03/09/19 - The Half Moon, Hitchin

Distance - 7 Miles
Geocaches - 11
Good Beer Guide Tick 420 - The Half Moon


I consider myself a bit of an of an expert in this part of Hertfordshire.  I spent 13 years working for a company with its head office in Hatfield and spent many evenings exploring the area.   In order of entertainment found...  Hatfield (still carry the mental scars of a soulless new town),  Stevenage, Hertford, Ware and  the Jewel in Hertfordshire's Crown - St Albans.   That became the de facto standard for overnight stays.

Hitchin always escaped me and despite its lack of pubs, I really enjoyed the historic market town with a considerable amount of high end restaurants.   There is a single Good Beer Guide Pub, which I will come to after an evening walk, where I discovered exactly how close we are getting to the end of British Summer Time.

Geocaches present a decent 7 mile walk to the South West.   The landscape is mainly agricultural, but the paths were good. 

The OS Map suggests there is a pre-walk drink to be had in Charlton, but sadly the campaign to save the Windmill failed.

Community Action

Another Dead Soldier

After many fields, I arrived at Great Offley where the Red Lion was open for custom.   I knew I didn't have enough daylight to warrant a stop, regardless of how much I wanted to explore this bastion of patriotism.

Free House

Lanes take me back to Hitchin civilisation, but not before the single battery power mini torch came out to help with route finding.  8.20pm and its time for bed.

Evening Walking coming to an end for 2019

Pitch black by the time I find the Good Beer Guide 2019 Entry that is The Half moon.   Initial signs of high cask turnover are very promising.

Supplies

The Half Moon by Night

A real surprise to walk into a packed pub on a Tuesday evening.   The reason - Quiz Night.   The prizes must be out of this world.   Not a free table to be had and I was not the only one forced to hover at the glass return point as the Quiz Master read out the answers to round 1.

I scored a high percentage on a literature round, where I could only shout "Hunter S Thompson" as the answer to the question, who invented the style of journalism known as Gonzo.

I continued to hover at the place where leaning was an impossibility, nursing a very decent pint of Youngs Special.   How would I fare in the 2nd round?

Nil Points, so I went in search of food, keeping Hitchin 8th best restaurant open longer then they expected.

I'm back next Tuesday. 

Its a toss up between geocaching in the dark or getting into the Half Moon early to enter a team of one into the quiz.

08/08/19 - Edinburgh South Side Pubs

Distance - 2 Miles
Pubs - 4
Good Beer Guide Tick - 408
Walk Inspiration - Camra Pub Walks in Edinburgh, Walk 13

Edinburgh for the Fridge but we cannot complain.   We are some of the tourists that render the streets impossible to pass and bus rides that double in duration.   True Toonies (googled that) move out of the City in August.  We know this, as we are renting their flat on AirBNB.

And what a fine flat in Morningside it is.   It means that once the laughs with David O'Doherty are over, we can fashion a walk home through the South Side to get some harder of the harder to reach City pubs.

Dagda Bar, 93 Buccleuch Street, Oakham Citra

Only pub of the four in the 2019 Good Beer Guide.

Tenement Terrace Pub

It's a tiny one roomer with a bar across the back wall.    A battle to get through the punters but quick and friendly service for my first (believe it or not) Oakham Citra.

Decent pint, functional boozer.   Now I know where it is, I will return.

Inside a busy one roomer...

The Abbey, South Clark Street, Deuchars

Very little in the guide about this pub - just mentions its corporate make over.   Usually enough to put me off, but we were passing and when I follow a pub crawl, I like to do the author justice.

Corporate Abbey

It was perhaps better for its whisky than its beer and I only wish I had seen the "region samplers" where a tenner gets you three 25ml measures from a particular area.   Good value.

Instead it was a quick Deuchars, once the barman realised I hadn't said Guinness.   A Brummie in Edinburgh, divided by a common tongue.

Leslie's Bar, Ratcliffe Terrace, Timothy Taylor Landlord

The guide is far more gushing about Leslie's Bar - a place that I have stored in my phone from my previous Edinburgh visits, when it was in the 2018 Good Beer Guide.   Removed from this year's edition, which seems cruel, especially when the serve the King of Beers.

Leslie's By Night

A magnificent island bar built in 1899 and completely unchanged.   Bob Steel loved this place and I can see why.   However (and there's always an however) its not entirely practical for the newbie.  A photo lifted from their facebook page will reveal.   I'm not that brave to take one in situ.

An 1899 Bar

The left hand side has a built up bar with snob screens.... originally so the gentry would not be observed at head height.   Nice idea, but not if you don't know what beers are on offer.  So I head to the opposite side, where a row of bar hanging seats are all fully occupied and the only way to get service is to poke your head between a couple of men who are both deep in conversation and refused any more alcohol by the barstaff, presumably based upon that conversation.

The TT landlord is taken back to Gentry Side, where the glory of the place can be properly admired.

Inspiration for a future pub walk

The Old Bell, Causewayside, Lagavulin 16

My night time photo did not do the architecture justice, so another photo lifted from the net.

Handsome by day

I'd also told Mrs M that although we have been walking in vaguely the right direction for our AirBnB, Morningside was the best part of 2 miles away.

A nightcap, whilst summonsing up an Uber.

Marriage is all about compromise.

It came in 3 minutes - making my 16 year old malt the most expensive drink I've ever consumed, based on pence per minute.

03/08/19 - High Rock, Rindleford and Bridgnorth's Black Horse Hotel

Distance - 5 Miles
Geocaches - 1
Walk Inspiration - AA Walks in Shropshire


Mrs M will testify that I have a decent collection of walking books.    Every time I walk one, I make a little note of the date walked at the top of the route page.

Today, we had the honour of looking after Guide Dog in Training Poppy - so I thought I would find an old favourite ramble to keep her entertained.

The note at the top of the page showed that I last walked this in April 2004.   15 years ago.   Where on earth does the time go.

By the state of the paths, I would suggest that very few people have subsequently walked it.

We start at the Cemetery - a steep path running alongside the walls.   Some serious tree maintenance since my last visit - to the point of decimation.

Wasteland

Its nice and shady for Poppy, who is happy to pose for next year's Guide Dog Calendar.  Reasonable paths take us up to High Rock - which does exactly what it says on the tin.   Views over the Severn and Poppy tethered in case she doesn't appreciate heights.

Guide Dog Photo Shoot

Always a tree in the way

From here on, things get tricky.   The paths along the edge of Pendlestone Rock disappear and are frequently blocked by fallen trees.  A tough half mile, not made any easier with adult kids in tow.  When Ms Mappiman gets her hair bun stuck in a tree, you know you are in trouble.

Short lived relief at Woodside, where a sunken path takes us down to Fenn Gate and into the Batch.   As strange a place as I have ever walked.  Completely remote, leading to the River Whorfe and Rindleford - the place that time (and everyone else) forgot.

Even I, the hardiest of ramblers, cannot put on a brave face as we battle 6ft ferns.   Rindleford does not want outsiders to find them.

Public Footpath to the Batch.  Only 1 out of 5 of us smiling

The Whorfe was almost worth it - a fast flowing, shallow stream that Poppy loved a splash around in.  No drama on the way back through crop fields and taking a short cut to town along the footpath on the A454.

The Walk is Over

Onwards to promised refreshment.  Bridgnorth has 6 Good Beer Guide Entries.   With a couple previously explored, we made our way to Low Town for a visit to the a first - Will Mod themed pubs catch on?

The Black Horse Hotel is a sprawling, multi roomed pub that has recently been extended into next door's building.   Finding the bar where someone was serving required a full tour through empty rooms.

Enter through the Round Portal

Empty Room #1

The Who

With a left over prop from Quadrophonia 

Beer wise - it was a delight of quite similar Pale Ales.   Batham's Bitter, Hobson's Town Crier and Three Tuns XXX sounds like a starter for my top five beers ever and all were on display. Something I've been putting off for long time had to happen and my favourite declared.

The task was made slightly easier by the bloke in front of me returning his Bathams for the pump clip to be reversed and declared off.   The overall winner selection cancelled due to non runners.

I can report that The Three Tuns was in exceptional condition.   Been a long time since I found this old favourite on sale.

Earlier we mentioned Ms M woe at being snagged in trees and her day got progressively worse.   The Black Horse does not do cooked food, so her promised lunch was a pickle laden cob and crisps.  Taken outside, where she was singled out for attack by a hoard of angry wasps.

She went and sat in the car.

27/07/19 - Good Beer Guide Pubs of Llandudno

Pubs - 3
Good Beer Guide Ticks - 403 - 405


Basking in the heat of the hottest July day ever recorded, Mrs M books us a weekend away.   Weather reports are evaluated and North Wales promises "Wall to Wall Sunshine".

Here's the Albert, the First of three Good Beer Guide Pubs visited in Llandudno.

You cannot see the Great Orme, tomorrow's walk, for drizzle

The Albert is a functional Gastro Pub, which the bible states "has the beers on offer clearly marked on a Chalkboard".

Good job, as you cannot get near the pumps for the bar hangers - who are very protective of their front row seats.

I tried to put my head between the conversation, but this was met with disapproval

I found the chalk board - above the bar and with lettering that rendered it unreadable with or without my glasses.

There was nothing for it, I went to the end of the bar with space and where the serve the kegs. 

The man next to me had a lovely looking pint - dark, malty colour with a pefect 1/2 inch of creamy head.   I'll ask him what he's on.

How do you back away from John Smiths  :-) ?

Instead, I went LocALE for a Conwy brewery Beachcomber.   A refreshing Pale Ale that lived up to the Untappd review of "grapefruity notes".

Functional.... and we move over the road to Tapps - a Micropub.   I'm having to think which word before pub makes my heart sink the fastest.... Micro or Gastro.

To be fair, when they are done right, micros work well.   They either need a lot of variety of interesting Continental Bottles (a la the Beer Emporium, Kidderminster) or good music, played at a comfortable volume masking the hum of refrigerators in silent Micros (sadly lacking in the Bull Baiters, Worcester or  Little George, Stroud).

This fell into the good music category and with a healthy representation of clientele,  we were hard pressed to differentiate this from a regular pub.

And the Welsh Pride by Conwy Brewery was perfect.

No external shots of Tapps - Smokers in the Rain

After a lengthy walk along the prom and a couple of false starts finding restaurants that are both high on Tripadvisor and with Saturday night availability, we find ourselves walking past some horror shows of karaoke pubs, a Wetherspoons that surprisingly isn't in the bible (they usually are, I can only wonder what crime the Palladium has committed), arriving at the night's third tick and easily the best of the lot.

The Snowdon hotel has a lovely open covered terrace at the front, so the gentle noise of conversation filling the night air tempts the ardent pub tickers in.

But unfortunately makes for a poor photograph

A lovely looking bar, with plenty of choice that is not evaluated in the slightest when I see the Red Triangle.

I would be drummed out the pub tickers society, had I refused a Bass.

Mrs M's limb, checking in her diet coke into UnTappd.

A fine pub.   We walked past it again in the rain-light on Sunday's walk.  The only reasons not to revisit was to check into Llandudno's oldest and see how Tim's vision for turning a theatre into a boozer from the inside had worked out.

Snowdon in the Rain.

27/07/19 - Conwy - An Adventurous Pub Walk

Distance - 7.5 Miles
Walk Inspiration - Walk 36, AA Walks through Britain's History
Geocaches - 3
Pubs - 4 Good Beer Guide 2019 Entries - Liverpool Arms, Albion, Bank of Conwy, Erskine Arms



A lot to love on this walk - not least the fact that it heads past the front door of four Good Beer Guide 2019 Pubs.  In addition to quality beer, we can throw in a postcard perfect castle, a lovely stretch along an estuary, an optimistically labelled mountain and some wild moor land.

This ramble has it all - and the only thing we regret is parking in the 4 hour maximum stay Short Stay Car Park beneath the castle walls.   There's so much more we could have done.

The first 20 minutes of the 4 hours are spent taking photos.   Conwy is that sort of place.

All Walks should start at a Castle

Too Early for the GBG Liverpool Arms

Welsh lady hurrying up the tourists.  20 Japanese Tourists booked in.

We've gained a delightful walkaway along the estuary, passing what is marked on the OS map as a "Butterfly Jungle" before cutting inland on the Wales Coast Path.

Views back to the castle, along the estuary

The Coast Path is going to take us over Conwy Mountain.   At 800ft, its a stretch to give it such a serious name but its a joy to climb through the purple heather, along remote paths and with views to the proper Snowdonia mountain ranges.

Mrs M, not sure if she signed up for Mountain Walks

Gorgeous paths, views and colours

The rest of the walk is gorgeous but with similar views to those presented.   Wild moorland, views either to mountains or over Anglesey.  Many photos but they are mostly the same.

Rest of the Walk is either this, or the sea

A drop down back to the town, the only drama of the day navigating a field of bulls.   Mrs M sends me first but after I make it successfully across, refuses to come, heading off in a direction that won't get her to the three remaining pubs of the day.   If she want's lunch she's going to have to man up.

Of course, the bovines bellow to greet her bravery.

Into the town and entering through the town walls is suitably epic.

How to end a walk

In December, there will be a look back and a review of my adventures.   Here we have 2019 "Walk of the Year".

Onto Refreshment.

With three remaining pubs and only an hour left on the Parking ticket - its going to have to be whittled down to 2.

As a Baggies fan, the Albion Ale House, was always likely to be a winner.   From the outside, its doesn't look much - a slightly down at heel old mans pub that Mrs M needs all of North Wales Camra's recommendation to enter.

We're the Albion

Advertising from 2016

Any concerns dissipate on entry.   The decorating budget has been spent inside this two roomed boozer.  All soft wooden hues and lighting more suited to a 1920's ballroom or the lounge on an ocean cruiser.

Home of the Lovely Lamp Shades

Two friendly and knowledgeable bar ladies explained their wares and pointed me to a Purple Moose Lifeboat - which a beer that I couldn't find on UnTappd and must have been a renamed pale from their range - presumably with contributions to the appeal.

Successful first stop and we have 30 minutes for lunch.

The Bank of Conwy looked like it was doing a roaring trade but we bypassed for the more traditional Erskine Arms.

Bank of Conwy

The Erskine Arms is a huge, smart hotel.   With tourists, families and a wedding party in the main lounge, a touch of exploring was required to find tranquility in "the study"

Good Beer Guide Goes Posh

My sort of space

Timothy Taylor Bolt Maker and a top quality fish finger sandwich rounded off a superb walk.

And we were back to the car two minutes before trouble.

17/07/19 - Worcester City Urban Ramble and the Dragon Inn

Distance - 4 Miles
Walk Inspiration - Urban Rambles
Good Beer Guide Tick #400 - The Dragon Inn


UrbanRambles.org is a web site I have had my eye on for sometime.   There are 40+ City walks in the UK and four overseas walks - New York, Lisbon, Buenos Aires and Rio De Janeiro.   We're hoping to put the South American ones to the test by the end of the year.

The closest to me is Worcester.   A City I know well, but unbelievably have never been inside the Cathedral.   This walk will fix that - entering one side and exiting through the other.

No need for me to go overboard with the walk locations - a detailed commentary at their website.

A few photos and then concentrate on post walk refreshment.

Elgar Monument at the bottom of the City

The walk takes a meandering route through the City Centre - which is not always the prettiest.   Some serious 1960s vandalism improvements took place in the name of shopping.   Surprisingly, we don't take in Friar Street, where prime examples of this are represented.   A Medieval merchants townhouse (Greyfriars) opposite one of the worst car parks (aesthetically and to navigate) known to man.

Entering the Cathedral from the North

Inside

Exiting via the Cloisters

Hours could be spent in the Cathedral.  A quick internal circuit but more time is required than we had.   We will be back.

First English Civil War Site - Fort Royal

A short hop to Fort Royal, overlooking the City, which played a key part in the Battle of Worcester 1651.   Charles II watched the fighting here from the Cathedral tower before legging it, hiding in an Oak Tree and getting a Long Distance Path (Monarch's Way) created in his honour.   Fine views over the City and Malvern.  The Commandery, at the bottom of the hill, can be visited for more Civil War history.

Worcester - Birmingham Canal to the River Side

Head North until you get back to the bridge

Some walking, unhindered by history or attractions.   The canal takes us to the river (mid point refreshments available at the Anchor) before a walk through playing fields and back along the river from Diglis Lock, turning back into town when we reach Worcester Bridge.

The beauty of this City Walk is we pass very close by to 6 of 8 Good Beer Guide pubs that are available in the City.   You could make a real boozy day of it.

We decide to head to the previously undocumented Dragon Inn at the Northern end.

Dragon Inn - purveyor of Church End Brewery's Wares

One of the major employers in the Town was Kays Catalogue - their head office was directly over the road.   I had my first IT job there, and one of my last responsibilities before leaving in 1995 was to review the impact off the fledgling Internet to the business model. 

Wikipedia shows it was defunct, 9 years later.   I called it - but failed to take advantage of Internet Domain Name Bagging - where we could have registered the names of well known enterprises before they had even thought about it.

Mappiman.Blogspot.Com was free.

In those days, the Dragon Inn was a run down joint that you'd visit only when you fancied a change from the Guinness at the Lamb and Flag.

Today, its had a refurbishment, maintaining its pubby interior and adding a rather splendid outdoor patio area.    There's not enough in the architecture alone to make it a destination pub but the beer, from the award winning Church End Brewery, does.   Most of their range was on and I chose Goat's Milk.

Supreme Champion Beer of Britain, 2017.   I can see why.  A beautiful golden ale, that shone that nicely in the sunshine, I really should have included it in the photo.

Traditional Pub - viewed from a smashing beer garden