Chester to Newbury

We got up Thur morning hoping to find good weather and for a while we did. So we gathered our things and started the first day on the bike. The weatherman predicted 80% or more chance of rain throughout the day so we decided to head south and choose as a destination the town of Newbury. Expecting the weather to be less than desired for the first nights camping, we booked a room in the Newbury Manor Hotel prior to leaving Chester.

The first discovery about British roads was there is a round about every couple miles on just about every road except the “motorways”. While I managed the round abouts just fine, early on it was rather difficult to determine direction because of the towns listed. I had to make a couple u-turns during the first 30 miles of travel until we figured out the way they marked their roads.

Once we got that worked out we were cruising through the rolling hills of some magnificent green fields. Bright emerald green from having been freshly watered by nature it was a stunning photo but due to weather the camera was packed away. Nature also made sure we didn’t feel guilty about packing the camera by dropping significant moisture on us during the afternoon portion of the ride.

Those who have a map handy can follow the trail. I won’t bother to include the wrong way portions so the start was Chester. The basic direction was southerly so from Chester it was Wrexham, Oswestry, Shrewsbury, Hereford, Gloucester, Swindon, Marlborough, and finally Newbury. Truly a joy to be out of the city and riding through the countryside.

The best part of the day was yet to come.

The Manor was just that, an old Manor turned into a Hotel with striking grounds and wonderful rooms. Looking out the window of our second floor room we had views of gardens and a flowing river that runs through the grounds. Amazingly this was the least expensive room we have stayed in since we arrived and by far the nicest. The only drawback was the weather has caused an internet problem so I am writing this for posting later.

Keeping with the ambience we decide to have dinner in the Hotel River Bar Restaurant. Seated at a table for two looking out over the water we are provided multiple menu sheets including one that has a preset 3 course meal with 4 selections in each course. No doubt in either of our minds we dined on the best food we have had since we arrive in the UK and the service was better than I have ever received anywhere. Anyone traveling to the UK in the London area would do well to locate the Newbury Manor Hotel with the River Bar and Restaurant, on the A4 about half way between Windsor Castle and Stonehenge.