Off 'up north again. - Wednesday 3/7/24
Had been thinking of going to Scotland again this summer, but personal circumstances decided otherwise.
Opting to stay a little closer to home in case we had to return at short notice, we decided on Yorkshire and North Wales, both places we love, and had not visited for a while.
As is so often the way for us, just days before the off, an opportunity arose to meet up with some old friends we had not seen for a while, so our trip 'up north' started with us going south to Hitchin in Hertfordshire.
We stopped the night at The Rising Sun, at Halls Green, where we met up with a couple from Scotland we had first met in Goa. Fred and Lorraine also have a camper, well, actually its quite a large motorhome.
They live in theirs full time during the summer, and spend their winters in warmer climbs, such as India and Thailand. They were parked up here too, and we spent a pleasant evening
catching up on since we last met in Scotland while on the NC500.
Next day saw us heading up the A1 for Yorkshire, stopping for lunch in Melton Mowbry, famous for the eponymous Melton Mowbry pork pie.
Though I'm known to be partial to a nice lardy porkpie, this time went for something a bit lighter. While we were here, as we hadn't planned where we were going to stop tonight, spent some time on google maps and a pub stop website looking for places that ticked all the boxes to find somewhere convenient to park up.
Those boxes mostly being, nice looking pub with flat carpark, away from main roads, serving decent real ales.
Decided on The Wheatsheaf in Sherburn in Elmet, being not too far from York where we wanted to spend a day looking round.
The reviews looked quite good, so opted for that one and phoned ahead to see if it was OK to stay.
After a fairly strange conversation with who I presumed was the landlady, and who seemed a little hard of hearing, all was arranged, so we pinned it in google and set off.
Upon arrival, first impression was the place looked a bit more run down that it had on google maps.
We parked up in the corner away from the scrap cars, near a gate to the
field out back which contained a fine selection of poultry. After putting up the poptop, I left for the pub while the other brewed a cup of tea and attended to the housework.
My first impression from the outside was not encouraging, but on the inside it did not improve.
There was no real ale! In fact, there was no ale of any kind at all!!!
They had lager, but though there were quite a few customers, only three of them were drinking it. Everyone else was drinking Guiness, so though not my first choice, Guiness was my beverage of the night.
I got chatting to a few locals, and the landlady (who actually was partially deaf) and perused the menu which looked quite promising and very reasonably priced. Halfway through the second guiness I was joined by my wife and we ordered our meals. When they arrived, they were massive. Neither of us could finish them, and they were so good, we really did want to.
As the night progressed, more beverages were consumed, and we got chatting to a few more of the locals.
We found out they were holding a pub quiz the following evening, and were invited to participate. Leaving the invitation open, we staggered back to the camper for the night.
The lesson here is first impressions can often be deceptive. We had a fantastic night, and though boxes remained unticked, it didn't matter in the end, as friendliness and ambience filled the spaces. (oh, and Guiness, too.)
This was my roast beef filled yorkshire pudding, with proper gravy and veg, £7.50!
