Last night we stayed at a motel on the M6 on our way up to visit our daughter Sarah in St Andrews. It’s a bit of a trek for one day so, now that we have plenty of free time, it made sense to stagger the journey. The economy accommodation was adequate and clean but there was no hint of luxury. Mind you, what can you expect for £39?
It’s a good job that it was cheap as I somehow managed to reverse the car into a concrete pillar in an act of incompetence that’s going to leave me with either a big bill for a new bumper or an end to the twenty years’ no claims discount. These stupid old drivers should be kept off the road! No excuses at all. The car even has a reversing camera that I failed to look at. Hangs head in shame.
At least we had something to take our minds off my stupidity when we arrived at The Old Course Hotel to a very warm welcome, a fabulous room and these fresh strawberries with chocolate – lovely.
On the way up yesterday we had a great lunch at the Yanwath Gate Inn. This is one of those “just off the motorway” pubs that you can find in guidebooks and, whilst it is indeed just a few minutes from the motorway, it feels like the heart of the country. Only a couple of miles outside Penrith, the Inn, with its roaring log fire and very friendly welcome, served a high standard of food and, with the rain lashing down outside, we could have comfortably installed ourselves by the fire for the afternoon. Instead we headed into Penritth to see if we could find the tearoom from Withnail & I. We were on a wild goose chase as the Penrith Tea Room scenes in the film were actually filmed somewhere in the home counties. Nonetheless Penrith is a very busy market town with plenty of shops to browse around and, but for the rain, we would have spent more time.
But it would have been good had the tearooms existed and we could have ordered the finest wines available to humanity.
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