow/Jeremy Northam version of <i>Emma</i>, among other films. The cashier in the National Trust store said the <i>Cranford Chronicles</i> (an adaptation of some of Elizabeth Gaskell’s shorter novels), starring Judi Dench, had just finished filming there. Someone asked her how the townspeople feel about all the filming, and she said they seem to enjoy it – everyone signs up to be an extra and puts up with dirt on the streets and all the livestock. We stopped at the Fox Talbot Museum of Photography, which was really interesting. William Henry Fox Talbot was one of the early pioneers of photography; his process of chemically developing pictures, called calotype, enabled photographers to make multiple copies of a single image. The museum contains many examples of his work and equipment, with changing exhibits upstairs. From the museum, we walked down the drive to Lacock Abbey, founded in 1232 by Ela, Countess of Salisbury. She must have been a remarkable woman; she was also involved in the founding of Salisbury Cathedral, and her husband witnessed the signing of the Magna Carta. One of three original copies was housed at Lacock until it was donated to the British Museum Library in 1946. The Sharington family built their house onto the remains of the abbey starting in the 1540s, but the original cloisters still survive. The cloisters were used as part of Hogwarts in the first two Harry Potter movies. We had fun trying to figure out where certain scenes were shot with the help of some photo displays. We left in the late afternoon for the short drive to Bath, ending up by a square trying to figure out how to get to the YHA hostel. It’s actually located on Bathwick Hill, up a very narrow driveway. The hostel was was once an Italianate mansion, and still retains much of its lovely interior decoration. We needed to do laundry, so we decided to have dinner at the hostel rather than driving back into the main part of town. I hadn’t tried a Pimm’s Cup yet, so I ordered one at the hostel’s pub. The bartender didn’t know what I was talking about, and since I’d never had one, I didn’t exactly know how it is made. I told her I would like a Bath Gems ale instead – I’d had one in Selsley and it was very good – only to watch her get my ale, then pour a shot of Pimm’s in on top! As far as I could tell, it didn’t affect the taste one way or the other. We enjoyed our meal, checked email, finished the laundry, and vegged in our room watching TV and chatting. All the double rooms at the Bath YHA have bunk beds, but the price was right and we figured we could handle the novelty for one night. Unfortunately the novelty wore off fairly quickly, as the bunks had really thin, hard mattresses, and we both tossed and turned a lot. |
Lee Ann:
Once you encounter one 3' wide swamp of mud and muck you know what is probably around the corner or up the hill. Been there done that and like you we didn't give up until we were a bit of a mess. Love your descriptions, you bring back delightful memories. Sorry to hear about the bunk beds in Bath. I take it this partical YHA is off your list. Sandy |
You've invented a new drink - a "Pimm's top". Better patent it fast!
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For future reference, you probably helped confuse the barman
Pimm's bottles used to describe themselves as "Pimm's No 1 Cup". It's normal to drink Pimms' about 33% Pimms, 66% lemonade (ie the tasteless, sugared stuff that's sold as lemonade here) and a few hundred percent bits of veg: canonically mint and/or borage, with possibly a bit of cucumber peel, but sometimes half the contents of your nearest greengrocer. Always called just Pimm's in Britain. Ask for a Pimm's and you get the whole botany lesson. I think they've dropped this "Cup" stuff from the label. But they just won't understand if you ask here for a Pimms Cup, though I think I've noticed the term is used sometimes abroad at the kind of places where they talk about "Worcestershire" sauce (in English: always 'Lea & Perrins' or 'Worcester Sauce') |
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