The Olde Bell - Berkshire

So... The husband and I have realised it's pretty good to get out of London every now and again. And when we do we like it to be to a fancy olde stylee Country Inn. The type that has real ale and a fancy wine list and great *locally sourced ingredients* for their excellent menu. They've probably featured on some list of the Best Inns in The Sunday Times. We probably googled it. There will definitely be some good walks near by. We almost certainly won't manage much more than a small stroll. GROAN... We're definitely not young and edgy. ANYWAY, after several drinks in the bar before dinner and some serious discussion about how annoying people like us are - we realised we might as well just enjoy it. It won't always be like this.

So the first one was to the Olde Bell in Hurley, Berkshire. I liked this because they spelt OLDE the way I approve of. The husband had done loads of googling and found it on the basis that it had a brilliant restaurant. And it wasn't too far, so we could borrow Dad's car and I could practice driving without getting too scared (recently passed the old test, hadn't I?).

THE OLDE BELL, HURLEY - BERKSHIRE, March 2010

http://www.theoldebell.co.uk/

Pub: nice. board games, good chairs, an open fire. all the good stuff. it wasn't the cosiest place in the world - but you'd be amazed how cosy a few red wines can make you.

Walks: good - we didn't have to go too far to find a Llama. Yep - an actual Llama. We took some photos of the llama, saw a bit of the river and then quickly walked back to the snug bar to have a bloody mary.

Room: Here is where we had some issues. Our room was IN the car park - and HOTTER THAN THE SUN. And the windows didn't open. It was a new building - not the nice little room upstairs from the pub we'd been expecting. We tried to get moved - but they were full. The bed was amazing, but it didn't really improve the fact that we were in a new build box in a car park.

Staff: I can't really remember - but I don't remember them being particularly helpful about the HOT room in the car park.

Dinner: the food was, as far as I can remember, fabulous. As was the wine. Can't remember what I had - it was 18 months ago. Sorry.

Breakfast: We missed it by mistake.

Next day: I crashed the car on the way home.

It was a fun weekend. We decided we'd do it again. Minus the car crashing. That was really shit.