Newark
03/05/2024
So, Julie finishes work and we travel up to Newark-Upon-Trent. The traffic was terrible on the A34, why don't they do something about this road? As the main south coast to the Midlands link, it is a road we do not look forward to travelling on.
So 4 hours and 5 minutes later, the original journey time was 3 hours and 35 minutes, we book into the Premier Inn in Newark-Upon-Trent. It's actually about a mile outside, but over the road from Brownhills so handy for picking the campervan up on Saturday the 4th of May.
We dropped the bags off and went for a drink in the Roman Way beefeater, as after the journey we though we deserved a drink.
Disappointment number 1! The only beer they had on draught was Doombar! Over the years I have had many a good pint of Doombar while in Cornwall, but since Coors acquired the company and the brand has become available across the country, for various reasons, most out of Coors control, the quality can be a bit variable. But this was a good, well kept pint.
Julie was happy with her The Ned New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.
Disappointment number 2! The food was a bit naff! We decided to have the loaded Nachos to share as a starter. Now, loaded obviously means something else completely in Notts!!
There was 12 nachos and some crumbles, the cheese, cheese sauce, salsa and guacamole didn't even fill the gaps on the plate between the nachos!!
The mains were not much better, Julies smothered chicken wasn't, was therefore dry and my char grilled half chicken looked like it wasn't cooked in the middle, but I was assured by the "attentive" waitress that it had to be, as it was cooked off site, and warmed up in the kitchen, nice!!!
At over £40 for one shared starter and two mains, it was not worth the money.
After walking to just outside Newark and back in the drizzle, time for a warming mug of hotel tea and bed.
04/05/2024
The big day arrives. But first the little matter of breakfast!
Having had a "None Positive" experience in the Beefeater, we decided to drive into Newark and have a look around.
What a lovely place, we found the National Civil War Centre Newark Museum, complete with Pikeman
and it has a nice big market square with a large and varied market.
It was full of the kind of stalls that I like to look/buy stuff from, or as Julie calls them, tat stalls!!
We had a good walk around the town centre to get a bit of an appetite up and found a little cafe just off the square
called the The Old Bakery Tea Rooms & Restaurant.
I had a bacon sausage and runny egg sandwich and Julie had sausage and bacon both on white.
And jolly nice they were too, especially accompanied by a pot of Yorkshire tea, made a good start to the day
Then off the Brownhills Motorhomes to collect the van.
There the van was, was sitting there ready to collect and we could not resist a few photos before we went inside to do the official handover.
These ARE our happy faces!!! Honest!
