The Full House - Hemel Hempstead

Visited 27th December 2010. 

Our fourth pub of the day is coincidentally my one hundredth  Wetherspoon pub visited so far on this quest. And an interesting place it is too. Another converted cinema and a real mixture of clients. I know Wetherspoon pubs generally attract a broad cross section of the drinking community but 'The Full House' certainly took diversity to a new level - I loved it! A very willing barmaid tried hard to find a bottle of 'Buffalo' but I ended up with a double Bulleit and Pepsi. This 'Buffalo' stuff seems very popular... The pub has a very long bar, taking up almost the full width of the pub and I did like the life size sort of robot knight statues at either end, homage to Fritz Lang maybe. We sat and did a little people watching for a while before gathering ourselves for the trip home which as it turned out didn't take to long as our travels had landed us fairly near to the M25 (or 'The Road to Hell' as Chris Rea calls it).
Once again, not a bad way to spend an afternoon. Of the four 'spoons visited today we, unanimously, voted 'The White Hart' as our pub of the day but 'The Full House' will certainly stick in our memories.

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The Crown - Berkhamstead

Visited 27th December 2010.

The third pub on the list is a bit over eleven miles away so it's back to the car. We set off and en route Mrs S decides that our driver has had more than enough Pepsi, but we make it safely and manage to find somewhere to park without to many problems. A traditional pub which, as it turns out, would have had no problem supplying us with mountains of burgers. Mrs S. and myself, the sophisticates that we are, have a large latte each with our driver opting for nice cup of tea. We put the world to rights over our beverages and after checking out the loos (no lock on the door in the gents) we set off for our fourth pub of the day.

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The Bell Hotel - Aylesbury

Visited 27th December 2010.

Follow the path, past the cinema, under the arch and 'The Bell' is on the left. The instructions given to us were quite correct and it was less than a five minute walk. Now this one was very much along the lines of what we were expecting. It was also busy with lots of people eating. We had a plan. Mrs S found an empty table, I headed for the bar and our driver acted as the runner. It was executed with almost military precision. Unfortunately everything went to pot when we found they had no burgers, or breaded chicken, or buns! Apparently deliveries are usually on a Saturday and nobody appeared to have considered the fact that, this year, Christmas day was also on a Saturday. I can't help but feel that with just a small amount of thought this could have been foreseen and planned for... So, I had the mixed grill with a pint of 'Red Nose Reindeer', Mrs S had the lasagne with a 'Sailor Jerry' and 'coke', with our driver opting for the 'Chicken Tikka Masala' and yet another pint of Pepsi. Nothing wrong with the food when it arrived but it wasn't a table full of burgers! Perhaps we should have waited for the next pub...

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The White Hart - Aylesbury

Visited 27th December 2010.

It's in my head. Only four more pubs to go to reach one hundred... And I received some Wetherspoon gift tokens as a Christmas gift. I hear them singing, "spend me, spend me". I resist the urge and then the phone goes and a friend of mine is asking if I fancy going down the pub. As he offers to drive I check Google Earth and in almost no time have a list of four 'spoons to visit. An hour later and we are in Aylesbury, parked and walking across the road to the first pub of the day. As usual when we set off we have no idea what to expect but we were all pleasantly surprised by 'The White Hart'. Not very inspiring to look at from the outside but very nice inside. I opt for a pint of Rudolph's Revenge, Mrs S goes for her usual Sailor Jerry and Pepsi with our driver settling for a pint of Pepsi. We were feeling a little peckish but, unusually for a Wetherspoons, we could not see anybody eating so we decided to wait for the next pub. As we left we did spot two people tucking in but by then the decision had been made and we had been told that the next pub was less than five minutes walk away...

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The Moon Under Water - Cheltenham

Visited 27th November 2010.

There is a conveniently located car park less than one hundred yards from this 'spoons which had plenty of free space so we parked up and took a stroll. We liked this one as well, Cheltenham was on a roll. It was reasonably busy but Mrs S got us seats and we sat down and took in the ambiance. Mrs S liked the ceiling and we especially liked the way the bottles behind the bar had been displayed. As it was a bit nippy outside, Mrs S was in the mood for a mug of chocolate complete with tiny marshmallows. Unfortunately she was out of luck as they had run out of marshmallows, on the plus side they had a bottle of Buffalo Trace (and when that ran out they had another). All in all Cheltenham proved to be an interesting place to visit and we certainly enjoyed the two Wetherspoon watering holes it had to offer. Tomorrow we have designated as a rest day (hooray, no shopping)  and then it's back home. I wonder home many pubs we could visit if we had a week off work, hmm...

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The Bank House - Cheltenham

Visited 27th November 2010.

 

Being on holiday means different things to different people, for me it's the chance to visit a few new pubs and for Mrs S it's the chance to do a little shopping. Fortunately 'The Wetherspoon Challenge' allows us both to get our own way. After a little fussing around we managed to find somewhere to park and after a short walk we are in the town centre. Cheltenham turns out to be a nice place to visit with plenty for Mrs S to do! The Bank House also turns out to be a nice place to visit although very busy. In fact it was so busy it took us a fair while to find somewhere to sit. We liked the place a lot, modern inside with a nicely mirrored staircase leading to the first floor which is where we eventually ended up sitting and it is where I also saw something happen that I have never seen before in a pub.A queue formed at the bar! It's a shortish bar but still wide enough for several people to stand at, but no, a queue formed. It was like being at the post office, even to the point where a young lad walked passed the queue and up to the bar and was immediately told by almost everybody in the queue to get to the back and wait his turn. Eventually the line was served and things reverted back to normal as the the next few customers stood waiting along the length of the bar counter. In my many, many years of visiting pubs I've never seen this happen before... There is a second pub to visit in Cheltenham and having finished our refreshment we set off to find it. We start walking but keep getting sidetracked by the market stalls and then start to wonder how much time we have left on the parking ticket. We can't remember so abandon the search and backtrack to the car park where we find that we only had about ten minutes left , wow good call! Enough of this walking, we decide to drive to the next pub despite it being less then half a mile away...

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The Groves Company Inn - Swindon

Visited 25th November 2010.

After a very short walk we're in our fourth pub of the day. I finally manage to get my Buffalo Trace with Mrs S. mixing her drinks and opting for an orange and passion fruit J2O. This pub is a lot quieter than the others, it's also got a brighter style about it. The barman was on the ball and was keeping track of who was to be served next. An essential skill I always think but all to often lacking. Generally I don't take photos inside the pubs we visit, I think it can be a bit disturbing for my fellow drinkers but occasionally I see something that catches my interest and in this case it was the squiggly lights. Mrs S. also approved - those that know her would regard this as an accolade on a par with receiving an Oscar. We didn't stay to long as Mrs S. still had to go back to Boots to get her shopping. Fortunately for her, upon arriving back at Boots her filled basket was still sitting on the floor where she had dumped it previously and the tills were once again working. In and out in less than five minutes - result. Time to get back on the road, holidays don't get taken on their own!

© John Sinner. None of the material contained in this post, or this blog as a whole, may be reproduced without the express and written permission of John Sinner. All rights reserved.