Alveston to Emerson’s Green - Bristol
The Alveston House Hotel was very expensive and although not bad it did not justify the cost - I’m not sure if there was a bank holiday loading. It seems the restaurant is now run by a separate company although ostensibly part of the whole and it is not clear which of the two halves staff are working for. The restaurant is Italian. The only draught available was Guiness. I had a small portion of garlic bread and a reasonable spaghetti. carbonara and two small Peronnis. I tried to have a bath but the water was not really hot enough. This morning I asked if they could let me have a postage stamp but they said they didn’t have any. Maybe I am being a bit over critical but ‘twas all for the want of a postage stamp” - that could have been their chance to show willing - I’m damn sure they could have found one somewhere. A contrast from the place in France when I asked for a cigar and the waiter disappeared into the night to find one elsewhere and then wouldn’t let me pay. The quote is a reword of a climbing song that I think RR wrote: “It was all for the want of a nail.”
I have been walking in roads mainly. I’m fed up with parochial footpaths. I made much quicker time and arrived at mi Air B and B by 3:15. The lady is absent but has left full instructions re entry keys, breakfast stuff, WiFi and everything else she could have thought of, and she has communicated very promptly with me by messaging within the Air B and B system. The house is immaculate and I have everything I need and will be able to get off in good time rather than being dictated to by hotel breakfast times. I am going to upload some photos now.. Blogger does not put them in the correct order. I have included one pretty country lane for BC, also the bream that I saw caught a few days ago on the canal, and a funny tower construction passed on the way - your guess is as good as mine - I couldn’t see any other clues.
Thanks for the photo.
ReplyDeleteLooks good weather down there, freezing up here.
Yes I've never been able to justify the expense of some accomodations, they are all basically a B and B and when you are passing through for one night can't make use of their fancy facilities.
Are you past halfway now. Bonne continuation.
Your journey seems to be progressing splendidly Conrad. How many days to go?
ReplyDeleteBC - halfway! I reckon I will finish the day after tomorrow ie Tuesday or maybe Wednesday. I only look ahead one day at a time.
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Afoot - see comment above. Thanks for the comment - they’ve been a bit sparse on this trip - I din’t mean you but in general.
Your reference to the climbing song set me thinking. I didn't write it but I used to sing it. But there was a line I didn't care for (the third line here):
ReplyDeleteYou're a thousand feet high
And you're nearing the sky,
You can't get a grip on the shale...
Not many climbers find themselves looking for footholds on shale. I decided to rewrite this line. I was moderately pleased with the result and I was under the impression I'd blogged about it. But searches of Tone Deaf and its predecessor Works Well showed no reference. Further pondering suggested I may, instead, have included the rewrite in a letter to The Man from Mungrisdale- a sequence whereby we exhange letters, typed out on paper and enclosed in an envelope with a stamp, a deliberately old-fashioned mode of communication which we mutually agreed several years ago.
I continued to wonder about whether the rewrite was as satisfactory as I seem to recall. I could do a search of the letters I sent since they're on my hard disc. But it wouldn't be casual labour. The exchange works on a roughly three-month cycle and my most recent contribution was number 28. A lot of searching. Would a decision to embark on such work be a measure of my ego?
As the French would say: On verra.
We stayed at the London Hilton last month, purely beause it's location was convenient for where we needed to be. Whilst the price we paid was very reasonable for that area of London (although eye-watering by our usual standards), I couldn't help but think that we would have been just as happy in a B&B or Travelodge.
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