Abergavenny and Lough Pool Inn

Posted on 2007/07/01 10:34:59 (July 2007).

[Saturday 23rd June]
Today was Chie's family's first full day in the UK. We spent the morning and part of the afternoon in Abergavenny - took a wander round the town centre, then headed over to Vera and Robin's house for a "hot fork buffet" and a glass or two of Pimm's. Robin does a particularly excellent jug of Pimm's, which seemed to go down very well with all of our guests (despite the ladies being more or less teetoal). I therefore predict Pimm's could become the next big thing in Japan.

Some time after 4 we headed out to wend our way over to our evening venue - the Lough Pool Inn in Herefordshire. On the way we stopped off at Skenfrith, which provides an excellent return on investment for casual sight seeing - featuring both a ruined castle, and an interesting old church (and both free!). We also popped into Ross-on-Wye very briefly as well - Robin seemed to be a dab hand at fitting in with the Japanese whistle stop tourist ideology.

We got to the Lough Pool at 6pm, a little early it turned out as the pub wasn't actually quite open yet, but it was just about nice enough to sit outside and wait so we were undeterred. It is a really charming little pub, as hopefully the pictures attest, and exactly the sort of image of England I would like our guests to take back to Japan with them (albeit not that representative any more).

Louise, Ian, Beck and Dave (my aunt, uncle, cousin and cousin's other half) joined us there, and so we totalled 12 people - a decent sized party. Everything went pretty well really - the food was good (well, everyone else's was - I wasn't too impressed with the vegetarian option, but never mind), and the setting was perfect. The only slight downside was that we had a long table, and naturally the Japanese and English seemed to group together at either end. So this, in addition to the usual language barrier, meant the two groups didn't really speak together as much as I would have liked. Still, Chie's family had also spent all of the afternoon with Vera and Robin, and they'd all somehow managed to cmmunicate then. Plus my uncle Ian and Chie's Dad did seem to form something of a bond, in that particular way smokers who are forced outside to smoke often do.

So all in all a very pleasant evening.

Vera is looking great as usual, send my best regards. I love the country pub pictures, you really make me want to come to England soon!!!

Posted by Lox at 2007/07/01 11:32:24.

Yes Lox, she is full of beans still!

...and yes, the Lough Pool is a rather fine looking example of an English country pub isn't it?

It would be great if you could come to England at some point - you're of course very welcome to come and stay at our flat, very centrally located in an expensive part of London. :)

Posted by John at 2007/07/01 12:06:55.

...actually I have been thinking recently how I'd really like to come to Italy some time soon - and just this morning Chie mentioned the same thing. I rather fancy the idea of doing the whole thing by train, going down through France etc.

Posted by John at 2007/07/01 12:08:39.

Might take a while to arrive to Florence but of course you are welcome to come and I have a spare double bed so no problems there! :D

Posted by Lox at 2007/07/01 18:04:44.

Apparently Paris - Firenze can be done in a mere 10 hours, so quite manageable in a day's travel. In fact the only change is at Milan, which is quite impressive. So , for example, we could head off to Paris Friday night, stay the night there, hop on a train Saturday morning, and be in Firenze in time for pizza Saturday night!

Posted by John at 2007/07/01 18:50:20.

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