Travels with Wynd: England

Our next B&B was in Horsham, outside of Guiliford. It took us about 3 hours to drive from Potcote to The Thatched House. I asked Helena how Potcote obtained it's name, and she said she wasn't sure, except that the word "cote" means a sort of haven. Wtih all of the animals there, maybe it's a refuge from being hunted and put in a pot. It was obvious when we saw the Thatched House why it was named such..

This was our first glimpse of the Thatched House, and it looks very nice and it was...but there was a very busy road about 30 feet from this front gate. So while it looks like it is in the middle of the country like Potcote, it wasn't. Well, at least from the front.

Jeff and Mary, owners of The Thatched House were very nice people. As soon as we arrived, Jeff offered to help us bring in our luggage, (we politely declined) and he offered us tea, which we accepted. As we entered our room, I managed to take pictures of it before we could junk it up in any manner:

A very nice touch here was the decanteur of wine and some grapes and strawberries in our toom on the dresser in the corner. Also, the tv was top notch (excellent reception, wall mounted flat screen) and something we missed at Potcote...an excellent WiFi connection.

So as you can see, this place was very comfortable. Jeff went out of his way to tell us about all of the local restaurants we might like, and we ended up going to a place called "The Parrot" I'm not really sure why it was called that, as there was no parrot there, or even a picture of one. The lure of this place was that they have a farm and they try to raise all of the meat they serve themselves. Possibly some of the milk and veggies too. We both had lamb-burgers, and they were very, very good. Here is a picture of the menu, and as with all the pics, if you click on them, they should open up in a larger window so you can read them easier.

A nice, warm and inviting place...

Here is a shot of the menu...we aked for one for Jeff and Mary, but were told it changes too much with the availability of "the stock".

Oh look, there's some stock in a cooler now, over in the corner....

At least the customers know their meat is fresh, and the chiller was immaculate.

The next day, we got up wicked early to have breakfast and go to London. English breakfasts are sorta similar to our American ones, except they eat much more. They have breakfast meats too that are different. Their bacon is our sliced canadian bacon, so it's leaner but really salty. Their sausage is ground super fine, so it really doesn't have a texture at all except sorta mooshy. We also had a slice of blood sausage, deep fried bread, 2 over easy fried eggs, regular toast, beans, and a fried tomato half. (and not a green one with breading on it, just a sliced in half tomato fried cut side down on a grill). And cereal. And fruit. And coffee.

A little note here about breakfasts...at Potcote, Helena gave us a list of what she would make, and we were to check off what we wanted. That worked out GREAT for us, because she would make anything we wanted. She made an omelette with white cheddar cheese and local mushrooms that I would eat everyday for the rest of my life if I could. But with Jeff and Mary, they just gave us everything the first morning. It was just overwhelming to have a light breakfast of nice healthy cereal and then have a giant plate of meats and eggs to deal with. (And the blood sausage - why do people eat that in the first place?) Mary was worried that I didn't like it, but I told her it was just too much for me, and so the next mornings I asked her to please just cook some eggs and bacon and I would be totally happy.

So! Then we were off to London! But please see below for a few more pictures of The Thatched House. These houses with these old type roofs are really quite special. It takes the thatchers months to do one house. All total, it took the craftsmen 11 months to complete the house. These roofs should last about 40 years, and are made of bamboo.