An Adequate Breakfast

I always write reviews of the places we've stayed and post them on TripAdvisor. I'm the number 10 reviewer in the Dallas area. (Not that it gets me anything other than the occasional green luggage tag - but I try to be helpful.)

I find the reviews written by other people very helpful. Of course there are cultural differences. For example, most Europeans would not be as up-in-arms over the lack of an en-suite bathroom as I am. On the other hand, if a Brit reports that the room is "small", you can bet it is miniscule. No one in Europe would even mention that a place didn't have an elevator. It's not expected there. Although it becomes important when you have multiple large bags and a heart condition. Just like I discount or ignore some comments based on the reviewers country of origin, I know (because my step daughter told me) people in other parts of the world do the same - (Oh, American - they think everything is too small!)

The owner or manager of the hotel is always allowed to respond to the review. Many do. I had one response to a review where the owner was clearly quite upset. I had described the breakfast as "adequate". She informed me that everyone else who stayed there had rated her breakfast as "very good" or "excellent". Quite frankly, I thought "adequate" was generous. It was a full-English breakfast. There are a number of possible components - cereal, juice, fruit, eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, tomato, baked beans and toast. Sometimes these offerings are extended to include yogurt, kippers, black pudding and/or potatoes.

In this particular instance, I know there was cereal, even though I didn't have any, there was an assortment of single-serving boxes. Boxes are adequate. If you want to impress me, show me your homemade granola. There was a choice of orange juice and cranberry juice. I like them mixed together and was pleased to have both of them. But you've got to have more than two juice selections if you want a rating higher than adequate. The fruit consisted of grapefruit sections - from a can or jar - not fresh. I don't think this is the best selection to serve for breakfast because grapefruit interacts with statin drugs which are used to treat high cholesterol and so many people take them these days. Also, fruit from cans or jars does not rate anything higher than "adequate". If you want to be very good or excellent, show me fresh fruit. The eggs are fried. "Over-easy, over-medium and "sunnyside up" do not exist for most English cooks. I don't eat eggs, so I don't care. Mark eats them however they come out, so he doesn't care either. But if you want me to rate it higher than adequate, ask Mark how he'd like his eggs prepared and then prepare them that way. Let's talk about bacon. I love bacon. The stuff they call bacon in other parts of the world is not what I love. It isn't crispy. It doesn't have the same taste. It sort of resembles Canadian bacon, but not really. I eat it, but it's not the same and I'm always happy to get home to "real" bacon. Sausage varies. Everywhere. I'm not that keen on sausage, so I skip it. Mark likes it and he said it was okay. Not "Wow, this is the best sausage I ever had. You should try it!" but okay. Sounds adequate to me. Then there are mushrooms. I like mushrooms. I like them best sauteed with garlic but that's inappropriate for breakfast. For breakfast they're usually somewhat bland. Every now and then some place will serve up a different type of mushroom other than the standard white, and they can be quite tasty. Sometimes canned mushrooms are used and those are the worst. These were standard white. Bland. Adequate. I'm happier when my tomatoes are uncooked, but I don't like to make a fuss asking people to prepare things differently. (Honestly, I don't!) I eat them however they come out. Sometimes they've just barely kissed the skillet and other times they're well browned. Cover them in salt and pepper and they're fine. Fine. Not excellent. Just fine. Then there's the baked beans. If you are in England, they have to be Heinz baked beans. Those other brands have too much flavor. The baked beans are actually pretty good filler and if you put enough salt and pepper on them, they have a bit of taste to them. But seriously, can you describe ANY food that you get out of a can as "very good" or "excellent"? I just can't. Then there's toast. It might be very good or excellent if you started with a multi-grain bread. But most places don't. It's white or wheat. Although if you say you want wheat toast you will get a blank stare. The proper term is "brown" - it's white or brown. And if you want a very good or excellent rating you'll serve the toast with butter and homemade jam - not the stuff that comes in little single-serving plastic containers. Those are adequate.

As for the extras, yogurt is always a welcome option. But unless you're serving a locally-sourced organic brand, don't expect me to rate it as anything more than adequate. I'm not sure whether yogurt was available at the place in question or not. If it was, it was a regular ho-hum grocery store brand. If it was anything else, I'd have remembered. Kippers are typically only available at the seaside. I personally don't like them. Mark does and he would rate any breakfast that offered them a notch above adequate. However, he wasn't rating, I was and they didn't have them anyway. Black pudding (aka blood sausage) is another one of those things that I would not eat. And once again, Mark likes it. But it wasn't offered here. (Just as well, if you ask me.)

I do like it when there are potatoes included. I like real potatoes. What we typically call country potatoes. But like here in the US, it could be real potatoes or those pre-formed triangles erroneously called hash browns on both sides of the Atlantic. But there were no potatoes being offered. Too bad. Real potatoes could have bumped up that rating.

The breakfast was certainly not deserving of anything higher than adequate. Although to be nice, I did write back and tell her not to take offense at my "adequate" rating because I find most English breakfasts to be adequate unless they are burnt. And that's the truth.

Important!

I like to think I'm important. At least to a few people. But there's always that event that brings you down a notch to let you know you're not as important as you think you are. This was one of those events.

We had booked into a hotel called The King's Arms in Amersham. We'd booked a few days in advance, but the day before we were due to arrive we got a call letting us know that one of the hotel's "important corporate clients" wished to extend their stay and therefore we would NOT have a room. Apparently corporations are people! They must be more important than people. I may have to start booking hotel rooms in the name of our corporation.

Thankfully, we had made the reservation through hotels.com and they were very helpful in getting us another room near the airport at the same price. It took a couple of hours to iron it all out but I was pretty excited when I found out we were staying at the Renaissance at about half their normal price. I was thinking "Take that King's Arms! We are staying at a much better hotel. So there."

That elation was short-lived. The Renaissance at Heathrow was a construction zone. The room itself was fine but the hotel amenities were a joke - free bottled water and free wine only go so far. Marriott should be embarrassed to put the Renaissance name on this one. We may have been better off with the food served in the bar, but we wanted a proper meal, not a sandwich so we went to the restaurant. The food was mediocre at best and the service in the restaurant, which for all intents and purposes was an over-priced buffet - was almost non-existent. We had breakfast there the next morning and it hadn't improved. Bottom line - If I'd paid their asking rate to stay here I'd have been furious. Not worth it is an understatement. But since I got home and looked at their website, I really don't think they gave us the deal they were making it out to be. I think we paid the going rate - which is still too high for what it is - but about right considering that it's at the airport. So now, I think I'll have to have a conversation with hotels.com about that "deal".

We are STILL looking for a good hotel that's near Heathrow Airport. We're really not that fussy - it just needs to have adequate space in the room for our luggage, an en-suite bathroom, an elevator OR a navigable stairway, space to park, and proximity to at least one decent restaurant. And it looks like it might help if they catered to travelers instead of "important corporate clients".

A Speedy and Appropriate Response

Before heading for the airport and home, we spent one last night in Holland-on-Sea. Our favorite hotel was available and we had a room with a sea view. It's not as posh as the Francis in Bath, but it's pretty much the only hotel in Holland-on-Sea and it's nicer than the hotels in Clacton.

We got upstairs and were settling in when I went in the bathroom and unfortunately looked in the toilet. (Don't ask me why - I always look inside before using it. And in public restrooms I always check to be sure there is paper before I'm "committed".) It appeared that someone had thrown a cigarette in it some hours earlier and it looked most unpleasant. I called down to the front desk to question whether the room had been serviced. Within five minutes the regional manager, who just happened to be onsite, and one of the young ladies from the front desk arrived with cleaners and brushes. They cleaned the toilet and changed the bed linens (there was a foot print on a pillow case).

It turns out that some contractors had turned up to repair the radiator after the room had been cleaned. Apparently they used the toilet to dispose of a cigarette. Who knows why they felt they had to leave a boot print on a pillow? The manager and his assistant were most apologetic and cleaned it up quickly. They sent up a bottle of wine to our room as a goodwill gesture. All I can say is that I wouldn't have wanted to be those contractors when he got hold of them and I'll bet he did.

We were very pleased with the way they handled the situation and I have absolutely no complaints!

A Day Out in Bath

We had a day and a half in Bath. We arrived too late in the day to tour the ancient baths but we were right on time for a boat trip on the River Avon. (By the way, not THE River Avon that goes through Stratford-upon-Avon - apparently there are something like five River Avons in the U.K. As I understand it, Avon (or something close to it) was the Celtic/Gaelic word for "river" - which helps explain why there are so many of them.

We got up early the next morning and went to the ancient Roman baths. I didn't know it would be as interesting as it was. Mark told me he visited there years ago and it was some pools with pigeon poop in them. Not anymore. While you're not to touch the water, it is relatively clean and the audio tours provide various levels of information so you can get as much or as little as you want about whatever it is you're looking at. Aquae Sulis is part spa, part temple. Just so amazing what they were able to accomplish in the first century. The town and the baths were built by Roman settlers in Britain around 40 to 60 AD. Mark's opinion of the place has changed completely!

We also had a stroll around the cathedral. Having been in so many of England's cathedrals, I limit myself these days to the ones that don't charge admission. Since this one did, I only have photos of the outside.

Note the inscription - WATER IS BEST. Truly, it is.

Posh!

The Francis Hotel in Bath was just the bit of "posh" I needed. It had a private parking lot for the use of hotel guests. The front desk staff were so helpful. Someone even went outside to tell Mark where he needed to park and to help get the bags out of the car.

There was a lift (elevator) and our room was uniquely decorated in rich purple and green - note how the closet doors are painted.

There was a Brasserie Blanc that served superb food. Mark had the Beef Bourguignon and I had a fixed price three course vegetarian meal. It was all excellent.

We were very close to the city center and the ancient Roman baths. It's a pity we were only staying the one night. The front desk was very accommodating and allowed us a late check-out time so we could take our time seeing the sights. And since we didn't get to see all the sights, we have a good reason to go back.

A Hot Day in Padstow

I thought that Padstow in Cornwall was listed in my book of 1,000 places to see before you die. When I got home and checked the book, I noticed it was only the Hotel Tresanton and it's Seafood Restaurant that made the cut. But we didn't go there, not even for lunch. We saw a Rick Stein restaurant, but we didn't eat there either. Mark wanted traditional food in a traditional pub and it was such a beautiful, sunny day that we wanted to find a place with tables outside so we could dine al fresco. We found just the place - tables outside overlooking the harbor with traditional English pub food. We actually got hot sitting in the sun.

I'm not at all sure why St. Ives made the list and Padstow didn't. Padstow isn't as big as St. Ives, but it's a kinder, gentler place - at least as far as the parking and the seagulls are concerned. But that book is just one woman's opinion - and since she's traveled more extensively than I have, I'll take her word for it. But there are places I've visited that aren't in her book that perhaps should be. Anyway, if we ever get back down that way, I'll have to look for the Hotel Tresanton.

The Hooligans of St. Ives

There's something about St. Ives that we didn't experience in Torquay or Padstow or any other coastal town we stopped at this trip. Hooligans! The most aggressive seagulls I have ever encountered. Anywhere. Ever. (Those badly behaved gulls in Clacton that were ripping open trash bags before the sun came up would be considered well-behaved when compared to the gulls in St. Ives.)

They were like an unruly gang. They worked in pairs or small groups, carefully choosing their targets. Mostly they targeted children and young women. It's probably been their experience that these are most likely to drop their food and run.

They also fought with each other. I have never in my life seen anything like it (and I'm getting old!) but one of them had food and another one was trying to pull it out of his mouth and then out of his throat. (I say "his" because I can't imagine females of any species behaving this way!) Seriously two big gulls, one with his beak down the other one's throat trying to take his food.

A pair of them even mounted an attack on me. (Clearly they misjudged my age and my determination to hold on to my food.) Mark and I had bought a couple Cornish pasties and were taking them to a bench to enjoy them in the bright sunshine. The next thing I knew one of those gulls flew straight into my head. But I didn't drop or throw my food and run. (I rarely run. Something's got to be chasing me for me to run and this was a full frontal attack.) I was a bit startled, but I still had my food and I wasn't hurt - although I've heard that people have sustained injuries in food fights with sea gulls. By the way, they didn't even look at Mark.

It's been a long while since I read Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I can't remember much about it other than my general impression that he was a gentle and thoughtful bird. Clearly no relation to the seagulls in St. Ives.

Pondering Saint Michael

St. Michael's Mount is on the coast of Cornwall. What I find interesting is that on the other side of the channel, on the coast of Normandy is Mont Saint Michel. Essentially the same name - and very similar in appearance.

St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall

Mont St. Michel in Normandy

I was just wondering why there are two places that appear somewhat similar - (OK - I didn't get the camera angle quite right on the Cornwall shot) - and have essentially the same name on opposite ends of the English Channel. (Although I'm not sure whether St. Michael's Mount is considered to be in the Channel or in the Atlantic. But that's nitpicking and doesn't matter!)

A quick Google search provided me with no clues. Is this deliberate or coincidental? I know there are plenty of places named after St. Michael, but I'd be interested to know if there are more with a similar appearance to these two.

Anybody know anything about this?

Land's End

Here's a picture of Land's End in Cornwall.

You'll notice that we aren't in the picture. That's because some guy owns the concession for this sign and he's roped it off. If you want a picture here, you'll have to pay him ten quid. (Roughly $15). Apparently this family has owned this concession since the 50s. Unfortunately, I think they're still using the same camera they had in the 50s. There is a prominent sign letting people know that they are using real film. I just can't see that using real film in the digital age is something to brag about. Especially when they said it would take four to six weeks for us to get our photo. Ooops! You're in the US. There's an extra quid to cover the mailing.

In four to six weeks I would have forgotten I'd ever ordered it. And I just couldn't imagine that it would arrive in tact. I have enough trouble just getting my US mail delivered. (Someone did point out to me that I was making the assumption that he actually had film in the camera and that he actually intended to mail it. I am fairly trusting but I assume someone would have shut him down years ago if he was scamming people.) I would have gladly paid the man if I could have taken it with me then and there. But it seems he doesn't lose enough sales to make him go digital.

Here are a few more pictures from Land's End.

The Early Bird Gets the En-Suite

"You can drop off your bags here and then you'll have to go over to the public car park. It's just down the street."

No parking was just the beginning. There was also no en-suite bathroom. Something I pointed out to the young man when he showed me to the room.

"There's only a sink in here. That's not an en-suite."

He informed me that it was a private bath. It was just across the hall instead of attached to my room. I still wasn't happy. But, it was a lovely room. Beautiful, soft, seaside blues with snowy white linens. He showed me the nice fluffy robes they provided for that walk across the hall. (That's nice, but not as nice as having an en-suite bathroom.) And look at the height of the mirror! What do you think I can see?

When I still wasn't happy our host and hostess pointed out to me that I HAD booked the cheapest room, which was the only room in the hotel without an en-suite. Okay. Now they're going to try to make this my fault? The fact is, we had NOT booked the cheapest room in the hotel. We booked on hotels.com and we had booked "a" room with a seaview - not a specific room. To be fair, you could see a bit of the sea if you looked over the rooftops and around the corner. The front of the hotel faces the sea and based on the online reviews I read about the seaviews, I believe we booked one of the front rooms - with an en-suite AND a seaview. Mark said we paid more for it. He's the one who made all the reservations this time and he said he requested a seaview in both hotels. This was as close as we got.

Anyway, next they also tried to shift the blame to hotels.com by telling me that hotels.com must have the wrong information because all the rooms are not en-suite and they don't represent that they are (on their own website - which of course I wouldn't have looked at). But here's the sign at the front of the hotel, which for the record is not a hotel but a guest house. You decide, would you expect your bathroom to be across the hall?

We erroneously thought that the hotel/guest house consisted of the entire row of buildings. It didn't. But the odds of finding another room at that late hour were pretty slim. We stayed.

The room was pleasant but small. We had to move bags if we wanted to sit down. Of course, we had the small sink in the corner. But I'd have to rate the lack of parking as a worse problem than the bathroom across the hall.

It didn't start off well. While I was still coming to grips with the lack of a bathroom, Mark was coming to grips with the fact that there was no place to park. You see, in England they don't just have parking lots. They have "short stay" lots where you can't park for more than a few hours, and "long stay" lots where you can park all day. He was trying to park in the "long stay" lot but it was jam-packed. He finally came back to tell the host that he believed he was illegally parked and would need to do something about that when I had to give him the bathroom news.

During our two days there we probably gave up two or more hours shuffling the car back and forth between the short stay and long stay lots or just waiting for someone to vacate a space. Aggravating!  But in the end, our car was damaged in the parking lot. I guess it's to be expected when you have too many cars trying to fit into too few spaces. The damage came to $1100. We're about to find out how good American Express insurance is.

Advise to travelers - check in early. We were the last people to check in that day and it seems that the early bird gets the en-suite.







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