Wednesday was the day of our wedding anniversary, so we went out to dinner. My husband had booked the hotel on-line, without looking at it in any detail. Consulting our "Lonely Planet" guide to Wales from five years ago, we got the impression that the hotel had a casual, surfer vibe and that we might be overdressed.
We might have known something was adrift when we saw the car-park. Pembrokeshire has a distinctive style of field boundary made of stone, but topped with turf. In this spanking-new car-park, field boundaries had been tastefully reconstructed. We were shown into a dimly-lit dining room, the walls of which were lined with huge paintings. The whole thing had been reinvented as an "Art Hotel", a term I don't recall hearing before. Facing me were three pictures showing Audrey Hepburn, Ava Gardner and Elizabeth Taylor in a stylised image, each with a massive tear-drop running down from one eye. One of these was red, so that it looked for all the world like someone bleeding from the eye. Nice. The artist calls himself "Pure Evil"; this makes sense. As for creating a comfortable ambiance for a relaxed meal, it did not work for me.
I could go on. Of course, we were then treated to that kind of "Fine Dining" where everything tastes very nice, but there is nowhere near enough of it, and the idea of just serving potatoes with the main course seems to break a rule of some kind. At least we had plenty to talk about.
The following day we went back to
Porthgain, where there is a restaurant called "The Shed". Here we ate the most delicious haddock and chips for lunch, sitting outside on their terrace. We had a side dish of fennel and apple salad - what more could one ask for?
From there we drove on to Fishguard, where there is a delightful, sheltered harbour, ice-creams, places to sit...idyllic.
Up in the town, I walked out of the car-park to find this - a very well-stocked woolshop.
In the centre of town is a fascinating exhibition of a tapestry, memorialising the attempted invasion of Britain by the French in 1812. They landed at Fishguard and the tapestry shows how it all went from there - local heroes and heroines, including a lady called Jemima who single-handedly rounded up twelve French soldiers. Later, two local lasses helped a batch of French prisoners to escape and eloped with them on their ship. It is a dramatic story, and the tapestry is very well-designed and executed.
Next stop was Melin Tegwynt, another of those working woollen mills, this time famous for bedspreads and throws. It was a grand day out.
We might have known something was adrift when we saw the car-park. Pembrokeshire has a distinctive style of field boundary made of stone, but topped with turf. In this spanking-new car-park, field boundaries had been tastefully reconstructed. We were shown into a dimly-lit dining room, the walls of which were lined with huge paintings. The whole thing had been reinvented as an "Art Hotel", a term I don't recall hearing before. Facing me were three pictures showing Audrey Hepburn, Ava Gardner and Elizabeth Taylor in a stylised image, each with a massive tear-drop running down from one eye. One of these was red, so that it looked for all the world like someone bleeding from the eye. Nice. The artist calls himself "Pure Evil"; this makes sense. As for creating a comfortable ambiance for a relaxed meal, it did not work for me.
I could go on. Of course, we were then treated to that kind of "Fine Dining" where everything tastes very nice, but there is nowhere near enough of it, and the idea of just serving potatoes with the main course seems to break a rule of some kind. At least we had plenty to talk about.
The following day we went back to
Porthgain, where there is a restaurant called "The Shed". Here we ate the most delicious haddock and chips for lunch, sitting outside on their terrace. We had a side dish of fennel and apple salad - what more could one ask for?
From there we drove on to Fishguard, where there is a delightful, sheltered harbour, ice-creams, places to sit...idyllic.
Up in the town, I walked out of the car-park to find this - a very well-stocked woolshop.
In the centre of town is a fascinating exhibition of a tapestry, memorialising the attempted invasion of Britain by the French in 1812. They landed at Fishguard and the tapestry shows how it all went from there - local heroes and heroines, including a lady called Jemima who single-handedly rounded up twelve French soldiers. Later, two local lasses helped a batch of French prisoners to escape and eloped with them on their ship. It is a dramatic story, and the tapestry is very well-designed and executed.
Next stop was Melin Tegwynt, another of those working woollen mills, this time famous for bedspreads and throws. It was a grand day out.
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3 comments:
Sounds like our kind of day. Not sure about your poor old wedding anniversary meal. Oh, and a happy anniversary too. Take care.
This mills are nothing but a huge treat. Thanks for sharing!
No artsy name either - Wool Shop. It looks like a perfect outing.
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