We went away this weekend, and stayed just up the road in Abergavenny, as my folks came up.
The arrived on the Friday afternoon, and after failing to find some tea bags, we set off for the public house for a couple of beers and wine. Home earlyish, about half siz, and just time to catch Kate’s new haircut before she was whisked away to a party. Dossed around, had some Tagine, and watched a tiny bit of Children in Need it was an early night ready for Manana.
First port of call once up and showered was the new village Co-Op, which replaced the old shop. It is now smaller, and seem’s more densely packed, and had some issues with it’s papers and alcohol, whoich may be fioxed now, to get some crusty bread and tea bags. Half a loaf of bread later we needed down to Specsavers to get some batteries – which they didn’t have, so a quick look in Boots and we were all set.
We headed down to Colford on a horrible road, it was unfamiliar, and really foggy, so it wasn’t a pleasant run, the girls in the back were looking a little green by the time we got there. There is a place called Puzzle Wood, which is a wood, with some paths, and some odd geographical features (which just means old rocks covered in moss). Kate stole a can of Sprite on the way in (accidently I must add, and we thing that we may have paid for it in the admission charge), and we asked for a map, and the girl said “No maps, it’s just the puzzle of the wood”…
Like all puzzles, it was full of children screaming, wooden fence posts, rocks with moss, and lots of steps. The puzzle is, finding out what the puzzle is.
After a while we found our selves back at the end, which did surprise me once we got there, it is very easy to get disorientated in that there wooded, rocky, mossy place. Back in the car, for a short trip into Monmouth, were we went to the GateKeeper for some reasonable food, the the prep of the match. We didn’t have time to look around Monmouth, so set off for Abergavenny after nosh.
We stayed in the Abergavenny Hotel, which if you look on Google Maps today looks very run down and peeling – luckily for us it has recently undergone a complete make over, and is very pleasant indeed. It’s been open for around four months, and has lots of security doors, that open with a swipe from your card – the rooms were big, the showers bigger and all clean and sparkly – we approved. What we didn’t really approve of was the Kings Head where we ended up attempting to watch the rugby, the had a 80 ft screen, 3 ft away from us, and the speaker system set to 11. It was loud, unclear, uncomfortable, tasteless and full of people.
After rugby (Wales only just snuck a win against a 14 man Fiji team), we headed back to the hotel, to prepare for supper. I had considered driving at this point, after only supping two pints all day, but thankfully thought better of it after 15 mins, and booked a taxi for 6:15. Time for a beer in the hotel. Which was nice.
On the dot the simple taxi man came and whisked us in limited luxury to The Hardwick, which is know for being a bit good – and a bit good it ended up being…
On arrival front of house were reasonably friendly and took us to a great round table for the five of us. Drinks taken, and menu’s provided we tried to work out what to have – I had a Poretti. We ordered a couple of starters, mother shared a couple of scallops, and I mostly ate a crispy pulled pork and black pudding thing, with an apple mustard that had forgotten it was mustardy. Main’s were turbot, rib-eye, burger and a mixed port dish. Most were good, but I have had better steak, and mothers seemed a little tough. It seems to me to be a place where people just expect that the food is good, even when they are tasting it, and it almost doesn’t seem the “done thing” to mention that the food may not actually be worth the extra quids they push on it. I always say I shouldn’t have a steak, but did here, and asked the chef to cook it how he felt it needed, I don’t think he did unfortunately, and it could have done with another couple of mins to really get the fat cooking – but it was pretty good all in all. We then had a little game where you had to clip tiny clothes pegs onto your ear lobe for a bit – I lost.
A variety of puds were brought and all ate, a couple on Poretti’s and two and half hours and two hundred quid later we were back in the taxi to the hotel.
Back in the hotel we sat in the great rooms they had there and had another few gins/vodkas/wines and Grolshes – then it was bed time, and after a quick conti breakfast in the morning the visit was over.
Hotel – 8/10
Hardwick – 7/10
Puzzlewood – 6/10
King Head – 5/10