We wake early and are treated to a nice breakfast in Plate, the funky café in the Bird Hotel. This morning we’re setting off to Cheddar Gorge, one of the most scenic drives in England. It’s about 45 minutes to get there, and one of the main reasons we stayed in Bath… I wanted to take Mandy driving in the British countryside. It’s pretty much as romantic as we hoped, rolling fields of green dotted with sheep and oddly furry cattle, with great splashes of bright yellow canola fields, with the terribly quaint village thrown in every 10 minutes or so for good measure. It all so… English.
We get to Cheddar Gorge itself and the landscape changes dramatically. Craggy mountains crisscrossed with hiking trails and speckled with cave openings are inhabited by herds of compact mountain goats (or is it flocks? or packs?) who are unfazed by our presence. The road is crazy fun (for me at least), 22 steep, tight switchbacks over just few miles. We stop for pictures along the way, then head into the town of Cheddar. Despite my belief that cheddar cheese is an American creation, it actually was created, shockingly, here in Cheddar. That also goes a long way into explaining the excellent piece at dinner last night. We stop in the Original Cheddar Cheese Company (not to be confused with the Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company just up the block), and start chatting with the chap at the counter. He recommends the cave aged cheddar by handing us a big chunky sample, and he’s right. Tangy, with a bit of crystals and a rich finish, sharp without being sour, best we have ever tasted, and a bargain at just 6 pounds for a big wedge. Sorry Vermont. And Wisconsin.
Back on the road we wind the other way through the gorge, then
follow the route to Ashwick, the roads getting progressively smaller, rougher
and narrower by the mile. I tell ya,
Ashwick is small… (crowd chears “how small is it?) It’s so small that they had to widen the street to paint a center stripe down it! And if the village
is tiny, the paths are teenier, less
then a Vauxhall wide in some points, although we prevailed in passing, mostly
cause this is a rental car and the stereo is so good we barely heard the
branches scratching down both sides. When
we see a very random but very scenic bench, at a very random but very scenic crossroads,
Mandy very randomly decides that is where the aforementioned cheddar wedge
shall be very randomly and very scenically opened. Damn shame this country doesn’t make its own
wine.
Back in Bath we stop to see The Circus, a large circular
park lined with equally circular townhouses.
From there, it’s just a few blocks to Royal Crescent, a Palladian style semi-circular
row of 30 townhouses from the late 1700s on a high bluff overlooking the park
in the foreground and the rest of Bath in the background, that are even more
upscale then The Circus.
We drop the car at the hotel and head to The Scallop Shell
for lunch. We’re going to see it the
internet is right and this is the home to the best Fish and Chips in Bath. It’s a no frills, off the beaten path kinda
place, whose owner decided to put all of his investment right there on your
plate. I feel bad not ordering a big
hunk of the fresh Monkfish, or sampling the mussels, but we’re on a mission. We do
start with a few of the Orkney Isle Scallops, very well chosen and executed, served
seared in their shell with a dram of pea pesto and a few micro pea greens. While we wait between courses two nice mugs
of Yorkshire tea are served, you know, because we’re in England. The main event is delivered and includes
caught-today north Atlantic cod which is hand battered to order, hot and salty
and chunky chips, traditional English mushy peas and an herbed tarter
sauce. Very, very nice. We (and when I say we, I mostly mean me,
mostly) can’t resist an order of Sticky Toffee Pudding, a dense, spongy, gingerbready
cake island in a sea of caramel toffee topped with a cloud of vanilla ice cream
and a salty tropical breeze of cinnamon and cloves (yea, I got overly excited
when it came and took a big spoonful before Mandy could take a photo, so you’re
just gonna have to make due with my word picture…)
After lunch we walk to Royal Victoria Park and check out the
Botanical Garden (isn’t every garden “botanical”?) then continue on to the
Thermae Spa. The idea of the Thermae Spa
is a modern take on the ancient Roman Baths just a few blocks away. There are two pools, one on the rooftop and
one on the ground level, both fed by the same hot springs that bathed the Romans
back in the day, plus a spa level with various hot and cold therapy rooms and
saunas. It’s a nice facility, but very
overused. Plus, we both thought the
water should be warmer (they temper the hot springs to lower the temp).
All this recreating takes a lot out of a guy, so hotel,
chill, nap. Dinner is pub style at
Salamander. It’s Monday night, so not
real busy. Thankfully we have a
reservation as the friendly bartender lets us know they’re only serving food to
bookings tonight. We don’t quite
understand why, but our table is ready and the bartender and the server couldn’t
be nicer and more friendly to us. Whoever
writes their menu can definitely work for me, as the descriptions of even the
most basic dishes make them sound unmissable.
We settle on the glazed pork belly and traditional sausage roll as
starters, and both crush it. We split
the seafood chowder and are glad we did.
We strike up a conversation with the couple at the next table, 30-somethings
from Manchester on a driving holiday with their dog. We talk travel and sports and family and work
and generally enjoy the entire short arc of our relationship.
Mandy surprises me by suggesting one more stop tonight, and
who am I to say no to a pretty girl who wants a drink? We make our way to a speakeasy called the
Hideout, walking past the Bath Abbey along the way. Well, mostly there, as the
Hideout is pretty well hidden and it takes a few minutes wandering around the
abandoned streets and alleys before we find the door to the tiny drinkery. A good craft bartender is a thing of
beauty, so we let this one just create some drinks for us instead of ordering. He delivers two different cocktails, both whiskey
based, and both delish. We’re sure we
don’t need these, so we sip them slowly, enjoying the place and some nice time
together.
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