There may be nothing fairly like pitching up someplace you’ve by no means been earlier than and shaking your head in wonderment.
Saffron Walden does that for me — an enthralling market city in Essex with some thrilling medieval buildings. The one occupied by The Cross Keys is thought to be significantly essential, courting again some 850 years, however achieved up a number of years in the past with nice panache.
There are six rooms upstairs, reached through an airless staircase and a smelly slender hall. There’s not quite a bit you are able to do about that other than squirting some air freshener.
A chunk of the previous: The constructing whichhouses The Cross Keys dates again some 850 years
Our room (£100 B&B) is small and sticky however the cover and pillows are filled with Hungarian goose down feathers and there’s a Nespresso machine and iPod docking station.
We are able to’t discover the swap to the lavatory. ‘Lookup,’ Sir John Betjeman all the time suggested. And so we do, and see a swap excessive above the door close to the ceiling. Anybody below 5 ft would want a chair to achieve it.
The restaurant is buzzing — and so is our Portuguese waiter once we are indecisive about selecting a wine.
Swiftly, he has 5 bottles on the desk and needs us to pattern all of them.
Apparently the proprietor has an Australian wine-maker good friend and so a lot of the low cost and cheerful choices come from Down Beneath.
A few of the tables for 2 are divided off by doorways hanging from the ceiling.
We eat remarkably nicely and by the point we conk out I’m banging on and on in regards to the joys of Saffron Walden. ‘You’re repeating your self,’ says my spouse.
A aptitude for the previous: Saffron Walden is an enthralling market city in Essex with some beautiful medieval buildings
At round 6am we’re woken with a begin by the street-cleaning car going backwards and forwards for 20 minutes.
Then, once we go down for breakfast within the adjoining Molly’s Espresso and Cake Store I order two boiled eggs, solely to be advised the chef can do each type of egg besides boiled.
‘That may’t be true,’ I inform the waitress.
‘Sorry,’ she says.
Total, there should be higher locations to remain in Saffron Walden however I’d be stunned if there’s a extra genial choice for dinner.
