The Sawyer's Arms - Exeter

Visited 24th March 2013. 

The second day of our weekend in Exeter found us walking round the city armed with a map of Art Galleries and workshops and various other gathering places. We were on the trail of Art. We had a pretty good day and managed to visit a gallery (the starting point), a pub and two shops that were part of the art trail. We were fed biscuits and chatted with artists and generally enjoyed ourselves even though there was a lot of walking involved. We finished for the day with a walk to the new 'spoons which hadn't existed on our last visit. Time for something to eat but we had left it a bit late and all the hot dogs were gone as was the lasagne. I settled for a beef roast and a beer, with the girls having ham, egg and chips and a baked potato with tuna and a couple of pints of Pepsi. When we arrived it was very busy and the barman was working hard trying to keep up on his own but it quietened down a bit during the time we were there. We decided we had had enough walking for the day as we worked out that it was going to take us about forty five minutes to walk back to our friends car and it was starting to get very cold. So we called a cab, to take us back to the car! She drove us back to her house so we could get our bags and car and then, thankfully, we had a nice uneventful journey home. A different, but very enjoyable weekend.

© 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.

The Briar Rose - Birmingham

Visited 27th July 2011.
 
Following the success of our last Groupon deal we have signed up for another, this time in Birmingham. Maybe not the first choice of places to go for most people but there are a lot of Wetherspoon pubs in the area so we are quite looking forward to the trip.
Mrs S. has, unusually, done a little homework and found out that Birmingham has a famous shopping centre, "The Bullring" and that it is "vital" we pay it a visit. So we end up having to have a wander around another shopping centre, still the woman knows how to keep me happy and mollifies me with a Krispy Kreme doughnut. Eventually she runs out of money and we get down to business. We are not sure where we are or where the nearest 'spoons to us is. Sadly Google Maps on my phone lets us down as we keep losing the signal. Instead we resort to more traditional techniques and ask a policeman, who directs us to 'The Briar Rose'. We both liked 'The Briar' with its cool, dark interior and its art deco style looks and the who place came across as being clean and with very efficient staff. Mrs S. had a pint of Pepsi with myself opting for a pint of "Old Thumper" from the Ringwood Brewery. We spent a while enjoying the ambiance before setting off in search of our next drink.

© 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.